Compress Images in Python (No Archive)

Question

I'm writing a Python script that deals with images. Is there a module that can compress an image without putting it into an archive, and decompress it back? (e.g. A 1MB image is now 0.8MB after compression, then 1MB after decompression).

Can I see example code of compressing and decompressing an image in Python without the use of archives?

I've already taken a look at some modules, but those compress strings.

Answer 1

Modern image formats such PNG and JPEG are already compressed and my general recommendation is take Brendan Long's advice and use those formats and exploit all the work that's been put into them.

That said, if you want to compress the contents of any arbitrary file in Python, here's a very simple example:

import zlib

with open("MyImage.jpg", "rb") as in_file:
    compressed = zlib.compress(in_file.read(), 9)

with open("MyCompressedFile", "wb") as out_file:
    out_file.write(compressed)