Shrink a batch before email: forty files a pass
Shrinking a batch before email does not mean clicking through forty pictures one at a time. You open Shrink file, drop the whole set in, run the step once, then download the result as a zip. One pass takes up to 40 files. Past that, split it into two passes. If the set is bigger still, group it by recipient, one group per pass, and the files stay easier to track.
The batch does the same work as a single file: it re-encodes at the quality you picked and writes the format you picked. It will not choose pictures for you, and it will not tell you which one came out mushy. Those last few looks are still yours. When a set mixes phone photos with chat screenshots, run them as two stacks at different quality rather than one flat pass.
Up to 40 files per pass. Download the zip when it finishes. What you get is a new file made on this device, not a copy of your original.
Start from the bench, not file by file
The way in is bench. Drop the batch onto Shrink file, set the output format and the quality, then start. Do not change the quality halfway, or one pass will hold two different results and you will have to sort out which file is which.
The quality slider runs from 40 to 95 and sits at 78 by default. There is no fully lossless notch on it. Pull it down and the size drops fast, with hair, letter edges and small print going soft first. Push it up and more detail survives, but you save less.
- Run one typical file first and check the size and the sharpness.
- If that looks acceptable, run the rest at the same quality.
- Do not drag the whole batch to the bottom just to hit a number. What arrives will look like mud.
When mail bounces your attachment, the total is over
An attachment cap counts every file in one message added together. Ten small pictures that each save a little can still land on the line. Phone originals often run three or four megabytes each, and twenty of them make a message big enough to be refused outright. So check the total after the pass instead of guessing one file at a time.
The output format is set on this page. Keep original is the default, and you can also write the batch out as JPG, PNG, WEBP or GIF. If the whole set has to end up as one type, choose it here, not after the run.
Keep original is the default. To move the whole batch into one format, choose the output on the Shrink file page and run it once.
Transparent areas get filled in too
Choose JPG as the output and every transparent area gets a background colour, white by default. This page has no colour picker. Logos and cut-out product shots lose that clear ring around them. To choose the colour yourself, use Make JPG, where the picker lives. If the batch is all transparent art, settle the background question before you start, not after.
Files kept as PNG take the other road: fewer colours. A higher slider keeps more of them and usually makes a larger file. Screenshots and icons hold up to that; photographs do not. If what you are sending is a chat screenshot, keep it PNG rather than crushing names and numbers to save a few kilobytes.
Animated GIFs behave the same in a batch
Keep a GIF as a GIF and the frames stay, the frame delay stays, and colours are what goes. A gradient-heavy animation turns dirty and the motion starts to look blocky. Make a GIF smaller goes through that trade in more detail.
After the download, check where the files landed
What you download is a new file, usually in your downloads folder. The originals are still where they were, not replaced and not deleted. How files are handled states that boundary: pictures are not uploaded to ReadyIMG, there is no sign-in here, and no account server receives your images.
The queue only lives in this one tab session. Refresh, close the tab or close the page and anything you did not download is gone. Download first, put the zip in your mail, then go do something else.
Three looks before you hit send
- Does the total fit under the other side's attachment cap?
- Are the letters and faces still readable, especially the small print you shrank?
- Did the transparent background turn white, and should it go back to PNG?
Then go back to bench, drop the batch into Shrink file, download the zip when it finishes, and write the message.