Image Tools

Free online image editing guide: crop, resize, compress, convert

Use the right operation for the job. Crop when composition is the problem — trimming a 4000×3000 photo to a 1080×1080 square for Instagram or a 16:9 banner removes distractions without changing file quality. Resize when dimensions are the problem: scaling that same 4000-pixel-wide photo down to 1600 pixels for a blog hero cuts pixel count by 84% and typically shrinks a 4 MB file to under 800 KB before compression even starts. Always resize before uploading — browsers still download the full file even if CSS displays it smaller.

Compress when load speed is the problem. A quality setting of 75–82% usually reduces a JPG by 60–80% (for example, 2.4 MB down to 400–600 KB) with no visible difference on screens, which can lift a slow page from a 5-second to a sub-2-second load and directly help SEO. Keep an original copy, compress once, and avoid re-saving the same JPG five times — generational loss stacks. For graphics with sharp edges, transparency, or text, skip heavy JPG compression entirely and choose the right format instead.

Format choice is simple: JPG for photographs and complex gradients, PNG when you need lossless quality or transparency for logos and screenshots (at the cost of 3–5× larger files), and WebP or AVIF for the web when supported — WebP averages 25–35% smaller than an equivalent JPG. Convert PNG screenshots to WebP for articles, export favicons and icons to ICO, and keep print work in the original high-resolution file. As a rule of thumb, aim for hero images under 300 KB, thumbnails under 100 KB, and total page images under 1–2 MB. When matching brand colors, sample the exact hex value with the color picker so buttons, backgrounds, and thumbnails stay consistent across the site.