Optimize PNG

Squeeze PNG file size. Two modes:

• lossless (default) — oxipng. Byte-identical decode. Always safe.
• lossy — pngquant. Palette-quantised; visible artefacts only on smooth gradients. Right call for web/UI assets.

When to use

• Web-prep: PNG screenshots, UI assets, illustrations destined for upload.
• Archival: shave a few hundred MB off a folder of PNG masters losslessly.
• Pre-step inside web-ready orchestrator.

Do not use this skill when:

• Source is JPEG → use optimize-jpeg.
• Source is RAW/HEIC/TIFF → run web-ready end-to-end first.
• Quality must be bit-perfect for cryptographic hashing → only use lossless mode.

Inputs

1. Input — file or directory. Required.
2. Mode — lossless (default) or lossy.
3. Recursive — --recursive for directory descent.
4. In-place — default. --output-dir <path> to write copies.
5. Lossless level (mode=lossless) — oxipng -o <0..6>. Default 4. 6 is ~20% slower for ~1–2% extra compression.
6. Lossy quality (mode=lossy) — pngquant --quality min-max. Default 65-80 (web-good). Increase floor for sensitive material.
7. Strip metadata — default off. --strip removes EXIF/iTXt/zTXt/tIME chunks (oxipng --strip safe). Use when web-prep doesn't need camera info.

Procedure

1. Verify the relevant binary exists. which oxipng for lossless; which pngquant for lossy. If missing, point at install-deps.
2. Enumerate inputs (PNG only — skip non-PNG with a one-line note).

3. Lossless (oxipng):

   oxipng -o <level> [--strip safe] [--out <out-dir>] "<input>"

   In-place is the default; pass --out only if --output-dir was set. oxipng is multithreaded by default — no need to xargs-parallelise.

4. Lossy (pngquant):

   pngquant --quality <min>-<max> --skip-if-larger --strip --output "<output>" "<input>"

   --skip-if-larger is critical — pngquant occasionally produces a larger file on already-quantised inputs; this prevents inflation. --strip removes optional chunks (default off in pngquant — explicitly enable for web-prep).

5. Track total before/after sizes; report the savings.

Output

• Optimised PNG files at the resolved paths.
• Summary table:
  • Files processed / skipped / failed.
  • Total: <orig-MB> → <new-MB> (<pct>% saved).
  • Worst compressors (files with <5% savings) — flag for inspection.

Notes

• oxipng lossless on a typical screenshot: 20–40% reduction. On already-optimised PNGs (e.g. via Photoshop "Save for Web"): often 1–5%.
• pngquant is irreversible. Keep originals if there's any chance the file will need further editing.
• For animated PNGs (APNG): both tools handle them but check output visually first.
• Combining lossy then lossless (pngquant → oxipng) gets a few extra % off — the orchestrator (web-ready) does this automatically; this skill keeps it as separate modes for explicit control.