Guide · Images
Compress images and photos offline
To shrink photos and screenshots without uploading them, add them to Crunchy (a whole folder at once is fine), pick Balanced or the Web preset, and press Compress. Crunchy re-encodes each image on your PC, removes location and camera data, and can cap huge photos at a size you choose.
01 / What Crunchy does
Smarter encoding, per format.
Crunchy handles PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF, TIFF and BMP files, including images up to 500 megapixels.
PNG screenshots
A fully opaque alpha channel and colour in grey images are dropped, and exact palettes are used where they fit. On Balanced, a visually identical 256-colour palette often makes screenshots and graphics about 70% smaller.
JPEG photos
Photos are re-encoded at the level's quality. A JPEG that's already at or below that quality is re-encoded with its own tables, so it doesn't lose any more. Camera JPEGs often shrink by half or more.
Huge photos, capped
Optionally cap images at a maximum width or height, handy for 50-megapixel camera shots headed for the web. The Web preset uses 2560 px, Smallest uses 1920 px. Images are never upscaled.
EXIF and GPS removed
By default Crunchy strips EXIF, GPS location and XMP data. It rotates each photo upright first, so nothing ends up sideways.
TIFF, WebP, GIF, BMP
Multi-hundred-megabyte TIFFs are written in 1 MB strips, and black-and-white ones use CCITT G4. WebP, GIF and BMP files are supported too.
Never bigger
If an image can't be made smaller, Crunchy keeps the original bytes and marks it Already optimized. Your originals stay untouched unless you choose Replace originals.
02 / Pick a preset
Which setting to use for images.
- Email: every file under 20 MB, Balanced, metadata stripped.
- Web: Balanced, images at most 2560 px, metadata stripped.
- Archive: Light (visually lossless), metadata kept, no resizing.
- Smallest: Maximum, images at most 1920 px, metadata stripped.
Or pick a level yourself: Light is visually lossless, Balanced is the sweet spot, Maximum goes all in.
Need every photo under a limit?
Switch on Target size. Crunchy compresses each image at your level, and if it's still too big, tries stronger settings (at most five passes) until it fits. It stops before things get ugly: JPEG quality never goes below 35 and images keep at least 1000 px on the long edge. A photo that still can't fit is kept at its smallest and marked over target.
03 / How to
Compress photos in three steps.
Add the images
Drop photos or a whole folder onto Crunchy, or press Ctrl+V to paste copied files or a screenshot.
Pick a preset
Web for sites and blogs, Email for attachments, Archive to keep full quality and metadata, Smallest to save the most space.
Compress
Press Compress, then drag the before/after slider to check the result. Get separate files or one ZIP.
crunchy --max-px 2560 --zip photos.zip *.jpgcrunchy --replace ScreenshotsWith --replace, the old files go to the Recycle Bin. Add --keep-metadata to keep EXIF data.
FAQ
Common questions.
More answers in the main FAQ.
Will Crunchy make my photos look worse?
Not on Light, which is visually lossless. Balanced is the everyday sweet spot, and a JPEG that is already at or below the level's quality is re-encoded with its own tables so it doesn't lose more. Use the before/after compare slider in the app to check any image before you send it.
How do I shrink photos for a website or blog?
Use Crunchy's Web preset: Balanced level, images at most 2560 px on the long edge and metadata stripped. On the command line, crunchy --max-px 2560 *.jpg does the same resizing. For the smallest files, the Smallest preset uses Maximum with images at most 1920 px.
Does Crunchy keep my photo's orientation when it removes EXIF data?
Yes. Phones and cameras often record rotation in EXIF, so Crunchy rotates the picture upright before it removes the metadata. Photos never end up sideways.
Ready to crunch?
Free for Windows 10 & 11. No uploads, no account, no size limits.