[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #52752: Add basic image compression to WordPress core

[WordPress Trac]

#52752: Add basic image compression to WordPress core
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 Reporter:  nem0             |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  feature request  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Media            |    Version:  5.7
 Severity:  normal           |   Keywords:
  Focuses:  performance      |
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 Dear developers,

 I noticed that WordPress does no basic image compression when you upload a
 file resulting in images with huge and unecessary file size on many
 websites.
 Here is an example: https://bartenberger.de/wordpress-reh/wp-
 content/uploads/2021/03/60464.jpeg
 It's a tiny JPG I found on a wordpress website with a resolution of 100x50
 pixel. The filesize for some reason is 8.7 megabyte. If I upload this
 image wordpress just takes it and it remains at the bloated filesize of
 8.7 megabyte.

 Why is this a problem?
 I know that there are many plugins which take care of image compression in
 Wordpress (Imagify, TinyJPG, Smush, ...).  But I would suggest there needs
 to be some basic (lossless) image compression in Wordpress out of the box
 because many people don't install such plugins.

 I recently ran a study in Germany, analyzing the filesize of thousands
 random Germany websites. Some websites had a file size of 10, 20 or 50
 megabytes. When I took a closer look at them I found that most of them
 were Wordpress websites with huge images (3 megabyte or more each) that
 were just uploaded and not compressed by any plugin.

 Google has also announced that the speed (and therefore size) of a website
 will have a bigger impact on the ranking through its Web Vitals (see
 https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2020/11/timing-for-page-
 experience). Obviously this is an even bigger issue on mobile devices.

 Hope I made my argument clear and have not missed any feature that is
 already there ;)

 Best,
 martin

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/52752>
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