EWWW Image Optimizer

The EWWW Image Optimizer is a WordPress plugin that will automatically optimize your images as you upload them to your blog. It can optimize the images that you have already uploaded, convert your images automatically to the file format that will produce the smallest image size (make sure you read the WARNINGS), and optionally apply lossy reductions for PNG and JPG images.

Why use EWWW Image Optimizer?

1. Your pages will load faster. Smaller image sizes means faster page loads. This will make your visitors happy, and can increase revenue.
2. Faster backups. Smaller image sizes also means faster backups.
3. Less bandwidth usage. Optimizing your images can save you hundreds of KB per image, which means significantly less bandwidth usage.
4. Super fast. The plugin can run on your own server, so you don’t have to wait for a third party service to receive, process, and return your images. You can optimize hundreds of images in just a few minutes. PNG files take the longest, but you can adjust the settings for your situation.
5. Best JPG optimization. With TinyJPG integration, nothing else comes close (requires an API subscription).
6. Best PNG optimization. You can use pngout, optipng, and pngquant in conjunction. And if that isn't enough, try the lossy PNG option powered by TinyPNG.
7. Root access not needed Pre-compiled binaries are made available to install directly within the WordPress folder, and cloud optimization is provided for those who cannot run the binaries locally.
8. Optimize everything With the wp_image_editor class extension, and the ability to specify your own folders for scanning, any image in WordPress can be optimized.

By default, EWWW Image Optimizer uses lossless optimization techniques, so your image quality will be exactly the same before and after the optimization. The only thing that will change is your file size. The one small exception to this is GIF animations. While the optimization is technically lossless, you will not be able to properly edit the animation again without performing an --unoptimize operation with gifsicle. The gif2png and jpg2png conversions are also lossless but the png2jpg process is not lossless. The lossy optimization for JPG and PNG files uses sophisticated algorithms to minimize perceptual quality loss, which is vastly different than setting a static quality/compression level.

The tools used for optimization are jpegtran, TinyJPG, JPEGmini, optipng, pngout, pngquant, TinyPNG, and gifsicle. Most of these are freely available except TinyJPG/TinyPNG and JPEGmini. Images are converted using the above tools and one of the following: GMagick, IMagick, GD or 'convert' (ImageMagick).

EWWW Image Optimizer calls optimization utilities directly which is well suited to shared hosting situations where these utilities may already be installed. Pre-compiled binaries/executables are provided for optipng, gifsicle, pngquant, cwebp, and jpegtran. Pngout can be installed with one-click from the settings page. If none of that works, there is a cloud option that will work for any site.

If you need a version of this plugin for cloud use only, see EWWW Image Optimizer Cloud. It is much more compact as it does not contain any binaries or any mention of the exec() function.