Consider removing the "imagemin" task from Grunt

[azaozz]

WordPress uses Imagemin in Grunt to minify new images. However it seems the last time new (non svg) images were added was 7 years ago. See:

https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-includes/images?order=date&desc=1
https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-admin/images?order=date&desc=1

Seems the imagemin task in Grunt has been redundant for a long time. Perhaps would be good to retire it and go back to minifying new images "by hand" before committing them, if non-svg images are ever added again.

[desrosj]

I'm not sure that relying on "by hand" is the best path here. Even for experienced contributors and committers, it's very easy to forget steps like this when it's not often images are added.

It's true that within those two directories images have not been added, but there have been lots of images added to the wp-content/themes directory. I think it's probably worth looking at expanding the imagemin task to include themes.

I attached a patch that expands to theme directories, and running npm run grunt precommit:image results in 106 images being minified, and seems to save ~1KB per image within the theme.

The fact that the images within themes can be further minified is a good example of forgetting to manually perform minifying prior to committing.

[SergeyBiryukov]

Replying to desrosj:

It's true that within those two directories images have not been added, but there have been lots of images added to the wp-content/themes directory. I think it's probably worth looking at expanding the imagemin task to include themes.

I agree, it seems like the task would still be beneficial for themes.

[jorbin]

I agree with @desrosj that we should expand this rather than eliminate it.

However, I do think this might be better for 6.5 as we are now in RC. Feel free to move back to 6.4 if someone feels strongly otherwise.