Image Format & Compression Settings

These settings control how SmallPict compresses, converts, and resizes your images.

Go to Settings → SmallPict in your WordPress dashboard to configure the options below.

Compression modes and the quality slider

SmallPict has two compression modes, lossy and lossless. In lossy mode, a quality slider sets the trade-off between file size and detail.

1. Lossy

Uses perceptual quantization to discard fine color variation that is hard to see.

• Quality Target Slider (50% – 95%):
  • 75% – 80% (recommended default): Suits most websites. Files are usually 70% to 85% smaller and look the same on high-DPI displays.
  • 85% – 90% (high fidelity): Keeps more fine texture and micro-contrast, for photography and detailed product shots.
  • 50% – 70% (smallest files): For high-volume publishing, mobile-first apps, and thumbnail grids.
• Best for: E-commerce product photos, hero banners, blog photography, and user uploads.

2. Lossless

Keeps every pixel exactly as it was. The file gets smaller through better entropy coding (Deflate/Zopfli) and by removing non-essential metadata.

• Savings: Typically saves 15% to 35% off original PNG and JPEG sizes.
• Best for: Brand logos, vector rasterization, icons, typography graphics, screenshots, and legal/medical archival imagery.
• Availability: Available on Pro and Business plans.

Output formats by plan

The format SmallPict produces depends on your plan.

1. WebP (all plans)

WebP is supported by more than 97% of browsers in use today.

• Behavior: Uploaded JPEG and PNG images are converted to .webp.
• Original file: On Free and Starter, the converted file replaces the original in your media library. SmallPict does not keep a copy of your originals, so keep your own backup if you may need them later. The upload is held in temporary encrypted storage only while it is processed and is deleted within 24 hours.
• Availability: Free, Starter, Pro, and Business. On Free, WebP is the only output format.

2. Native AVIF (Starter)

AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) is typically 20% to 40% smaller than WebP at the same visual quality.

• Browser support: Chrome, Firefox, Safari (iOS 16+ / macOS Ventura+), Edge, and current Android browsers.
• Behavior: On Starter you choose one output format, WebP or AVIF. The chosen file replaces the original; no second format is generated. Maximum 10 MB per file.

3. Smart Next-Gen: AVIF with WebP fallback (Pro and Business)

• Behavior: SmallPict generates an AVIF file and a WebP file and serves them through a <picture> element. Browsers that support AVIF load AVIF, others load WebP.
• Original file: The original stays on your server as the final fallback for browsers that support neither format. Turn on the optional Cloud Offload setting to also keep originals in SmallPict's encrypted cloud storage and serve images from the SmallPict CDN. Leave it off and everything stays on your WordPress server.
• Limits: Maximum 20 MB per file on Pro and 45 MB per file on Business. Pro and Business also use the priority queue, and the managed CDN when Cloud Offload is on.

Maximum image dimension

Photos from phones and cameras (48 MP and up, 6000×4000 px or larger) often weigh 5 MB to 25 MB. Serving them at full size slows pages down, uses hosting storage, and hurts Largest Contentful Paint (LCP).

SmallPict scales oversized uploads down to a long-edge limit before compressing them.

Threshold options

• 1600 px (recommended default): Sharp on standard and high-DPI displays for most layouts, with much smaller files. For example, a 6000×3651 px, 2.1 MB photo becomes less than 100 KB as WebP.
• 1920 px (Full HD): For wide hero banners and blog cover photos.
• 2048 px (2K): For photography portfolios and other image-heavy sites.
• 2560 px (QHD, WordPress default): Matches the WordPress core big-image threshold.
• Disabled (0 px): Keeps the original dimensions. Use this only if you need full-resolution files, for example for print.

How it works

• WordPress hook: Uses the big_image_size_threshold filter, so uploads are resized as early as possible.
• Resampling: Uses the Lanczos3 filter to avoid aliasing and keep edges sharp.
• API and SDKs: Set the limit with the max_dimension and max_width parameters.

Plan comparison (WordPress)

The settings page in WordPress shows only the options your plan includes.

Processing applied to every image

On every plan, SmallPict also does the following:

1. Metadata removal:
   • Camera metadata and GPS coordinates are removed to protect privacy.
2. Orientation:
   • The EXIF orientation tag is applied before metadata is removed, so photos are not shown sideways or upside down.
3. Color space:
   • Color profiles such as Adobe RGB and Display P3 are converted to sRGB, so colors look the same in every browser.
4. Size limit:
   • Images larger than 8192×8192 px are rejected to protect against decompression bombs.