How to compress images to speed up site

Hi Charlietech,

You can simply compress images before uploading them. Most images, such as jpg, png etc are already compressed so it is difficult for a web server to compress them even more.

To resize an image, you can use the default paint shipped with Windows or even better and easier to use, use the free Paint.NET.

It can be downloaded from https://paint.net/

Ok thanks, but I was reading about gzip compress, whats that about?

It is still the same. Such image formats are already compressed to almost the maximum since they are designed (especially PNG) for internet use. So the only way to reduce the size of an image is to change the resolution or size. Gzip compression etc won’t help much as when you compare the resources and time you need to compress such an image to the amount of time and resources it takes to send it, it is worth to simply send it.

Get yourself some Image Editing software…then learn how to use it..
Always a good idea to process your images before uploading.
There are many good Image Editors out there..GIMP is good…and of course you need XnView for Image browsing.

As John81 stated, implementing gzip compression at the server level could be cpu expensive and depending on your server set up will actually hurt performance. If you have a lot of .png or .jpg static files, then you should use a service like Yahoo’s Smush.it. You can upload bulk images and it will reduce them for you.

https://www.smushit.com/ysmush.it/

The site has been kind of slow lately, so be patient and don’t try to upload too many at a time.

Thank for the advice guys! Are there any free CDN out there that are legit?

I use the free Resize JPEGs utility from RJL Software. You can resize individual files or an entire directory.

I usually resize to a maximum of 800px wide by 600px high.