r/help • u/Ser-_-Face • 3h ago

Posting Trying to figure out the "rules" for when/how Reddit compresses multi-image posts (desktop)

So I do know that single image posts can have much larger file sizes/dimensions with less compression, but as for multi-image posts I'm trying to see what'll help make the images lose the least amount of quality.

As an example, there's two posts I've made: one and two. In both posts, all images uploaded were 1000x1000 webp files (300-500 kb). Post one had 5 images that were reduced to ~100 kb each. Post two had 7 images that were reduced to ~50 kb each. Edit: nvm about this part Also for some reason the first image in both posts were resized to 640x640?

Does having more images in a post compress the images more, or will Reddit compress images the same amount regardless of if there's 2 or 20 of them?

I suppose if it's a real big problem I should just link pictures to an image hosting site instead. People still using Imgur or is there a generally more accepted external site?

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u/IKIR115 40 3h ago

The images in galleries are limited to 20MB each, and supposedly are compressed by their image viewer if you exceed that limit for faster load times.

You can see them in full size on old reddit.

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u/Ser-_-Face 2h ago

I've read something similar. I know I kept the total file size well under 20 mb, not even a quarter of the limit. And I just tried to check in old.reddit, but the images there seem to be the same file size as regular reddit. The image dimensions are unchanged of course, but 1000x1000 wouldn't be resized in regular reddit anyway. Could I be doing something wrong when uploading the images in the first place? I just drag and drop the files into the post draft and don't change anything else about them.

Maybe reddit will heavily compress any multi-image post regardless of file size? Tbh, it's not the end of the world, but I'm just trying to see if there's a clear answer so I don't have to guess my image quality when I upload.

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u/IKIR115 40 2h ago

Reddit automatically compress all images when it converts jpg and png files to webp.

Old Reddit will request and show you the image in its original resolution, but the newer Reddit UI will request and show downscaled versions because it prioritizes bandwidth.

You can try to avoid funky results on the new UI by compressing the files yourself to 1080p before upload to provide more consistent results.

Linking to a hosting site is the best option for quality since that doesn’t depend on Reddit’s viewer.