Cloudinary automatically optimizes generated JPG and PNG images to reduce size (http://support.cloudinary.com/entries/23493267-Does-Cloudinary-optimize-or-smush-images-)
When uploading an image to Cloudinary, it is stored as is in your account.
Here's an uploaded image:
http://res.cloudinary.com/demo/image/upload/couple.jpg
The original file's size is ~200KB, therefore clicking its link (http://res.cloudinary.com/demo/image/upload/couple.jpg) will deliver the original as is.
However, Optimization is auto performed by Cloudinary with any transformation.
For example, the following same dimension (100%) transformation creates an optimized ~40KB JPG of the same image instead of ~200KB:
http://res.cloudinary.com/demo/image/upload/w_1.0/couple.jpg
If you choose to, you can apply an incoming transformation for optimizing before storing in the cloud (e.g., using a_exif to automatically rotate the image according to its EXIF data).
I did a test. The original image file is 1.7MB, however, after cloudinary transform it become 1.8MB. How come it become larger?
I noticed also the output image of cloudinary can be further optimized up to 70% by website like tinypng.
TinyPNG converts the PNGs to 'PNG8'. Cloudinary also supports 'PNG8' instead of the default 'PNG24' format.
This is done by setting the
flagsparameter topng8(fl_png8in URLs).The following produces a 363KB image:
http://res.cloudinary.com/demo/image/fetch/w_1.0,fl_png8/v1414663063/http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120718024112/fantendo/images/6/6e/Small-mario.png