Crunchy Download

Changelog

Crunchy changelogWhat's new

Crunchy updates itself, so you're always on the latest. Here's what changed along the way. Follow along with the Atom feed.

v2.0.2 Latest

v2.0.2: Sturdier video and audio batches

Long video and audio batches keep moving, odd recordings no longer fail, and you can send us an audit log when something goes wrong.

  • FixedA video or audio encode that stops making progress is stopped after a few minutes and retried on the next encoder, so a long batch never hangs on one file.
  • FixedA graphics-card encode that fails on a video with a few damaged frames now falls back to the processor instead of reporting the video as unreadable.
  • FixedVideos and audio with unusual channel layouts (6-channel tracks without a layout, 5.1.4, more than 8 channels, 2.1 and 5.1(side) for Opus) compress instead of failing.
  • FixedRecordings without a stored duration (live or cut-off MKV and MKA files) are measured instead of being called damaged.
  • FixedOlder NVIDIA and newer Intel graphics cards that lack some encoder features now encode on the graphics card instead of falling back to the slower processor for every video.
  • ImprovedVideos waiting for their turn show Waiting instead of looking stuck at 0%, and progress starts over visibly when an encode moves to another encoder.
  • NewAbout › Send audit log: send us Crunchy's log (what it did and the errors it hit, with file names but never your files), with an optional name and email if you'd like a reply.
Download v2.0.2
v2.0.1

v2.0.1: Compression choices that stay yours

Custom compression choices are remembered on each page until you choose to reset them.

  • FixedClearing the queue or starting another batch no longer resets your custom compression choices on Files, Videos or Audio.
  • ImprovedEach page remembers its custom compression choices across app restarts, separately from your Settings defaults. Changing defaults does not overwrite your custom choices.
  • ImprovedReset to default appears below the custom-options hint and restores the latest defaults from Settings. Save-to folders picked on a compression page remain batch-only.
v2.0.0

v2.0.0: Video and audio compression

Crunchy now compresses videos and audio on their own pages, with video presets and a speed from graphics card to processor, sorts your game recordings by game, saves to a Crunchy folder in Downloads, and keeps its video and audio tools up to date by itself.

