ScreenVault / Compress screenshot
Compress screenshots
Shrink screenshots for tickets, docs and email limits. Resize oversized Retina captures, pick PNG, WebP or JPEG, and compare the result against the original before you download.
Why PNG wins on screenshots and loses on photos
PNG is lossless: it predicts each pixel from its neighbours and stores only the surprise, then zips that. A flat UI is almost all “no surprise”, so it squeezes very well. JPEG and WebP throw away detail the eye is bad at noticing, which suits photos but smears the sharp edges of text. Switch the sample and see the byte counts your own browser produces:
On flat UI, PNG is competitive with lossy formats and keeps every edge crisp. Lossy formats here save bytes by blurring text edges.
Size targets worth knowing
| Where it’s going | Limit or sweet spot |
|---|---|
| Gmail / Outlook attachment | 25 MB / 20 MB per message in total |
| GitHub issue or PR comment | 10 MB per image |
| Jira Cloud attachment | Admin-configurable; commonly defaults to about 1 GB, but smaller images load faster for everyone |
| Docs and READMEs | Under 300 KB per image keeps pages fast |
| Slack | Large uploads allowed; previews are downscaled, so 2× the display size is plenty |
Limits as published by each service at the time of writing; check their help pages if you are close to a limit.
Questions
How do I compress a screenshot without losing quality?
For UI screenshots, keep PNG or choose lossless WebP-like quality 100 and reduce the dimensions: a Retina capture shown at half size loses nothing visible when resized to 50%. For photos or gradients, WebP or JPEG at 80–85% usually cuts size by 70–90% with no visible change.
Which format is best for screenshots?
PNG for text-heavy UI (sharp edges, flat colours, compresses well losslessly). WebP for the smallest files that most apps and browsers accept. JPEG only when something (an old form, an email client) requires it, and never for screenshots of small text, which gains visible ringing.
Why is my screenshot so big?
Modern displays capture at 2× or 3× density, so a MacBook screenshot is 2880×1800 or more, about 5 million pixels. Saved as PNG with photos or gradients on screen, that can be 5–10 MB. Resizing to the size it will be shown at is the biggest single saving.
Is anything uploaded?
No. Images are re-encoded by your browser’s own PNG, JPEG and WebP encoders on a canvas.
Other screenshot tools
- Screen captureGrab a screen, window or tab straight into the vault.
- Screenshot to textCopy the text out of any capture.
- Screenshot to PDFCombine captures into one PDF.
- Annotate & redactBoxes, arrows, labels and solid redaction.
- Compare imagesPixel diff two screenshots.
- BeautifierBackgrounds, window frames and shadows.
- Stitch screenshotsJoin captures top-to-bottom or side by side.
- Remove EXIFSee and strip hidden metadata.