There are a few times when something new comes along that makes me think the follow:
Really? Nahh...
Hmm.. Maybe..
OMG!! How the f*** does it do that?
GIVE IT TO ME NOW!!
This was the case with JPEGmini. I now quote from their website.
JPEGmini is a patent-pending photo re-compression technology, which significantly reduces the size of photographs without affecting their perceptual quality.
Now before you shout 'oh the loss of quality etc' I am not advocating this for use on a final product, just use it to reduce the file size for various reasons where saving that space is a bonus.
These are the reasons I am using JPEGmini
Social media sites
Even though social media sites such as Facebook and Flickr give you lots of storage, it is nice that I can now upload full resolution shots at a greatly reduced size. Before I was resizing to 2000px on the long side to save space. I have not seen JPEGmini remove any metadata or EXIF information either!
Nexus 7
I used to have a 3gig folder on my 16gig Nexus 7, these were the 2000px long side shots. JPEGmini took it down to 1.13gig, which is a God send for a unit with finite capacity. ( I know I don't need to have them all on there but hey...)
If you are regularly sending photos to clients by email then this will reduce the overall size of the attachments as some emails systems have incoming mail size restrictions. Email sites like GMail offer a lot of space but not every one will be opening them on a computer with access to broadband speeds. They may be receiving them on their smart phone with a reduced data plan and lower than broadband speed.
This program has been added to my workflow. Once I am done editing the files in Lightroom I then export them as a Full JPEG, (bye 2000px Flickr export profile!) and then throw them at JPEGmini
Very simple process for this, run the program, then drop the files into the program window. You can even drag a top level folder or whole drive to the window and it will recursively find you photos. It will automatically save the files in the same place they came from so if you want to experiment do it on copies!
It has an upper restriction of 28 mega pixels but that is bloody massive but some of my panoramic photos were rejected. I would like to see a command line feature added or the option to not have the images previewed while it is working. I know what they look like! Just get on with it!!!
Ahem... in conclusion BUY IT!! http://www.jpegmini.com/