[javascript] How to compress an image via Javascript in the browser?

I find that there's simpler solution compared to the accepted answer.

  • Read the files using the HTML5 FileReader API with .readAsArrayBuffer
  • Create a Blob with the file data and get its url with window.URL.createObjectURL(blob)
  • Create new Image element and set it's src to the file blob url
  • Send the image to the canvas. The canvas size is set to desired output size
  • Get the scaled-down data back from canvas via canvas.toDataURL("image/jpeg",0.7) (set your own output format and quality)
  • Attach new hidden inputs to the original form and transfer the dataURI images basically as normal text
  • On backend, read the dataURI, decode from Base64, and save it

As per your question:

Is there a way to compress an image (mostly jpeg, png and gif) directly browser-side, before uploading it

My solution:

  1. Create a blob with the file directly with URL.createObjectURL(inputFileElement.files[0]).

  2. Same as accepted answer.

  3. Same as accepted answer. Worth mentioning that, canvas size is necessary and use img.width and img.height to set canvas.width and canvas.height. Not img.clientWidth.

  4. Get the scale-down image by canvas.toBlob(callbackfunction(blob){}, 'image/jpeg', 0.5). Setting 'image/jpg' has no effect. image/png is also supported. Make a new File object inside the callbackfunction body with let compressedImageBlob = new File([blob]).

  5. Add new hidden inputs or send via javascript . Server doesn't have to decode anything.

Check https://javascript.info/binary for all information. I came up the solution after reading this chapter.


Code:

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <body>
    <form action="upload.php" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
      Select image to upload:
      <input type="file" name="fileToUpload" id="fileToUpload" multiple>
      <input type="submit" value="Upload Image" name="submit">
    </form>
    </body>
    </html>

This code looks far less scary than the other answers..

Update:

One has to put everything inside img.onload. Otherwise canvas will not be able to get the image's width and height correctly as the time canvas is assigned.

    function upload(){
        var f = fileToUpload.files[0];
        var fileName = f.name.split('.')[0];
        var img = new Image();
        img.src = URL.createObjectURL(f);
        img.onload = function(){
            var canvas = document.createElement('canvas');
            canvas.width = img.width;
            canvas.height = img.height;
            var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
            ctx.drawImage(img, 0, 0);
            canvas.toBlob(function(blob){
                    console.info(blob.size);
                    var f2 = new File([blob], fileName + ".jpeg");
                    var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
                    var form = new FormData();
                    form.append("fileToUpload", f2);
                    xhr.open("POST", "upload.php");
                    xhr.send(form);
            }, 'image/jpeg', 0.5);
        }
    }

3.4MB .png file compression test with image/jpeg argument set.

    |0.9| 777KB |
    |0.8| 383KB |
    |0.7| 301KB |
    |0.6| 251KB |
    |0.5| 219kB |

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