Guides & explainers
Straight answers about image formats, compression and privacy — written by the people who built the tools, with the numbers to back them up.
Most read
How to Reduce a Photo to 100KB
A 100KB cap is a hard wall on an upload form, not a suggestion. Here is the resize-then-compress method that gets you under it while the photo still looks like a photo.
6 min read
- emailcompression
How to Compress an Image for Email
Email attachment limits are smaller than the number they advertise, and your recipient is probably on a phone. Here is how to make photos that always arrive and always open.
6 min read
- formatswebp
WebP vs JPG vs AVIF
JPG is universal, WebP is smaller and works everywhere that matters, and AVIF is smaller still but slow to make. Here is how to choose without guessing.
6 min read
- formatspng
PNG vs JPG: Which Should You Use?
The rule is short: photographs go to JPG, anything with sharp edges or transparency goes to PNG. This post explains why, so you never have to guess again.
6 min read
- formatsheic
What Is HEIC, and How Do You Open It?
HEIC is why an iPhone photo will not open on a friend Windows laptop. Here is what the format is, why Apple chose it, and how to turn it into something everything can read.
6 min read
- resizesocial-media
Social Media Image Sizes: The Cheat Sheet
The sizes you actually need, in one table, and the reason a correctly-sized image beats a giant original: every platform re-encodes what you upload, so the pixels you send are never the pixels people see.
6 min read
- resizepassport
Passport Photo Size Guide
The official sizes for US, UK, EU, India, China, Canada, Australia and Japan photos, converted to pixels at 300 DPI with the arithmetic shown — and a clear line on what a resizing tool can and cannot verify.
6 min read
- resizecrop
How to Crop Images Without Losing Quality
Cropping does not blur anything — it just removes pixels at the edges. What actually costs you quality is re-encoding a JPEG and enlarging the crop afterwards. Here is how to avoid both.
6 min read
- privacyredaction
How to Blur Faces and Redact Photos Properly
A blur only protects you if the hidden pixels are gone from the exported file — and if the blur is strong enough that nobody can rebuild what was under it. Here is how to get both right.
7 min read
- privacyexif
What Is EXIF Data, and Why Remove It?
Every photo carries a hidden block of data that can include where it was taken and which camera took it. Here is what EXIF stores, who can see it, and how to remove it.
6 min read
- faviconico
Favicon Sizes and Formats: A Complete Guide
You need fewer favicon sizes than most generators produce, but the ones you need are specific. Here is what each size is for, the exact HTML and manifest, and why a full logo turns to mush.
6 min read
- watermarkphotography
How to Watermark Photos: A Practical Guide
A watermark buys you attribution and friction, not protection. Here is how to place, size and batch one so it actually reads — and an honest look at what metadata credit can and cannot do.
6 min read