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Squash 2 for Mac — The easiest way to compress and optimize images for the web
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@chrismessina Oh, I know. That tiny piece of brilliant software saved my ass so many times.
@perte I'm a web designer & front-end developer. You'd be amazed to hear the arguments I have with myself over this very issue. It plays out like Edward Norton beating himself up in Fight Club. True story.
I've used JPEGmini in the past. However, the problem that I find with apps like this is that it's another manual step that I have to go through before uploading my images. My current export workflow is pretty much automated, including the upload. Can Squash 2 be used to monitor a folder for image files and then automatically compress any that are saved? Even a Lightroom extension that automatically exports images through Squash would be great.
You really missed an opportunity to make a squash your logo: https://goo.gl/vZ50US. Why an orange....?
There was another really nice looking compression program. It's got a little godzilla or dinosaur?! ..and maybe "tokyo" in the name. Anyone know what I'm talking about!?
@happygezim A search on Product Hunt for "Tokyo" leads me to: https://www.producthunt.com/post.... I assume that's it, but it looks like a photo resizing app not an image compression app; Big difference.
@neurohacked Yup! Thanks! Funny thing is I already bought it but couldn't remember the name. How do we make a "related" product on PH?
mehh... happy with ImageOptim. No mention of SVG compression, which means it doesn't do anymore than ImageOptim?
@chrissy_collins It has more options for saving your files, it can also convert from PSD, TIFF, or RAW into a compressed JPG. Pretty handy and that's something ImageOptim doesn't do (afaik).
@dancounsell can you set it to automatically convert PNG like you can PSD? A lot of programs save as png when a jpg would be smaller.
@dancounsell You guys are burying the lead here. That combined with the compression would be what pushes it ahead of the competitors. That is, if it compresses 3.3mb down to .7mb without losing quality. That would be huge! (pun intended)
the way i see it you're essentially paying 20€ for an arguably awesome processing animation.
i believe this application is exclusively aimed at people that haven't heard of imageoptim before. i did a test a few months back with imageoptim, squash 1 and jpegmini. imageoptim was slightly the best in terms of quality and slightly slower than squash in terms of processing speed.
there is no magic in JPEG compression, where one company discovers the holy grail of retaining quality. the quantization process in jpeg compression uses a custom matrix to define certain frequencies that will be lost during the encode. many companies including adobe have tried all kinds of different settings and today pretty much all encoders use very similar levels of values. (correct me if im wrong though)
theres still a market for this as many apple customers like pretty UIs and animations that the dev is providing here. but on a functional level i wouldnt recommend paying money for something like this, as imageoptim does the same for free and has many different settings that you can tweak for better results.
Squash looks exciting. I'd sure love a product that worked as well as ImageOptim on macOS but provided a better experience and more beautiful UI. @dancounsell any plans for WebP in the near future?
I still prefer the Pngyu + ImageOptim + JpgMini + Automator Jpeg conversion process which are much more efficient in term of weight! And btw, the trial is not working on my computer… :/
Bought! I build emails for big brands with low filesize and high quality being if utmost importance. I'd usually be forced to choose one!
A heads up - while Realmac tend to make good software, they also have a history of abandoning software.
@cianmm I've been burned two times with Little Snapper and Ember. Don't I'll give them a third chance unfortunately, as they do produce quality software.
Cool product. But what are the advantages in regards to imageOptim, which is free? Also, regarding your comparison of 3.3MB and 0.7MB, I was expecting those images to be those real sizes. They are 205KB and 206KB. Would be a good opportunity to show your product works before investing.
@mscccc @ricnunes_ it's an example on the website. Didn't want to display at 3.3MB image inline. I'll try and update the site so people can download the images to see the difference. Also check, 9to5Mac, they show off some test compressions there: https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/24/r...
@dancounsell @ricnunes_ Cool, I just bought it and tried it out. Really nice!
One thing I wish it had is a progress bar when doing a single image. I put a huge image in there and it took a while to do. Wasn't sure how long it had left.
The sounds are fun tho. :)
@dancounsell @mscccc Tnx for your reply. I know it wouldn't be optimal to have a 3.3MB image inline, but in this case I think it would be good for your product ^^
I will add one note. I've been buying RealMacSoftware products for 15-20 years now (Button Builder?) and Dan and team are solid. You get what you pay for. Free is nice but if I need support and if I'm using it for something i make money at, I will support the Mac dev community any day.
I have just finished some tests and the results are really surprising. The filesize of jpegs are about the same (maybe slightly smaller) when compared to ImageOptim so it is a draw here for me. But the image quality is where Squash wins it for me. When using ImageOptim, the colors are always a bit dull, while with Squash the look exactly like the originals. Great job guys
Looks interesting, somebody tried comparing results with free software like ImageOptim?
@pieroborgo I did test it. In terms of JPG compression, it does really well and beats ImageOptim and as comparable results to JPGMini (which is also a paid app) without any noticeable quality loss. But it won't beat ImageOptim or TinyPNG in terms of PNG compression. I tested a PNG file with 2MB and got 1.8MB with Squash (1.6MB if the 'more compressed' option is turned on but with a HUGE processing time), 1.7MB with ImageOptim and 634Kb with TinyPNG.
I'm seeing myself using it to compress a batch of JPG images but will keep using TinyPNG (haven't found anything better so far).
@pieroborgo Almost bought Squash. Fortunately came here and learnt about ImageOptim. Been using TinyPNG before. Ended up comparing all three (used the Squash demo with default settings, except that I enabled PNG compression, same for ImageOptim). Squash wasn't really doing well for either PNGs or JPGs. Here's a screenshot (https://db.tt/DuEheexK). TN=TinyPNG, IM=ImageOptim. After that test I can't recommend Squash despite it's beautiful design...
@pieroborgo Just run a comparison, and I have to say that Squash really maintains the quality of the image. Whereas the other alternatives do not. Guess it comes down to whether you can live with the compression artifacts vs file size. https://db.tt/S4HxOLDY (jpg) and https://db.tt/uwybTTPD (png)
@kesslerio That has to be one of the most confusing screenshots I've ever seen in my life.
There's no reason to pay 20$ for this when there's ImageOptim. Realmac and their overpriced software, which gets abandoned after a few updates. Pass.
I tested Squash with a a batch of images where quality is of the utmost importance, and was amazed to see no noticeable difference between the before and after (except for the file size of course), so congrats! Truly fun and capable app.
Anyone try out gif compression? Curious how well it work with it. Compressing gifs are a pain
🍊 Squash is currently 60% OFF for the launch. Offer ends November 28th. Happy Squashing!
@dancounsell FYI for others - discount also works in mac app store if you prefer buying that way
@dancounsell It wasn't until a few days after seeing this, I was thinking the same thing – "Wait a minute...that's an orange! What'r' they try'n'ta pull here!?" :-)
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