Compress & Resize Photos Instantly

“This file is too large to upload.” “Attachment exceeds size limit.” “Image must be under 5 MB.”

Sound familiar? Your 15-megapixel phone camera produces beautiful, detailed photos — and also massive files that half the internet refuses to accept.

The size problem

A single photo from a modern smartphone can easily hit 5-15 MB. That’s:

• Too big for most email attachments
• Way too big for websites (destroys load time)
• Overkill for social media (platforms compress it anyway)
• Larger than visa and passport photo portals allow

Meanwhile, Instagram is going to resize your 12 MB masterpiece to 1080px wide and add its own compression regardless. You might as well do it yourself and keep control.

What you actually need

For most purposes, you don’t need the full-resolution file:

Use case	Typical size needed
Email	Under 1-2 MB
Web/blog	100-500 KB
Social media	Under 1 MB
Passport portals	Often under 500 KB
Print	Full resolution (keep the original)

The trick is shrinking the file without making the photo look noticeably worse.

How PhotoInput compresses

When you export, you control three things:

1. Format — JPEG for photos (smallest), PNG for graphics with transparency, WebP for the best of both (if your destination supports it)
2. Quality — a 0-100 slider. At 80-85%, you almost can’t tell the difference from the original, but the file is way smaller.
3. Dimensions — smaller pixels = smaller file. A 1200px wide image is plenty for web.

The compression happens right in your browser. The file never goes to a server, which matters if you’re dealing with sensitive photos or documents.

The quality sweet spot

Here’s the cheat sheet:

• Quality 85-90% — looks identical, smaller file
• Quality 75-84% — slight softness if you zoom in and stare, but normal viewing? Undetectable
• Quality 60-74% — visible compression artifacts if you look closely
• Below 60% — only for thumbnails or when you desperately need tiny files

Most people set it to 80% and forget about it. That’s a good default.

Tips

1. Keep your original — always compress to a copy, never the source file
2. Match the display size — don’t upload a 4000px image to a website that’ll display it at 800px
3. Use WebP when you can — smaller files than JPEG at the same quality
4. For strict portals (passport, visa) — check their exact requirements first. Some need specific dimensions, not just file size.

Related: If your photo needs editing before compressing, fix the issues first — sharpening and color corrections before compression gives better results than after.