Same coarseness, one save
Re-saving a JPG at 92 when it was made at 75 makes the file much bigger and no sharper; re-saving at 60 throws away detail the original still had. The file already says how it was made: its quantisation tables. This route reads them on opening and starts the Quality slider at the matching setting, so the one re-compression the job needs is as gentle as it can be.
Where this mode goes wrong
- Heavily re-shared pictures.A JPG that has been saved many times carries blocky artefacts round the words; the fill does not remove the blocks around the box.
- Unusual encoders.Some cameras use their own tables; the estimate is then the nearest equivalent setting, not an exact one.
- PNG and other formats.Only JPG files carry these tables; other files start at quality 92 if saved as JPG.
What stays on this device
The JPG is decoded and cleared in this tab. EXIF you choose to keep is written into the new file by this page; the location is never written.
Questions about JPG files
Will saving again lower the quality?
Any JPG save re-compresses the picture, so a little is always lost. What makes it worse is saving at a lower setting than the file had, or bloating it at a higher one. This route reads the setting the file was saved at and saves at the same one, so the loss is the smallest one save can make, and it shows the file size before and after.
How is the quality setting chosen?
A JPG stores its quantisation tables — the numbers that decide how coarse it is — in the open, before the picture data. Those tables are compared with the standard ones at every setting from 1 to 100 and the nearest is taken, then kept between 70 and 95. You can move the Quality slider before saving; the starting value is the file's own.
Is EXIF kept?
Your choice. This route opens with Date + camera: the capture date, make and model are written back into the JPG and the location is never written. All but GPS copies the rest of the camera's data except location; Drop all writes none. Orientation is applied to the pixels, so the saved picture stands upright everywhere.
Why does my saved file have a different size?
The cleared area compresses differently from the words that were there, and the browser's JPG encoder is not the one your camera used. The Export section prints both sizes and the percentage between them.
Where the job goes next
- Remove text from a photo Camera pictures: the scene's own signs left alone, grain kept by the patch fill, HEIC opened directly, capture date kept or dropped.
- Remove a date stamp A compact rectangle opens over the lower-right camera-date position, ready to resize around the digits.
- Remove text from a PNG Transparency rebuilt on its own and colour on premultiplied values, saved back as PNG.
