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RIOT program for reducing photo weight and improving image quality.

Yesterday I found another unique pearl in the ocean of the existing software for a computer that will stay on my computer for many years.

Absolutely free and small program RIOT(Radical Image Optimization Tool - a radical image optimization tool) allows you to quickly and powerfully resize photos without losing quality. Thanks to our own patented unique algorithm compression it has virtually no equal.

I compared the degree and quality of image compression by the RIOT program with the compression results of several special online service ov ( I already told you about one) and with the results of this operation in the famous Photoshop program - all competitors completely failed the exam.

It is about such a powerful and convenient tool I dreamed of image optimization all the years of running this site, I really missed it. The fact is that the “weight” of images for a webmaster is very important factor, which greatly affects the speed of loading resource pages into your browser - the fight is for every kilobyte. Everyone loves fast websites - visitors and search engines. Besides this - this program will significantly increase free space on disk computer after optimizing the family photo album.

Testing the RIOT program

I took a picture of a cheerful girl (the title picture in this article) and compressed it using three methods. The initial weight was 320 kb. The results were as follows:

  • Adobe Photoshop - this program saved the image with parameters best quality(“Save for Web”) size 194 kb. I will dance from him. The average compression ratio (with a huge loss of quality) made it possible to reach 30 kb.
  • compressjpeg.com - this excellent online service compressed my “masterpiece” without visible changes to 54.5 kb...

A couple of days ago I would have been happy with this option, but I got a miracle program...

  • RIOT - I load the image and get 37.82 kb. in excellent shape, absolutely no loss of quality...



My joy knows no bounds. I rechecked the result - ten different pictures have undergone similar tests. The result was confirmed - this program allows you to reduce photos without losing quality better than anyone else.

RIOT Program Overview

This photo optimizer can work with a bunch of formats...

...and save the result in three main...

...able to resize images in pixels and percentages...

...has a function batch processing- you can compress photos in batches at once (!without restrictions on their number!)...

Image Optimizer Settings

There are few settings in the program, they are all simple and understandable...

If you use the English version, you can check the box for automatic update. But if you download (from the link at the bottom of the article) an exclusive version of RIOT with a Russian interface, I don’t recommend checking the box (after the update there is a chance to get a bourgeois version of the appearance.

The main window also has several compression parameters that you can change at your discretion...

The program automatically calculates the optimal lossless compression quality in the range from 65% to 90%, but you can manually adjust it by observing the changes in the preview window (in real time).

The reduction of color information is also set automatically, but you can play around with it yourself - sometimes you can save a few more kilobytes.

Progressive encoding produces a smaller output file size than standard encoding.

How to work in the RIOT program

So, we upload the photo into the program...

We set the desired output format, change the compression parameters, if the automatic ones are not suitable, adjust the size in pixels (if necessary), compare the original with the compressed result (using the magic button)…

...and if we don’t see the difference, we save the picture (the “Save” button next to “Open ...”).

Everything is very fast and simple, right?

Download the RIOT program

You can download RIOT (English version) from her official website(file size is only 1.7 MB). There are also modules for Gimp programs, IrfanView and XnView.

There is also Russian version of RIOT— I recommend downloading it. The author of the translation under the nickname Leserg Russified the program very well, even reference material in it...

In gratitude from all of us, I give direct link to his website. Unfortunately, apparently Leserg is better at making translations for programs than creating websites - in at the moment for some reason it is not available. In addition, in order to download anything, you need to register on the site... which is invincible (I tried 100 times).

File size 4 MB.

To successfully install this photo optimizer on your computer, you must have this file next to the installer...

Riot is just a wonderful piece of software. In addition to the fact that it reduces the weight of the image, it can also make a pale picture bright and vice versa.

Can completely remove color (in JPG format), make it sepia, change the background, rotate it, and so on... All owners of web resources know why to make a picture lighter. So as not to overload the blog once again and not slow down its loading.

The program is simply irreplaceable when you need to quickly change the weight or size of a picture in pixels or centimeters. But you don’t want to turn on Photoshop or you simply don’t know it, since it’s lightweight, loads quickly and performs all operations with lightning speed.

It is free, here is a link to the author’s website, to the page where you can download it https://luci.criosweb.ro/riot/download/, but there it is on English. And if that suits you, then go there. And if not, then you can easily find Russian versions of the program on the Internet. Just be careful! Be sure to check such downloads in your antivirus! This way you will save your time and nerves.