  • NewThree pages: Files (documents and images), Videos and Audio, each with only its own options. Whatever you drop, paste or send is sorted by kind, and a mixed drop is split across the pages with a note. Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+3 switch between them, Ctrl+4 is History, Ctrl+5 Settings and Ctrl+6 About.
  • NewVideo compression for MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI, WMV, FLV, TS/MTS/M2TS, 3GP, MPG and M4V: pick the resolution (Original, 2160p, 1440p, 1080p, 720p, 480p or 360p, never upscaled), cap the frame rate at 60 or 30, and choose H.264 (plays everywhere), H.265 (much smaller) or AV1 (smallest), together with the Light, Balanced and Maximum levels.
  • NewVideo presets: Discord (fits 10 MB, 720p, 30 fps, H.264), Email (fits 25 MB, 720p, H.264), Share (1080p, H.264, Balanced level and speed), Archive (original resolution and frame rate, H.265, Light, Best speed) and Smallest (720p, 30 fps, AV1, Maximum). Changing any option switches back to Custom.
  • NewVideo speed: Faster and Fast use the graphics card's video encoder (NVIDIA NVENC, Intel Quick Sync, AMD AMF) when available (Fast, the default, at its best quality setting), while Balanced and Best use the processor and make much smaller files, more slowly. If a graphics card encoder doesn't work, Crunchy falls back to the processor automatically.
  • NewTarget size can bring a big video down to a much smaller size: when the goal needs it, Crunchy picks a lower resolution by itself (never above the one you chose), and a target never lowers the frame rate.
  • NewEverything is saved to a Crunchy folder in your Downloads folder, with dropped folders keeping their structure inside it. Pick another default in Settings › Saving, or another folder in a page's Save to for one batch. The old "Crunchy folder next to your files" rule is gone. Videos and Audio always save as separate files; ZIP is a Files-page option.
  • NewEvery audio track is kept (game and microphone tracks from NVIDIA recordings), HDR video keeps its colours, Target size works for videos, and the before/after compare shows a frame from both.
  • NewRecordings folder: point Crunchy at a folder like Videos with a sub-folder per game (NVIDIA ShadowPlay / NVIDIA App, Steam, OBS…). Crunchy lists the clips grouped by game, recognizes ones it already compressed, and mirrors the folders in the output, for example Downloads\Crunchy\Videos\Rainbow Six Siege\clip.mp4. The recordings folder picker is on the Videos page (Ctrl+Shift+R).
  • NewAudio compression for MP3, AAC/M4A, WAV, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, Opus, WMA, AIFF, APE, WavPack, AMR and MKA. Light is lossless: WAV, AIFF, APE and WavPack become FLAC (level 12, bit-exact) and FLAC is recompressed. Balanced and Maximum turn lossless audio into AAC (192 or 128 kb/s), or the MP3 or Opus you pick; MP3, AAC, Ogg and Opus keep their format and are only re-encoded when that really saves space.
  • NewAudio keeps its tags and cover art (the cover shrunk to a 600 px JPEG on Balanced and Maximum), an Allow mono option (off by default, so stereo stays stereo) saves stereo files whose channels are identical as mono, Target size works for audio, and the before/after compare shows the spectrum of both files. A few audio files are encoded at a time, alongside the other files.
  • NewCommand line: --resolution, --fps, --codec, --speed (faster, fast, balanced or best) and --cpu (never use the graphics card) for videos, --audio (same, mp3, aac or opus) and --mono for audio, --deps to show the installed components and --update-deps to update them, for example crunchy -R 1080p -f 30 "C:\Users\me\Videos\Rainbow Six Siege".
  • NewFFmpeg, the free and open-source engine behind video compression, is an optional download (about 46 MB): the setup offers it after installing and fetches it in the background. Said no? Crunchy offers it again when you add a video or audio file.
  • ImprovedWatch folders handle videos, audio and sub-folders: new recordings, even in a new game's folder, are compressed automatically into the same structure.
  • ImprovedSettings now holds your defaults. Changes on the Files, Videos or Audio page apply to the current batch only and reset to your defaults for the next batch, with a Reset to defaults link when they differ.
  • ImprovedCrunchy checks for updates at launch and once a day while it's open, and updates FFmpeg itself (after asking) without reinstalling.
v1.1.3

v1.1.3: Target size that really fits

Target size now gets as close to your limit as it can, keeps more quality on the way, and tells you plainly when a file can't get that small.

  • FixedPDFs made from photos or scans by "image to PDF" apps now reach the target size. Their pages are often stored as huge sheets, so Crunchy never downsized their pictures: a 3.3 MB, 10-page scan stopped at 2.1 MB when asked for 2 MB, and now comes out at 1.8 MB.
  • ImprovedTarget size lands just under your limit instead of well below it, so files keep as much quality as the limit allows.
  • ImprovedWhen a limit can't be met within the usual quality floors, Crunchy now keeps going as far as its last-resort limits, and only as far as needed. If a file still can't fit, it tells you the smallest size possible, for example "Smallest possible: 278 KB (target 50 KB)".
v1.1.2

v1.1.2: Opens faster

Crunchy shows up right away and opens much faster after an install or update, and the crunchy command is sturdier in scripts.

  • NewA startup screen appears right away while Crunchy loads, so you can see it's on its way.
  • ImprovedThe first launch after installing or updating is about 2.5 times faster (under 3 seconds instead of almost 7 in our tests).
  • FixedCommand line: options can now come after file names, for example crunchy report.pdf --level maximum.
  • FixedCommand line: > NUL really silences the output, and stopping the crunchy command in the terminal also stops Crunchy.
  • FixedUpdating Crunchy now also closes a crunchy command that is still running in a terminal.
v1.1.1

v1.1.1: A proper terminal command

The crunchy command now behaves like any other command in PowerShell and Command Prompt.

