Yahoo has apparently stopped maintaining their lossless image optimization service. Yahoo Smush.it was a free service which would strip off unnecessary information from image without loosing a single bit in quality. This is especially helpful for websites as the smaller the content of the web page, the faster the website. And the search engines like Google/Bing love faster sites.
It also makes images load faster and your visitors are impressed with the speed of your site. It can lead to have loyal visitors and customers.
Since it’s been like a month since Smush.it has been abandoned and no sign of returning, applications that use the smush.it API to optimize images automatically also have been broken. A WP plugin WPSmushit also isn’t doing anything to your images at the moment.
But fear not as there are alternatives to the services and plugins which still offer you image optimizations for free.
1. EWWW Image Optimizer
By default, EWWW Image Optimizer uses lossless optimization techniques, so your image quality will be exactly the same before and after the optimization. The only thing that will change is your file size. The one small exception to this is GIF animations. While the optimization is technically lossless, you will not be able to properly edit the animation again without performing an –unoptimize operation with gifsicle.
2. Kraken Image Optimizer
This plugin allows you to optimize new and existing WordPress image uploads through Kraken Image Optimizer’s API. Both lossless and intelligent lossy optimization modes are supported. Supported filetypes are JPEG, PNG and GIF. Maximum filesize limit is 16 MB. For more details, including detailed documentation and plans and pricing, please visit Kraken.io.
3. Prizm Image
The Prizm Image plugin helps to achieve web site performance by optimizing images while maintaining resolution and visual quality. Compare our output to the popular Smush.It Plugin and you will see significant reduction in image sizes. Also, Prizm Image has no size limit on the files that can submitted for reduction. This plugin integrates with the Prizm Image API to optimize images for a WordPress website.
4. Compress JPEG & PNG images
After you upload an image to your WordPress site, each resized image is uploaded to the TinyJPG or TinyPNG service. Your image is analyzed to apply the best possible compression. Based on the content of your image an optimal strategy is chosen. The result is sent back to your WordPress site. On average JPEG images are compressed by 40-60% and PNG images by 50-80% without visible loss in quality. Your website will load faster for your visitors, and you’ll save storage space and bandwidth!
5. ShortPixel Image Optimiser
ShortPixel uses powerful algorithms that enable your website to load faster, use less bandwidth and rank better in search. The unique API key you receive for activating the plugin can be used for multiple websites.
ShortPixel is an image compression tool that helps improve your website performance. The plugin optimises images automatically using both lossy and lossless compression. Resulting, smaller, images are no different in quality from the original.
