Animated PNGs (APNGs) are widely used in web design, social media, and emoji creation due to their support for transparent backgrounds and lossless compression. However, large APNG files can slow down webpage loading, negatively impacting user experience. This article explores several methods to compress APNGs effectively.
While professional tools like Adobe Photoshop can compress APNGs, they are complex and time-consuming, requiring advanced design skills. For non-designers, free online tools offer a more convenient and efficient solution.
TinyPNG
TinyPNG is an online image processing tool designed for compressing PNG images. Visit the official website at https://tinypng.com/, upload your APNG file, and the tool will automatically compress it. Once compression is complete, the reduced file size is displayed, and you can download the compressed image by clicking the PNG icon.
ZipPic
ZipPic is another user-friendly online image processing tool. Access it at https://www.zippic.com/, where its simple interface allows you to upload an APNG file for automatic processing. Select the APNG option, and the tool will handle the compression.
You might notice that TinyPNG appears to offer a higher compression ratio than ZipPic at first glance. However, ZipPic allows users to adjust the compression quality. By lowering the quality setting, you can achieve a significantly smaller file size with a higher compression ratio.
As shown, ZipPic’s adjustable quality settings result in a much smaller file size compared to TinyPNG’s fixed compression, offering greater flexibility.
Comparison of ZipPic and TinyPNG
Both ZipPic and TinyPNG are free online compression tools, but they differ in functionality. TinyPNG imposes restrictions, limiting uploads to 20 images with a maximum file size of 5MB each. In contrast, ZipPic has no limits on the number or size of images and provides customizable quality settings, allowing users to balance file size and image quality. Overall, ZipPic is the more versatile and user-friendly option for APNG compression.