The answer first
On ReadyIMG, Shrink file runs in the browser you already have open. The pixels do not pass through a ReadyIMG server. There is no account server waiting for pictures, and there is no sign-in. After you start the step, this device builds the new file, and you download it yourself.
So the answer to “does the photo get uploaded?” is no. The picture file is not uploaded to ReadyIMG. What you send later is the copy you downloaded. The original stays in its folder unless you move or delete it. Save the result before you close the page. Files in the queue live only for this visit. Refresh or close, and an undownloaded result is gone.
Shrinking does not upload the photo to ReadyIMG. The download is a new file this browser just made.
Smaller means a new encoding
The same picture gets smaller because some repeated detail is stored with less care, not because someone far away squeezed it for you. A JPG is encoded again at the quality you set. Pull the slider down and the file shrinks. Hair, type edges, and skin go soft sooner. Pull it up and more detail stays, so the file stays larger. The slider only moves between a low end and a high end. There is no notch called lossless. You want the picture still readable, not merely the smallest file.
PNG takes another path. The quality slider reduces how many colors are kept. Higher keeps more colors, and the file is usually larger. Screenshots, icons, and anything that still needs transparency belong in PNG first. If the other person can only open a JPG, use Make JPG. That step encodes the picture as a JPG.
Four files, four treatments
Shrink file takes JPG, PNG, GIF, and SVG directly. Photos are usually JPG. Screenshots and logos are usually PNG. A simple motion file is a GIF. Cut the colors and gradients get dirty. Faces and sky break into patches.
When an SVG shrinks, what leaves is comments, extra data from the drawing app, and blank space between tags. The vectors stay vectors. They are not redrawn as a photo. To move among JPG, PNG, WEBP, GIF, and TIFF, use Convert format. Conversion encodes the file again too. Decide what the other person can open, then pick the format.
- JPG: photos. You are trading quality for size.
- PNG: screenshots, logos, and pictures that still need a clear background.
- GIF: motion with few colors. Heavy gradients do not like a hard squeeze.
- SVG: icons and lines. Do not treat it as a photo.
Empty pixels get a fill
JPG has no transparent layer. A PNG with a clear background, once written as JPG, fills those empty pixels with white. The shrink page does not offer another fill color. The clear ring around a logo becomes a white field.
If you want to choose the fill, use Make JPG. The color is there. If the other person needs the background to stay empty, do not make a JPG. Keep the PNG and look at the result before you download. Leave the longest-edge number at 0 and the width and height stay as they are. Type a number and the long side is brought inside that range. Shrinking does not crop the frame.
Two moments that touch the network
When the page opens, that visit is counted by 51.LA. The count is that someone opened the page, not your picture file. How files are handled states the line: pictures are not uploaded to ReadyIMG, and there is no sign-in.
The other moment is a cutout. The first time you Cut out the subject, the browser downloads a recognition model from its publisher into a cache on this device. The work still happens locally. That model is a file for finding the foreground. It is not your photo. Shrinking does not download that model, and it does not use a cutout to send the photo away.
What gets downloaded is the cutout model. What does not get uploaded is your picture.
Three looks before you send
- Are the words and the face still clear? If they went soft, raise the quality and run it again.
- Did a clear background become white? Keep PNG if the empty area has to stay empty.
- You downloaded a new file. Is the original still where it was?
You can drop up to 40 files at once. One step can run across them, then you pack the downloads. The queue lives only for this opening of the browser. Download what you want to keep before you close the page.
If no picture is in yet, go back to the bench, drop the files, and open Shrink file. To change format, use Make JPG or Convert format. Later notes will cover covering details, cutouts, and whether a file is still local when you retype it.