Greetings,
KRAKEN.IO is a free web service optimizing and reducing the size of JPG and PNG files.
Putting images on the web has always been a balancing act. If the file size is too big, the image will take forever to load. If it’s too small, the image will look washed out and pixilated. Finding just the right balance between size and quality can often require a lengthy laborious process of trial and error or, it can be done quickly and easily using today’s app – KRAKEN.IO.
KRAKEN.IO uses a couple of techniques to reduce files size and optimize picture quality such as stripping out metadata information and re-compressing the image for faster display speeds. It all sounds great but does it really work?
To find out, I headed over to the KRAKEN.IO web site. Like most single purpose web services, KRAKEN.IO is very easy to use. Folks can drag and drop a picture onto the KRAKEN.IO web page, upload a picture from their desktop or provide a link to a picture on photo sharing site like Flickr.
To try KRAKEN.IO out, I uploaded a picture of my son’s cat, “Koa”. KRAKEN.IO gave me two options, “Advanced” and “Extreme”. Both options have no settings to adjust or choose. The “Advanced” setting is suitable for most users and works very quickly. “Extreme” does a more thorough job but takes longer. When I tried both settings, I didn’t see a lot of difference. The “Extreme” files were a little smaller but not significantly so.
So, how did KRAKEN.IO do?
KRAKEN Optimized Picture
Bottom line? I like KRAKEN.IO. It is easy to use and does reduce picture file size. For example, the above optimized picture file is almost 17% smaller then the original yet without looking at the titles, I could not tell them apart.
KRAKEN.IO is free to use and no sign-up is required for access.
You can take a look by going to:
Thanks to Patricia Donaghy of the Free Resources for Teachers Blog for sharing this link.
And, thank you for visiting DE Tools.
John Goldsmith,
detools01@gmail.com
