Twenty Ten and Eleven: reduce JPG file size even more

[lancewillett]

Reported via Twitter: ​https://twitter.com/garyj/status/418342197444870144

If you run all the 2010 and 2011 theme images through ​http://www.jpegmini.com/ you'll save about 80kb with no visual differences.

Worth testing that tool out? Or seeing if we can just use a normal workflow (Photoshop save for web) to achieve the same effect without losing quality.

[GaryJ]

Original, currently in TwentyTen

[GaryJ]

After compression with JPEGmini

[GaryJ]

Of all the header images in both themes, the berries image seemed to have the highest compression (saving about 25% of bytes) when using JPEGmini Pro. When flicking between the two, there does seem to be a slight blur on the already out-of-focus picture, which is the first time I've noticed any visual discrepancy, but looking at the new image alone, I don't think anyone would be able to spot the difference if they weren't looking for it.

Other images reduced by a factor of 1.0 to 1.2, so they were already fairly optimised. For such a relatively small total space saving, compared to the overall size of WP download, and of individual images (of which only one will generally be used at a time anyway), it may be that the slight blurring is enough to not bother with the change.

If the original photos were exported at 100 JPEG quality, and then run through JPEGmini, you might get better savings for better quality. One of the advantages of JPEGmini is that it programatically decides on the resulting quality, instead of a designer who just has it set to a default of 80, for instance.

[obenland]

Replying to GaryJ:

For such a relatively small total space saving, […] it may be that the slight blurring is enough to not bother with the change.

I agree. :) I think it is worth to try the tool in future themes though, if they come with default images. Nice find!