How to Compress Images Without Losing Quality in Obsidian Notes App

Obsidian is a popular note taking app that supports Markdown formatting. Adding images to your Obsidian notes can enhance them visually. However, large image files can slow down the app and take up storage space. Fortunately, Obsidian allows you to compress images without sacrificing visible quality.

Why Compress Images in Obsidian Notes

Here are some key reasons you may want to compress images in your Obsidian notes:

  • Faster load times: Smaller image file sizes load faster when you open notes. This improves app performance.
  • Less storage space: Compressed images take up less hard drive or cloud storage space for your Obsidian vault. This saves you money if paying for cloud storage.
  • Better syncing: Smaller files also sync faster across devices. This improves productivity when working on multiple devices.
  • Lower bandwidth usage: When sharing notes that contain images, smaller files use less data transfer bandwidth.

Best Practices for Compressing Obsidian Images

Follow these best practices when compressing images for your Obsidian notes:

  • Use lossless compression: Lossless compression reduces file size without losing image quality. Lossy compression does lose quality.
  • Compress PNGs: PNG files compress better than JPEGs in most cases. Convert JPEGs to PNG format first.
  • Resize intelligently: Scale images by 50-75% to balance visual quality and file size. Only shrink as needed.
  • Set PPI to 72: Reduce pixels per inch (PPI) resolution to 72 PPI, the standard for web images. Higher PPIs increase size unnecessarily.

Step-by-Step Guide

Follow these steps to losslessly compress images before adding them to your Obsidian notes:

1. Export Images from Obsidian

  • Right click on an existing image in your notes.
  • Choose “Export image” to save a copy outside your vault.

2. Open Image in Online Compressor

  • Go to a site like TinyPNG.
  • Upload your exported image file.

3. Adjust Settings

  • Set to compress using lossless mode, not lossy.
  • Resize image if desired, but avoid going below 75%.
  • Set PPI resolution to 72.

4. Download Compressed Image

  • When settings adjusted, click “Download compressed image”.
  • This will be a PNG file in most cases.

5. Replace Image in Obsidian

  • Back in your Obsidian note, right click on original image.
  • Choose “Replace image” and select your downloaded file.

That’s it! You’ve now compressed an image in your Obsidian notes without losing any visible quality, just file size. Repeat this process for all large images.

Alternative Methods

If you want to compress batches of images or automate the process, consider these tools:

  • ImageOptim: Compress batches of images via a desktop app instead of web tool.
  • IFTTT: Set up an IFTTT Applet to auto-compress newly added images.
  • Photoshop: Manually optimize and export images with compression settings.
  • Scripts: Write a Python script to batch process images then import to notes.

Sample Compressed Images

Here are some examples of compressed vs original images in Obsidian notes.

Original Image
500 KB – Hard to see difference in quality

Compressed Image
300 KB – No visible quality loss but much smaller file

The human eye generally can’t perceive the changes from lossless compression. But the file size savings mean faster loading notes!

Conclusion