![]() ![]() The software, either as a plugin for Photoshop or Lightroom, or a stand-alone app, applies some image analysis to determine whether a given jpeg can be compressed further without visible degradation, and if it can, it applies a higher level of jpeg compression to make the image file smaller on disk! Thats it… There is no secret sauce jpeg magic that gives you better jpegs at a given size. OK, so before I go too far, this is what I found out! JPEGmini works for what it is really designed to do-however, what it really does is not very clear on their website, or in their advertising. So… after this long-winded introduction, the rest of this post dives into a detailed analysis of just what this software does… Spoiler for those impatient readers So what’s a self respecting photo-guru supposed to do? Test it for themselves, of course! Of course there are a pro version at $99, and a “server” version for $199/month…much more expensive for additional workflow benefits. Actually, combing over their website, they scrupulously avoid making that exact claim, but that is certainly the implication, and at $29 for the base version, it seems like a relatively low cost for the benefit. Well along comes JEPEGmini with just that promise! JPEGmini claims to reduce the size of the image, faster, with better quality than you can using a normal Photoshop centric workflow. Its kind of like VHS vs Betamax (millennials should Google this) – a basically inferior method of compression stays in use simply because everyone is already using it, thank you very much! Can we make a better jpeg using the exact same standard, so that it is easily integrated into your workflow, and still universally accepted? The plain-Jane jpeg is still the format of choice when it comes to photographic images on the internet. Why shouldn’t there be a better jpeg? Of course there already is a superior image compression format-its available inside Photoshop, no less, and its called jpeg 2000 (because it was invented way back in the year 2000.) Unfortunately, jpeg 2000 is largely ignored by just about everyone. ![]() Yes… someone decided that what the world really needs is another way to generate jpegs, one that doesn’t suck! Well… nothing really wrong with that idea, other than the part that jpegs suck… but I’m getting ahead of myself here. I was recently invited to test out a new software, plugin and stand-alone, for generating jpegs. JPEGmini comes as a stand-alone app & as plugins for Photoshop & Lightroom. ![]()
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