Pngyu

One of the most widely used graphic formats is “PNG”, especially due to the fact that it allows lossless data compression and it can handle an extremely broad color palette. Its popularity also comes from the fact that it allows background transparency.

Graphics designers and content managers often use PNG images when uploading graphics on webpages to display high-quality digital images. However, it might sometimes happen that PNG images are too large to be uploaded. That is where a PNG compression tool, such as Pngyu, really comes in handy.

Pngyu has a pretty small footprint and requires no installation, so it is up and running as soon as you double click on the main executable. The one-window interface is simple and all the functions and buttons are pretty intuitive.

You start by adding files to the processing list either by dragging and dropping them in the dedicated area or by loading them the classic way, via the “Browse” window.

There are few settings to deal with. You can customize the number of colors to use and set the balance between speed and quality. Pngyu features IE6 alpha support and image dithering, but if you are not interested in changing these settings, you can simply opt for the default settings of the compressor.   There is only one more thing to do before hitting that “Compress Start” button, namely to choose the output directory and its file name. Alternatively, you can instruct Pngyu to overwrite the original image instead.

Pngyu is a simple image compressor, but it allows lossless compression, resizing the original image with no or low impact on quality. Based on the pngquant compression engine, it practically provides a frontend for the latter.