An iPhone original is often several megabytes. Email hates that. Marketplace forms cap uploads. A “free image compressor” that asks you to drop the file on a server now has a copy of the picture — GPS and all.
You do not need a server to make a JPEG smaller. The browser can decode the pixels and write a new file.
If WhatsApp or iPhone already crushed the send, shrinking will not put detail back. Use the camera original, not another compressor.
What compression actually does
A photo file is pixels plus a container. Shrinking it usually means:
- Quality — JPEG and WebP throw away detail you will not see on a phone
- Resize — 4032×3024 is more than a listing or a chat bubble needs
- Format — WebP is often smaller than JPEG at the same look
The new file is a new object. The old one is unchanged on disk until you delete it.
Do it in this tab
The image compressor reads the file with the browser File API, paints it on a canvas, and offers a download. Drop a whole pile if you want — same settings for every file, then a zip. Nothing is sent to TrashPandaKit.
Defaults that are enough for most sends:
- Quality 76
- Long edge 1920
- JPEG, or WebP if the other person can open it
Need it under an email cap? Use the size cap (200 KB, 500 KB, 1 MB, 2 MB). The tool lowers quality, then pixels, until it fits or cannot go smaller without turning the picture into mush.
iPhone HEIC works. The download is JPEG or WebP so the other app can open it. If you only need a JPEG at the original size — no shrink — use HEIC to JPG.
What else falls off
Canvas export does not copy EXIF. GPS, camera model, timestamps, and the embedded thumbnail do not ride along. That is a feature if you were going to strip metadata anyway. It is not a substitute for looking first — Photo Location will tell you if the original still has a pin.
If you want the same pixels and only the tags gone, use the metadata tool. Compression is for when the file is too fat.
How to check the result
- Compress one photo.
- Download it.
- Drop the new file back on the same page. The “original” size should now be the small one.
- If you care about GPS, drop it on Photo Location. There should be no pin.
JPEG vs WebP, and when each one wins: which format is actually smaller. Whether the shrink also washes location: does compressing a photo remove GPS.