Best Lossless Compression Applications/Sites

Best Lossless Compression Applications/Sites What do you use? What gives the tightest files?

#1 Quex

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Posted 02 February 2012 - 12:45 AM

I've recently discovered that I really need to shrink my image files. They are taking up way too much space and bandwidth. Problem is, I need to keep the quality and clarity of each one. It seems there are dozens (if not hundreds) of choices out there for lossless image compression. My question is: which is the best?

I intend to make a comprehensive listing on this topic if I can (or if somebody hasn't done a fine job of it elsewhere, already). Please help me compile a list of all the lossless compressors you have ever used, along with your insights on the benefits and shortcomings of each. I'd eventually hope to grade them on the following criteria:

1) Resulting image quality : it's either truly lossless, or it's not
2) Versatility: what file types does it accept, what file types does it output, is it an application or does it run through a browser, file size limits, etc.
3) Efficacy: by how much does it shrink file sizes, what does it discard
4) Usability: user-friendliness, speed of use, etc.

Let's do it.

Starting the list:
Smush.it
PunyPNG

PS: If there is or has been a thread like this in the past, will somebody kindly point me to it, thankyouverymuch.

#2 Budapest

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Posted 02 February 2012 - 02:17 AM

I think you will be disappointed.

Most common image formats such as GIF, PNG, TIFF, and JPG are already compressed and as such you will probably not be able to achieve much additional lossless compression.

_{The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven't got it.

—George Bernard Shaw}

#3 petewills

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Posted 03 February 2012 - 10:52 AM

I occasionally use this one:

FILEminimizer Pictures 3.0 - balesio - freeware:

http://www.balesio.com/fileminimizerpictures/eng/index.php

I reduced/converted a 1.81mb .BMP file to a 25kb .JPG, without apparent quality loss, but otherwise I agree with Budapest; my .JPGs seem to be already at the limit. A typical 38kb .jpg only reduced to 36kb and there was no change with some .GIFs I tried.

This post has been edited by petewills : 03 February 2012 - 11:08 AM