  • FixedCommand line: crunchy now behaves like a normal terminal command. The prompt waits for it to finish, its output no longer mixes with the prompt, and exit codes work in scripts.
  • FixedCommand line: Ctrl+C stops a run cleanly instead of closing Crunchy mid-file, and file names in any language print correctly.
v1.1.0

v1.1.0: Your size, your language

Hit an exact size limit, compare before and after, keep a history of what you saved, and use Crunchy in Arabic.

  • NewTarget size: tell Crunchy a limit like 20 MB and it tries stronger settings until each file fits, keeping as much quality as it can.
  • NewPresets for Email, Web, Archive and Smallest set the level, image size and metadata in one click.
  • NewBefore/after compare: drag a slider over the original and the compressed image, including pictures inside PDFs and Office files.
  • NewPaste to crunch: press Ctrl+V with copied files or a screenshot.
  • NewHistory page with your lifetime savings and every recent batch.
  • NewWatch folders: new files in folders you choose (like Screenshots) are compressed automatically while Crunchy is open.
  • NewReplace originals (optional): the compressed file takes the original's place and the old one goes to the Recycle Bin.
  • NewCommand line: crunchy --level maximum --target 25MB file.pdf, with an optional Add to PATH checkbox in the installer.
  • NewFull Arabic interface with a right-to-left layout and a language switcher in Settings.
  • ImprovedProgress shows on the taskbar button, and a notification tells you when a long batch finishes in the background.
v1.0.2

v1.0.2: Faster, smaller, smoother

A faster engine that squeezes documents, decks and images harder, plus a smoother window.

  • ImprovedUp to 4x faster on big files: PDFs, images and Office documents now use every CPU core, including the final save (a 268 MB PDF went from 66 s to 16 s).
  • ImprovedStronger PDF compression: duplicate images and streams are merged, unused thumbnails and editor data removed, and embedded fonts slimmed (Word exports with emoji fonts shrink by 95%+).
  • ImprovedWord and PowerPoint pictures are resized to how big they're actually shown, and photos saved as PNG become JPEG: photo-heavy decks now shrink 60-90%.
  • ImprovedPNG screenshots and graphics get a visually identical palette on Balanced, often 70% smaller.
  • FixedPale background artwork in some PDFs is no longer mistaken for a black-and-white scan.
  • FixedDragging files over the window no longer makes the drop area flicker or stay orange after the drop.
  • FixedNotifications stay in place when the window is resized and never cover the update banner; dark-mode titles are easier to read.
v1.0.1

v1.0.1: Scans shrink for real

Much stronger compression for scanned PDFs and big files.

  • ImprovedScanned text and handwriting in PDFs are detected and stored as sharp 1-bit CCITT G4 images: a 247 MB scanned book now shrinks by about 88% on Balanced and 92% on Maximum (it was about 15%).
  • ImprovedColour-encoded pages and images that are really greyscale are saved as greyscale.
  • ImprovedImages inside large PDFs are compressed in parallel, so 1,000-page files finish in seconds.
  • FixedVery large images (over 179 megapixels) no longer fail as "too large"; up to 500 megapixels is supported.
v1.0.0

v1.0.0: Hello, Crunchy

The first public release: a fast, private, offline file compressor for Windows.

  • NewCompress PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents (including OpenDocument formats).
  • NewCompress PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF, TIFF and BMP images, and minify SVG.
  • NewDrop files or entire folders; folder structure is preserved in the output.
  • NewSave as separate files or a single ZIP archive.
  • NewLight, Balanced and Maximum compression levels, with optional image downscaling.
  • NewStrip EXIF, GPS and document metadata (orientation is applied first).
  • NewParallel processing across CPU cores, with per-file results and total savings.
  • NewFiles that can't be made smaller are kept as-is and marked Already optimized.
  • NewBuilt-in update checks with SHA-256 verified downloads.