Local Help Docs Local Pro
Image Optimizer is an Add-on for Local that helps you optimize the images on your site by more efficiently compressing those images and removing unnecessary data.
This is important because a site that uses un-optimized images will:
The easiest way to get the Image Optimizer is to install it from the Add-ons tab within Local.
You can also manually download the add-on from the Image Optimizer Add-ons page.
If you’re curious about how this add-on was built, or want to manually install the add-on from the source code take a look at the repository on Github.
Once the Add-on has been installed, you can find Image Optimizer under the “Tools” tab for the site you’d like to work on. The general workflow for using Image Optimizer looks like this:
Ok, great, I’m saving space, but what’s really happening to the media used on my site?
At this time, Image Optimizer is focused on a few things to get your images in the best place they can be.
Here’s a shortlist of things that Image Optimizer is doing:
jpeg
images are optimized. Other media like png
, gif
, svg
, or .mp4
are not handled at this time, though optimizing additional file types is planned.jpeg
‘s that are contained within the wp-content/uploads
folder will be scanned and optimized. Any images that are contained within another folder like the theme, or any plugin folders will not be optimized.Settings can be adjusted in “Preferences > Addons > Image Optimizer”
One of the optimizations that Image Optimizer performs is to strip the metadata from a file.
Oftentimes digital photos will contain all sorts of information related to the image which is useful when editing the image in tools like Photoshop. When publishing images to the web, this sort of information isn’t useful, and in some cases can leak private data to the world.
If you’re curious about the exact kinds of data that are being stripped, then I would recommend using a tool like exiftool to compare the original image with the optimized one. As an example, here’s an image that was taken with a Google Pixel and run through the Image Optimizer tool.
All original images are saved to the backups
folder within the Local site which can be reached by right-clicking on the site in Local and selecting “Reveal in Finder”
backups
folder within the Local site. You can always review or restore the original images by copying them back to their original location within the wp-content/uploads
folder.
backups
folder of the site and can be restored at any time using the file manager.The best way to zero in on what has gone wrong with the optimization process is to review what messages are in the Local Log.
To access the Log, click on “Help > Reveal Local’s Log” or see this help doc for more information.
Once you are viewing the log, you should see Image Optimizer entries that look something like this, and should give you a general direction on what things to investigate next.
If you are still having issues with Image Optimizer and want additional help, create a new topic in the Community Forums with as much detail about what you are seeing as possible.
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