RIOT program for weight loss photo

You can upload an image to the program simple drag and drop or by clicking on File and selecting Open...Ctrl+O or on the yellow folder. After that, find the desired file on your computer and click Open, as in any program.

After that, you first need to go through all the formats. Because it happens that you don’t need to change anything except the format. For example, here’s how the weight of the picture for my previous article about

The image was in PNG format and weighed 107 Kb, and when I clicked GIF, it changed the weight to 34.6 Kb without any adjustment. You can see this in one screenshot. And if in this way it is not possible to make the weight of the photo less, then you need to adjust it. First, in the Reduce color to 1 section, you need to move slider 2

And look at the weight indicators. And if at the same time the quality is greatly lost. Then you need to try to make it lighter or paler. You can do this by first clicking on the Image adjustments button, which is highlighted in white; it is located at the very bottom of the program. To do this, you need to move the sliders and look at the weight of the picture.

And yet, you definitely need to look at the image quality. To do this, click on the 1:1 button and the picture will be displayed in natural size.

If for you quality is more important, than the size in pixels (not weight), then it can simply be made smaller. You can watch how to do this in the video tutorial.

In this article you learned how to compress an image without losing quality. And also significantly improve the image.

Basic functions

  • opening of many image formats, including rare ones;
  • optimization and saving of received files;
  • dual viewing mode with original and optimized images;
  • the ability to compare pictures;
  • compression to specified dimensions;
  • fast processing function;
  • processing groups of images;
  • kit necessary tools for scaling, rotating, panning, etc.;
  • many settings: brightness, gamma, contrast, etc.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages:

  • free distribution;
  • compression results in the program are comparable to results in commercial products;
  • support for everyone existing formats images;
  • possibility of optimization without losses;
  • support for PNG optimizers;
  • fine settings for image compression.

Flaws:

  • errors in automatic processing.

Alternatives

PhotoScape. A free graphic editor in which you can resize photos, adjust their parameters, process them in batch mode, divide them into separate parts, and much more. etc.

SmallFoto. Program for group image processing. It can edit sizes, convert photos to convenient formats, apply logos and perform many other operations with a large number files at the same time. Distributed free of charge.

Free Image Converter. A free application for resizing and determining the degree of compression of images. It can reduce the weight of photos up to 25 times, which allows you to optimize files for subsequent uploading to websites.

How to use the program

After starting the program, its working window will appear:

Working window

In order to optimize the image, open the file by clicking “File”, “Open”. If its size is more than 2 megapixels, the application will offer to reduce it, displaying a warning about the large size:

Change size

For viewing on a monitor, 640-1000 pixels are enough; for placement on a website, you should set the dimensions required by the layout. The program supports five resizing algorithms. New size will be visible in the blue bar located at the top of the window.

After completing the settings, click "OK". Next, two pictures will appear in the working window: optimized and original.

The next step is choosing a format (JPEG for photos, GIF, PNG for graphics).

Each format has its own settings.

For JPEGs, set the compression level by dragging the Quality slider, which determines the quality, and selecting color mode Chroma subsampling.

Compression ratio

For GIF and PNG, the compression degree must be determined by the number of colors, for which the Reduce colors to slider and the Color quantization algorithm are responsible for converting them. By selecting these parameters, you can achieve a minimum amount of compression with good quality.

Number of colors

RIOT great solution to optimize photos for various needs.

I have one site where most of the content is pictures, and quite a lot of them large size. So as not to rack my brain too much, I adjusted the images to fit required sizes, its duty program for viewing graphic files. Recently, out of curiosity, I looked at how much files take up disk space, and was unpleasantly surprised that some of the images turned out to be too heavy. Visitors are dear to me, so I decided to try to optimize the largest graphic files. Rolling up my sleeves, I found it pretty quickly interesting program RIOT, which is designed to reduce the size graphic files.

RIOT can be installed as separate application or as an external plugin for popular programs working with graphics (GIMP, XnView). I decided to go with the first option (a separate, fully functioning application) so that I wouldn’t have to worry about trying to figure out how to make two programs work together, even if they told me how easy it was to do it. The installation process is standard, you can automatically agree with all the points, only when you get to the insinuating offer to install DriverSacanner 2011. It’s better to refuse this super-useful program, because we are going to work with images, and not look for driver updates. We wait a few seconds and everything is ready to go.

