AccessNow Image Optimizer is a free WordPress plugin that compresses images on your own server and makes WebP and AVIF copies, with no account, no monthly limit and no images sent anywhere. Version 1.3 is its biggest update: you can put any original back, optimise and restore from the Media Library, take the location out of your photos while keeping your copyright, and optimise GIFs, animated ones included.
Download 1.3 from the AccessNow Image Optimizer page. It is on its way to the WordPress.org plugin directory; until it is listed there, that page is the place to get it.
Put an original back
The plugin has always kept a backup of every original it changes. Now you can use it: put one image back, or every image at once, and its thumbnails and WebP and AVIF copies are made again to match. The bulk restore works in batches, so it carries on after an interruption, however big the library. Putting an original back shows how.
Optimise and restore from the Media Library
The Media Library’s list view has a new column showing what each image saved, with Optimise now and Restore original buttons. The same box appears when you open an image’s details.
Take the location out of your photos, keep your copyright
A photo straight from a phone carries where it was taken and which camera took it. Publish it and anyone can read that. Image Optimizer can now remove the location, camera details and other hidden data when it optimises an image, while keeping the colour profile, so photos still look right. Tick Keep the copyright notice and author and your name and copyright notice stay in the file. The other image optimisers we compared remove all of this or none of it.
It is on for new installs. Sites updating from 1.2 keep working as before until you switch it on. Removing location and camera details explains what goes and what stays.
GIFs, animated ones included
Still GIFs are recompressed and get WebP and AVIF copies. On servers with Imagick, animated GIFs keep every frame and get an animated WebP copy, usually far smaller. On servers with only GD, which can’t keep animation, animated GIFs are left exactly as they are, and Server Status says so. GIF images.
And more
- Faster first image. The first large image on each page is no longer lazy-loaded and is fetched first, and images missing a width and height get them, which helps Google’s page-speed scores.
- Turn PNG photos into JPEG. A photo saved as a PNG is often several times bigger than the same photo as a JPEG. Image Optimizer can convert those that have no transparency, update the links in your posts, and show you a count first. Off until you turn it on, and Restore puts the PNG back.
- Leave chosen images alone, by folder, file name, file size or pixel size.
- A savings report showing the space saved by format, over 30 days or 12 months. It starts counting from 1.3.
- WP-CLI commands to run the bulk optimiser, restore originals, convert PNG photos and see the savings from the command line.
After you upgrade
To keep sites working exactly as before, 1.3 leaves three new settings off on sites that are updating: Remove location (GPS), camera and other hidden details, Load the first large image on each page straight away and Add the missing width and height to images. Switch them on under Settings → Image Optimizer. Images optimised before 1.3 keep their details until you restore them and optimise them again.
Get it
AccessNow Image Optimizer is free, and everything happens on your own server. Download it from the AccessNow Image Optimizer page, where you can also see how it compares with EWWW, Smush, Imagify, Converter for Media and ShortPixel. New to it? Start with Getting started: check your server, then choose your settings. The last release, 1.2.1, made AVIF files smaller.
