Easier graphics compression [Resolved with RIOT]

[webfork]

Note: This thread is not about photo (jpeg) graphics, but logos, screenshots, and scanned text.

The objective: Batch convert files to low color, high-compression images

Background: When you're trying to compress image files to their smallest possible size, the process is currently slow and painful. I can easily compress files by as much as 80%, but its tedious. (I touched on this in a related thread about PNG Optmizer.)

Current process

1. Take image (usually a screenshot)
2. Open FSViewer
3. Open image in full screen
4. Right click and select "save as"
5. Choose "Save as type" and choose "GIF" format
6. Select Options and gradually lower colors in the drop down box as low as possible and still acceptable. (32 colors is almost always great for almost any application.)
7. Select OK
8. Drag-and-drop file into a PNG compression tool like PNGOptimizer or OptiPNG

Is there any way to speed this up? I've tested XNView and FSViewer but with little success.


Why bother?

• Web developers always want web graphics to be as small as possible.
• Graphics are pretty small and hard drives are huge, but if its easy, why not?
• Here on portablefreeware, the server only uses GIF files, which can easily go from 100k to 20k if you reduce the color set.
• I'm currently working on a way to create a slide show of images and text for bug reports and feature requests. Neither OpenOffice Impress nor MS PowerPoint are very good about compressing graphics inside these presentations. Further, developers don't need pretty graphics to understand what's going on in their software.

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Resolution: See the RIOT thread.

[m^(2)]

Try pngout. It's the strongest reasonably fast tool. Much faster than the most brute-force OptiPng modes and yet stronger.
There are also batches that combine several optimizers and are a bit stronger at the cost of _REALLY_ slow work.

[webfork]

Yeah it looks like if you're really serious about PNG compression, you'll want PNGOUT. That is *definitely* a command-line program.

Thanks for the info, m^(2).

[SYSTEM]

A good (IMO) article: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07 ... echniques/

[Midas]

[Old topic update] Raymond's blog has an article which surveys 13 freeware tools (some CLI only) for PNG optimization:

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/4-free-tools ... g-quality/

[webfork]

[Moderator note: posts about RIOT were given their own thread.]