clop-compress

Run clop optimise image with a --compression value from 5 (best quality) to 100 (smallest file), plus -n to hide the progress bar and -r for recursive folders. Always copy originals first since Clop modifies files in place by default.

Use --compression 64 for web assets, which measured 93% savings on an 18MP camera JPEG with artifacts only starting to appear in skies and gradients. Level 50 is the recommended default with no visible artifacts at 90% savings.

No, Clop always strips all EXIF data including capture date, camera model, and GPS. Restore it afterward with the bundled exiftool using -TagsFromFile to copy metadata from the originals, costing about 21 KB per photo.

Testing on 1080p H.264 footage showed the hardware encoder winning on both size (86% savings) and speed (2 seconds), contradicting the CLI help text. Measure on your own footage before assuming software produces smaller files.

The %f output template variable already includes the correct extension, so writing -o "dest/%f.jpg" appends a second one. Use only -o "dest/%f", and note that -o with an existing directory creates a sibling file instead of writing inside it.

Decode every output file with ffmpeg using -v error -f null to detect truncation and corruption, then compare file counts between source and destination. For video, also compare durations since mismatches indicate truncated encoding.