PNGQuant Installation: PNG Image Compressor Library Steps

This article covers the installation process on various operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. If you want to learn how to reduce the size of png.

PNGQuant is a command-line tool that allows you to compress PNG images without losing quality. It is a useful tool for web developers and graphic designers who need to optimize their images for the web. In this tutorial, 

Here are the steps to install PNGQuant in Windows.

Step 1: Download PNGQuantTo install PNGQuant, you first need to download the latest version of the software from the official website. Go to https://pngquant.org/ and click on the "Download" button. This will download a zip file containing the PNGQuant executable file.

Step 2: Extract the Zip FileOnce the download is complete, extract the contents of the zip file to a folder on your computer. You can use any file compression software like WinZip, WinRAR, or 7-Zip to extract the file.

Step 3: Add PNGQuant to PATH Environment VariableTo use PNGQuant, you need to add its location to the PATH environment variable. This will allow you to run PNGQuant from any location on your computer.

To add PNGQuant to the PATH variable, follow these steps:

  1. Right-click on the Start button and select "System".
  2. Click on "Advanced system settings" in the left pane.
  3. Click on the "Environment Variables" button.
  4. Under "System Variables", scroll down and select "Path".
  5. Click on the "Edit" button.
  6. Click on the "New" button and add the path to the PNGQuant executable file. For example, if you extracted the file to "C:\PNGQuant", you should add "C:\PNGQuant" to the Path variable.
  7. Click "OK" to save the changes.

Here are the steps to install PNGQuant in Mac:

Step 1: Install HomebrewHomebrew is a popular package manager for Mac that makes it easy to install and manage command-line tools like PNGQuant. To install Homebrew, open the Terminal application and enter the following command:

 /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

This command will download and install Homebrew on your Mac.

Step 2: Install PNGQuantTo install PNGQuant using Homebrew, enter the following command in the Terminal:

 brew install pngquant

This will download and install PNGQuant and its dependencies on your Mac.

Here are some common commands that you can use with PNGQuant:

Basic Usage: To use PNGQuant to compress a PNG image, open a Terminal window and navigate to the folder containing the PNG image. Then, enter the following command:

 pngquant image.png

This will compress the image and save it as a new file named "image-fs8.png" in the same folder.

Quality Settings: You can adjust the quality settings to control the level of compression. The default quality setting is 80. To set a custom quality setting, enter the following command:

 pngquant --quality=50 image.png

This will compress the image using a quality setting of 50.

Speed Settings: You can also adjust the speed settings to control the speed of compression. The default speed setting is 3. To set a custom speed setting, enter the following command:

 pngquant --speed=1 image.png

This will compress the image using a speed setting of 1, which is the slowest speed.

Preserve Metadata: By default, PNGQuant removes all metadata from the image. If you want to preserve the metadata, enter the following command:

 pngquant --keep-metadata image.png

This will compress the image while preserving the metadata.

Batch Processing:  To compress multiple PNG images at once, enter the following command:

 pngquant *.png

This will compress all PNG images in the current folder.

These are some of the common commands that you can use with PNGQuant. For a complete list of commands and options, type "pngquant --help" in the Terminal.