PNG files are great for screenshots, logos, and anything with transparency. But they can get chunky. A single PNG screenshot can easily hit 2-5 MB, which is brutal for page load times and email attachments.
The good news: you can often shrink PNGs a lot without making them look worse — especially if you resize or switch to a modern format like WebP. And you can do it right in your browser, without uploading your files to a random site.
TL;DR
- Use TinyUtils Image Compressor for quick, private PNG compression.
- For web use, consider converting to WebP (even smaller files).
- Resize first if your PNG is larger than it needs to be.
- Lossless PNG compression is limited; lossy (via WebP/JPEG) saves more.
Why PNG files get so large
PNG uses lossless compression, which means it preserves every pixel exactly. That's great for quality, but it limits how much the file can shrink. Screenshots, UI mockups, and graphics with large flat color areas compress well. Photos? Not so much — that's where JPEG or WebP wins.
How to compress PNG online (step-by-step)
- Open TinyUtils Image Compressor.
- Drag and drop your PNG files (batch is fine).
- Choose output format:
- PNG — keeps transparency, moderate compression
- WebP — best compression, keeps transparency, modern browsers only
- JPEG — smallest for photos, but no transparency
- Adjust quality slider (80% is a good starting point for WebP/JPEG).
- Optional: set max width/height to resize.
- Download the compressed files.
Lossless vs lossy: what's the difference?
Lossless (PNG → PNG): The image looks identical, pixel for pixel. Compression is limited to removing metadata and optimizing encoding. Expect modest savings.
Lossy (PNG → WebP or JPEG): Some pixel data is discarded. At a reasonably high quality setting, most people won’t notice the difference — and the file size drop can be huge.
What about transparency?
PNG supports transparency. JPEG doesn't. If you need a transparent background, stick with PNG or WebP. Converting a transparent PNG to JPEG will give you a white (or black) background.
The resize trick
A 4000×3000 PNG is massive no matter how you compress it. If you're using it on a website at 800px wide, resize to 1600px (2x for retina). This often saves more than any compression setting.
A PNG trick people forget: fewer colors
Many PNGs (logos, UI screenshots, diagrams) don’t actually need “millions of colors.” If a tool can convert a PNG to a palette-based PNG (often called “PNG‑8”), the file can drop a lot without looking different. It’s not magic — it just stores fewer colors.
If your image is a photo, don’t bother. If it’s a logo, chart, or screenshot, it’s worth trying. And if you control the source, SVG is often an even better “logo format” than any PNG.
Batch compression
Got 50 screenshots? Don't compress them one by one. TinyUtils Image Compressor handles batches — drop them all in, adjust settings once, and download a ZIP of the results.
What to expect
- PNG → PNG (lossless): small win, but it keeps exact pixels.
- PNG → WebP: usually the best “looks the same, much smaller” option for the web.
- Resizing: the biggest win if your PNG is way larger than it needs to be.
If you’re shipping images on a website, a good rule is: keep PNG as your editable source (especially for UI assets), but serve WebP to visitors with a PNG fallback.
FAQ
Is online PNG compression safe?
It depends on the tool. TinyUtils is designed to process images locally in your browser. If you want to verify it, open DevTools → Network, compress one PNG, and make sure there’s no big upload request sending your file data to a server. Many other “free converters” do upload by default, so check their privacy policy (and don’t assume).
Will I lose quality?
With PNG → PNG, no. With PNG → WebP/JPEG at a reasonably high quality setting, most people won’t notice the difference — but it depends on the image.
Can I compress PNGs with transparency?
Yes. PNG and WebP both support transparency. JPEG doesn't.
Next steps
Ready to shrink those PNGs? Open TinyUtils Image Compressor, drop in your files, and see how much space you save.
Start with resizing first. Then decide if you really need PNG, or if WebP is the better shipping format.