Writing · 2026-05-18

Compress images for web, a Mac developer's 2026 workflow

Pick the right format, get the right quality, ship smaller files. A practical workflow that takes about 90 seconds per batch.

Web pages should not ship 8MB hero images. In 2026 we have three formats that beat JPEG by 25 to 77 percent, and most browsers ship every one of them. Here is the workflow that a small handful of Mac developers, photographers, and designers are settling on.

The decision tree

  • Photograph going on a website? AVIF or WebP, quality 80.
  • Photograph for an archive? JPEG XL lossless transcode.
  • Screenshot or UI mock? PNG via pngquant.
  • Image with transparency for web? WebP lossless.
  • One file that has to work everywhere? JPEG via jpegli, quality 85.

(Full post coming soon.)

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#tutorial #web-performance #workflow