Photo & Video Compression Examples

The source is a 24-second, 1920 × 1080, 30 fps synthetic test card with a moving square, textured borders, and a tone. Its exact size is 24,418,479 bytes. The three-second pattern repeats eight times. It is not camera footage or a screen recording.

Download the original video (24.42 MB, MOV).

All three outputs retained the full 24-second duration and an audio track, at approximately 30 fps. Universal compatibility produced H.264 video in MP4. Smaller budgets led to smaller frame dimensions in this test. That is a trade-off, not free quality.

The input is a synthetic 3200 × 2400 JPEG with a solid center and textured borders. It went from 1,845,422 bytes (1.85 MB) to 611,900 bytes (0.61 MB), a 67% reduction.

The output is 1600 × 1200. Settings: custom photo preset, 1600-pixel longest edge, balanced compression, JPEG, a 1 MB limit, and location removal enabled. These custom controls require Pro in the app.

Download the original JPEG (1.85 MB) · Download the smaller JPEG (0.61 MB).

A text document, face, screenshot, or already compressed photo may behave differently. Check required dimensions and text readability as well as file size.

Measured November 1, 2026 using Shrinkray’s shared video planner, video encoder, and image compressor on an Apple M4 Max running macOS 15.7.9. This was a command-line harness using native source revision bb8256bc7528, not an App Store app running on an iPhone.

Video settings: target-size strategy, universal compatibility, no splitting, and motion preservation off. The app’s settings reserved some of each budget for overhead: 0.5 MB in these runs. The encoder used an additional planning margin; its exact video and audio bitrate plans are in the manifest.

Single-run encoder timings on this Mac were 1.13 seconds for the 5 MB budget, 0.96 seconds for the 9 MB budget, 1.88 seconds for the 19 MB budget. The photo took 0.017 seconds. Timings exclude fixture generation and compilation. They do not predict iPhone processing time.

Download the measurement manifest (JSON) for exact sizes, timing, settings, SHA-256 file checksums, and hashes of the native source files used. Byte counts and dimensions were checked programmatically; no perceptual quality score was measured.

1. Download the original sample and open it in Shrinkray.
2. With Pro, set the same custom budget and use universal compatibility. Leave splitting and motion preservation off.
3. Export from the original each time. Note the size, dimensions, duration, audio, and your iPhone model and app version.
4. Preview moving subjects and fine detail before sharing.

Device, OS, app version, codec, and input content can change the result. A matching byte count is not expected. Synthetic patterns are easy to reproduce but cannot establish typical savings on personal photos or videos.

For a real attachment, start with the destination’s limit and leave some room. See the Discord guide, screen recording guide, or target size guide.