Google New Open-Source Algorithm Reduces JPEG Files By 35%

A faster Internet implies shorter loading times and with those, better compressed media. Here’s where Google’s latest algorithm can give a helping hand. The new open-source program is able to shrink JPEG files by 35% #softwaremagic

Guetzli is the name of the shrinking wizard from Google. It supports existing browsers and image processing tools claiming to reduce them with 35%. Remember, this novelty comes after just three years of WebP existence, a previous format that offered only a 10 percent reduction.

In their latest blog post, Google claims that this method doesn’t require a new format, instead sticking with the present one. It works its magic in the quantization stage of the compression process, the interval when algorithms shrunk files but unavoidably get low quality images in return. As for Guetzli, Google admits it takes a bit longer to go through the compression process but that the results are worthwhile.

See for yourself in the three images below; the left is the original image, the middle one was compressed by libjpeg and the right one was altered by Guetzli:

Google’s program “strikes a balance between minimal loss and file size by employing a search algorithm that tries to overcome the difference between the psychovisual modeling of JPEG’s format, and Guetzli’s psychovisual model, which approximates color perception and visual masking in a more thorough and detailed way” writes the team.

Guetzli is open-source, available to download from Github.