tencent cloud

Overview

Image compression refers to reducing an image's size as much as possible without changing its quality so as to reduce its storage and traffic costs and speed up access.

COS has launched a variety of image compression methods based on CI for your choice according to your business scenario. Currently supported compression methods are as follows:

• WebP compression: Converts images to the .webp format, which is superior to .jpg in terms of compression. A .webp image is over 25% smaller than a .jpg image with the same quality. This format is suitable for multi-terminal use cases.
• HEIF compression: Converts images to the .heif format, which has a super high compression ratio. A .webp image is over 80% smaller than a .jpg image with the same quality. iOS adopts .heif as the default format for photos, and Android P natively supports .heif.
• TPG compression: Converts images to the .tpg format, which is a proprietary image format launched by Tencent and supports animated images. Currently, QQ Browser, Qzone, and other Tencent products support .tpg by default. A .tpg image is over 90% or 50% smaller than a .gif or .png image with the same quality, respectively.
• AVIF compression: Converts images to the .avif format, which is a new image format launched by Netflix based on AV1 in February 2020 and currently is supported by browsers such as Chrome and Firefox.

Note：

Image compression is a paid service charged by CI. For detailed pricing, see the image processing prices of CI.

Use Cases

The image compression feature meets the needs of image compression on various terminals such as PC and app in diverse use cases like ecommerce and media. This effectively reduces the transmission time, loading time, and use of bandwidth and traffic.

Different compression features have different compatibility with existing image formats and browser environments as detailed below:

Feature	Supported Formats	Supported Browsers and Systems	Compatibility	Compression Effect	Compression Speed
WebP compression	.jpg, .png, .bmp, .gif, .heif, .tpg, and .avif	More than 95% of browsers and systems such as Edge, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Android, iOS, and WeChat	Strong	Average	Fast
HEIF compression	.jpg, .png, .bmp, .webp, and .avif	Not supported in browsers but natively supported on iOS 11 or later and Android P	Weak	Strong	Fast
TPG compression	.jpg, .png, .bmp, .gif, .heif, .webp, and .avif	Only a few browsers such as QQ Browser as special decoders are required	Weak	Strong	Fast
AVIF compression	.jpg, .png, .bmp, .gif, .heif, .webp, and .tpg	A few browsers and systems such as Firefox, Chrome, and Android	Weak	Very strong	Slow

Note：

To use the TPG format, ensure that the environment where images are loaded supports TPG decoding. CI provides the TPG decoder-integrated SDKs for iOS, Android, and Windows to facilitate quick integration with TPG.

How to Use

You can use the above compression features through the format conversion capabilities of basic image processing. To do so, set the format parameter to the desired compression format. Specific parameters are as follows:

Parameter	Description
webp	Converts the original image to .webp format for compression.
heif	Converts the original image to .heif format for compression.
tpg	Converts the original image to .tpg format for compression.
avif	Converts the original image to .avif format for compression.

Compression Examples

The following examples convert the original image in .png format at https://ci-avif-demo-1258125638.cos.ap-guangzhou.myqcloud.com/test-png.png to .jpeg, .webp, .heif, .tpg, and .avif formats respectively. The effects are as follows:

Example 1. Convert to .jpeg format

Final request URL:

https://ci-avif-demo-1258125638.cos.ap-guangzhou.myqcloud.com/test-png.png?imageMogr2/format/jpeg

Example 2. Convert to .webp format

Final request URL:

https://ci-avif-demo-1258125638.cos.ap-guangzhou.myqcloud.com/test-png.png?imageMogr2/format/webp

Example 3. Convert to .heif format

Final request URL:

https://ci-avif-demo-1258125638.cos.ap-guangzhou.myqcloud.com/test-png.png?imageMogr2/format/heif

Example 4. Convert to .tpg format

Final request URL:

https://ci-avif-demo-1258125638.cos.ap-guangzhou.myqcloud.com/test-png.png?imageMogr2/format/tpg

Example 5. Convert to .avif format

Final request URL:

https://ci-avif-demo-1258125638.cos.ap-guangzhou.myqcloud.com/test-png.png?imageMogr2/format/avif

The following table lists the compression ratio comparison of different image compression methods:

Format	Size
.png (original image)	465 KB
.jpeg	114 KB (75.5% smaller)
.webp	64 KB (86.2% smaller)
.heif	54 KB (88.4% smaller)
.tpg	56 KB (88.0% smaller)
.avif	32 KB (93.1% smaller)