Image File Size Increases After Cropping in Shopify Media Editor
Before crop:
2500x2500 - 1.03MB - JPG ( its compressed one from 6mb to 1mb)
After crop:
2253x2181 - 4MB - JPG
Why does the file size increase significantly after cropping the image in the Shopify media editor?
Do i need to download the edited version & convert it back to JPEG Externally → then re-uplaod?
I would appreciate clarification solely on why the file size becomes larger after cropping/editing 
Because JPEG is a lossy compression there usually is a “Quality” slider when you save your images in any image editor.
So, it maybe that your original was compressed with low quality, but after cropping it’s re-compressed with medium compression…
When you do this in Shopify there is no control over compression quality.
Previously I used to say that it’s not an issue you should care about because the image is usually re-sized and re-compressed anyway when shown on your site and again there is not much control over the process.
Or it will require too much effort for too little gain.
However, recently the problem with storage quota became an actual issue for people with many images on the lower tiers, so if you’re in this cohort it may make sense to crop and re-compress your image elsewhere and re-upload.
I also had very good results with blurring the unimportant parts of the image (when it does not look unnatural though) – it significantly decreased file sizes.
Or even better – removing background will make your images much smaller and make them look more professional.
Oh, and in any case, give the image a proper descriptive name – this is part of SEO too!
I’d suggest that once the image is in the media editor and gets edited there, Shopify probably attaches some hidden (to an extent) properties to it. Probably, tags or extra information on how the image is stored in media. Which all results in that weight increase.
Yeah Got it.
I usually use external tools like squoosh.app & birme.net (bulk). Only for very small changes (like adjusting width - crop) I use Shopify’s Media editor, but the file size increase there doesn’t really make sense to me.
