20x24 pixel zoomed areas from a picture of a cat’s eye. Uncompressed original on the left. Guetzli (on the right) shows less ringing artefacts than libjpeg (middle) without requiring a larger file size.

Image and caption via Google

Google has announced the open source release of Guetzli, a new JPEG encoder able to reduce a JPEG's file size by up to 35%, without any significant loss of quality. Per a study detailing the algorithm, Guetzli 'aims to produce visually indistinguishable images at a lower bit-rate than other common JPEG encoders,' including libjpeg. However, the study goes on to caution that the compression tool is 'currently extremely slow. '

Google announced the new encoder on Thursday, detailing it as a proof-of-concept that can be freely used by webmasters and others to reduce the size of JPEG image files. The algorithm merges 'advanced psychovisual models with lossy compression techniques,' according to the study, to produce high-quality compressed images. It's a different approach than that taken by other Google projects we've looked at recently like RAISR. Google expresses a desire to see future compression research that is inspired by Guetzli's own psychovisual underpinnings.

Though Google largely details Guetzli's benefits as they pertain to webmasters (namely faster Web page loading), the algorithm is available for anyone to download and use via Github. Instructions for setting up and using the tool are provided on the Github page for multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS and Linux.

Via: Google Blog

2017-3-18 22:14