By by and large RIOT doesn’t just reduce images, but helps optimize them by removing metadata and compressing them so that the loss of quality is not noticeable to the eye.

The program is extremely easy to use. The interface is divided into two parts: on the left side is the original image, and on the right side is what it will look like after optimization, so that you can immediately assess what will happen, plus above each picture there is a caption indicating how much space it takes up. At the bottom there are settings with which we adjust the compression level.

The program supports more than 20 pieces various formats graphic files, including PSD and RAW, but you can only save in JPEG, GIF and PNG, which is not surprising, the most popular and are the standard for images posted on the Internet. Select what format you will save in at the bottom above the toolbar.

Then it’s a matter of technique, let’s go through all the tabs and do necessary settings. Here, it’s even difficult to give any specific advice; each format has its own characteristics, which imposes different approaches to get a balanced image that is good enough but not too big. There are four tabs (in a particular case, not all may necessarily be displayed):

— “Options”, general settings vary depending on the selected file format.

- “Metada”, metadata that is saved in files, you can easily get rid of them.

— “Mask”, you can fill individual layers with a solid color and set transparency, although the original image must have several layers.

- “Image adjustments” anyone can adjust the brightness and contrast of the image.

After all the manipulations, making sure that the results obtained are satisfactory, click save.

Who doesn't want to play with different settings, but knows what size the file should fit into, look for the “Compress to size” button, in the window that appears, enter how much it should be in kilobytes and the program will do everything automatically, although the result is not always normal, sometimes the images have strong artifacts that are noticeable .

As a bonus, you can consider the rudiments of a graphic editor that offers RIOT, rotation, mirror image images and resize the image (in pixels) using several different filters.

Some may ask what to do if you need to optimize many graphic files; should you really deal with each one separately? Everything is much simpler, let's do it first pre-setting, and go to batch file processing by clicking the “Batch” button. Add necessary files, select the folder where the finished result will be written, and click “Start”. True, there is one problem here: the images need to be of the same type, otherwise some may turn out very low quality everything is in squares.

With RIOT, you can really easily shrink images by approximately 30-50 percent, while outwardly it is almost impossible to distinguish them from the original. Of course, you need to do a little research and practice so that you can immediately select correct settings immediately by eye without experimentation at random. Exactly what you need for fast optimization images, without having to delve into a bunch of nuances, I recommend using them.

Works great in 32 and 64 bit operating systems. The program interface is only in English, without translation into other languages, so those who do not understand will have to learn a few English words.

Despite the significant spread of broadband high-speed Internet access, the issues of compression and optimization of web graphics still remain relevant. In this review I want to talk about great program compression and optimization of graphic files for use on websites. This program is called Riot - a radical image optimization tool or, as it seems to me, more correctly - radical image optimization tool. The concepts of compression and graphics optimization are so interconnected that they do not exist without each other. I won’t touch on the intricacies of these complex processes; it’s more important for me to get the files smaller size to increase the speed of loading web pages.

There are quite a lot of programs for compressing and optimizing the main image formats for the web (jpg, gif and png), but they all usually work with the same format. I would like to have an image compression and optimization tool that would work equally effectively with all these formats. And there is such a program. This free application Riot (Radical Image Optimization Tool). Unfortunately, she is not yet so widely known. Yes on request Riot Major search engines display search results on the first few pages that are in no way related to this program. There is everything from the scandalous group Pussy Riot, some Riot game, and ending with a heavy metal group of the same name. It's a pity. This brief overview designed to promote this worthy program. If at least someone who looks at this page uses it, I will be glad.

Riot (Radical Image Optimization Tool)

The program is essentially graphical interface for well-known utilities command line optipng, pngout and libraries FreeImage. The author of the program has laid out the interface so well and simply that using this program to compress and optimize gif, png and jpg is a pleasure. You can download the program from the developer’s website http://luci.criosweb.ro/riot/, but I recommend using the Riot program in Russian; you can download the Russified version of the Riot program on the website http://www.wylek.ru/. To download the program from the mentioned link, you need to go through a simple registration procedure on the site, which is not very good. But nothing can be done.

