What JPEG quality setting should I use?
Updated
For most photographs, start around quality 80 — visually identical on a screen for almost everyone, and far smaller than a camera original. Use about 75–82 for web pages, 60–70 for tiny thumbnails, and 90+ only if you will edit the file again. Set the slider in EditItAll’s JPEG compressor, read the in → out size, and adjust. Nothing is uploaded.
Do it now — free, in your browser
Open the JPEG compressorQuality is a trade, not a grade
A JPEG quality number is not a score out of 100 for how good the photo is. It is how aggressively the encoder may throw away fine detail. Lower numbers discard more, so the file shrinks and artefacts (blockiness, muddy edges, ringing around text) start to show. Higher numbers keep more detail and more bytes.
The useful range is narrower than it looks. Below about 60, most photos look damaged. Above about 90, you pay a lot of kilobytes for detail nobody sees on a screen. The JPEG format guide puts that trade in context: small photographic files, no transparency, and a cost if you keep re-saving.
Starting points that actually work
Use the job, not a round number:
- Everyday photos, email, uploads. Start at 80. That is the sweet spot the EditItAll compressor is tuned around — visually identical for almost everyone.
- Web pages. About 75–82, after you have sized the image to how it is displayed. The companion how-to is compressing JPEG for the web.
- Thumbnails and tiny previews. 60–70 is fine. Softening is hard to see at 150 pixels wide.
- A copy you will edit again. 90+, or keep a PNG / the camera original. JPEG is one-way.
Do not chase 100. A quality-100 re-encode of a photo that was already saved at 80 does not restore what the first encode dropped. It often makes the file larger than the input.
Set it in your browser, then read the size
Open the JPEG compressor and drop the original in — batches are fine. The controls are a quality slider and an optional max-dimension cap. There is no “compress to 200 KB” field. Size is what you read after each pass, in the per-file in → out list.
- Start at 80. Preview. If it still looks identical, try 75 and compare the listed size.
- If you must hit a form limit, lower quality a step and read again. The readout rounds to whole KB, so a file showing “200 KB” can be a few hundred bytes over a strict byte cap — aim a notch under.
- Need fewer pixels as well as fewer kilobytes? Set the max-dimension cap, or resize first. That split is explained in resizing vs compressing.
Everything runs on your device. Files are never uploaded, GPS and other EXIF data are stripped on export, and you can go offline after the page loads.
Compress once from the original
JPEG artefacts stack. Each re-save encodes the last encode’s damage as if it were real detail. If a photo already looks worse, compressing it again will not clean it up — you need the original. Keep a master, and export delivery copies from that.
If page weight is the real goal and every browser you care about can open it, WebP at a similar visual quality is usually smaller than JPEG. JPEG remains the safest file when the other end might be an old app or a stubborn upload form. Broader format advice lives in compressing images without losing quality.
Ready to try it?
Free, no sign-up, and nothing you open ever leaves your device.
Frequently asked questions
Is quality 80 good enough for photographs?+
For almost every screen use, yes. Quality 80 is the starting point EditItAll recommends for photos: visually identical for most people, and much smaller than a camera original. Go lower only when the listed size still misses a limit.
Should I ever use JPEG quality 100?+
Almost never. Quality 100 spends a lot of bytes on detail you will not see, and it cannot restore data a previous JPEG save already discarded. If you need a perfect master, keep the original or a PNG — do not re-encode a JPEG at 100.
Can EditItAll compress a JPEG to an exact size in KB?+
No. There is no target-size field. Set quality, optionally cap the long edge, then read the in → out size and adjust. Because the listed size rounds to whole KB, aim a little under a strict byte limit.
Why does my JPEG look worse each time I save it?+
JPEG is lossy, and each save encodes the last save’s artefacts. Keep the original and compress from that once. A copy that has already been through JPEG several times will not recover.
Are my photos uploaded to compress them?+
No. The JPEG compressor runs entirely in your browser. Files never leave your device, EXIF is stripped on export, and the page still works offline after it loads.