Author of the translation and Russian assembly of the Riot program under the nickname Leserg did a titanic job. He Russified not only the program interface, but also help file, and the Readme file. Moreover, the Russian assembly of Riot has additions and latest versions programs used, and the help file is not only translated, but also significantly improved. It has added information explaining the processes of image compression and optimization and much more. Russification of this level is very rare. Honor and praise to the translator. (Knowing that it's enough most interface elements and program messages do not have the ability to be translated in resources, but are hardwired into the program code, the more you become imbued with respect for the author of the translation and the work he has done).

A few words about the functionality of the Riot program. To show what the program can do, I will provide a list of main characteristics, copied from the already mentioned excellent translation.

  • Open multiple image formats, including rare and scientific types.
  • Saving and optimizing JPEG, GIF and PNG images using a simple user interface.
  • Work in dual mode viewing (original – optimized image) or single (optimized image). Automatic preview of the result when changing optimization parameters.
  • Comparison function (the original image is superimposed on the optimized image, which allows you to notice the slightest changes in pixels).
  • Compress files to the desired size.
  • Fast processing (all operations are performed in PC memory).
  • Supports batch image processing (converting multiple files at once).
  • Setting transparency.
  • Removal of service information - metadata (comments, IPTC, Adobe XMP, EXIF ​​profiles, ICC profiles). Unsupported metadata blocks are removed.
  • Transferring metadata between image formats (target format must support metadata).
  • General tools: pan and zoom, rotate and flip images.
  • Image settings: brightness, contrast, gamma, invert.
  • Decrease unique quantity flowers in PNG and GIF images in order to reduce the file size (two color quantization algorithms: Xiaolin Wu and NeuQuant neural net).
  • Resize the image using well-known redrawing algorithms - filters (Lanczos3, Catmull Rom, Bicubic, and others).
  • Support external programs to optimize the PNG format (optipng, pngout, etc.).
  • Compression results are comparable to commercial products, and in some cases superior.
  • Support for HDR images using adaptive tone compression (using the Drago algorithm).

The possibilities are impressive.

Riot's program can satisfy both experienced users who need quickly and with the necessary parameters convert to web formats large number graphics and ordinary users, who need to create two or three thumbnails and full-size photos to post in their web album.

Despite the ease of use of the Russified Riot program, I strongly recommend reading the program's help. This will make it easier to understand the essence of the processes. This is greatly facilitated by the quality of translation of the certificate and additional materials, added to the certificate by the translator (God bless him).
My review has no purpose detailed description functions of the program, methods of working with it, etc. I just want to introduce users to worthy program. I’ll just give screenshots of how the program compresses several files so you can see how well the program works. In addition, below them I will provide screenshots from the mentioned Russified help so that you can evaluate the quality of the translation and evaluate the optimization settings for each of the graphic formats.


jpg image


gif image



png image



Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the button highlighted in the screenshot of optimizing the PNG file. It is designed to visually view image changes before and after optimization. When you click it, the original image in the left panel is replaced with an optimized one, right panel- vice versa. It is very convenient to visually track changes when viewing at an enlarged viewing scale.

It remains to add that users graphics programs Gimp, IrfanView and XnView can use special Riot modules in them. Functionality These modules are absolutely identical to those available in the standalone program. Unfortunately, modules exist only for Windows versions of Gimp and XnView. You can download modules from the official Riot developer website.

Riot Modules

Riot at Gimp

Riot in XnView


Riot module in graphics Gimp editor embeds its item in the “File” menu of the editor. In the screenshot it is highlighted with a green marker. To free graphic XnView program The Riot module is built into the “Filter” menu. In the screenshot, the corresponding item is highlighted with a yellow marker. The collaboration of the most popular graphics programs with Riot allows you to first prepare the graphics you need in them, and then optimize them and save them in the desired web format using Riot modules. Everything you need to prepare web graphics in one bottle. You can't imagine anything better. It would be very good if the author of the translation of the Riot program transferred it to the appropriate modules.

The Riot program has recently been updated, the Russian assembly of it latest version 0.5.2 can also be found at the above link.

For users interested in image optimization, I suggest that you familiarize yourself with my other articles on this topic (some articles are already there, some are planned).

  • - An article about a simple and highly effective program for optimizing photos without thinking or settings.
  • - three modern programs image optimization


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