Lab: make one photo fit everywhere

Take one photo you own and turn it into four files: a clean master with no hidden metadata, a copy small enough to email, a square for an Instagram post, and a WebP for a web page. Then compare them side by side and prove that none of them gives away where the photo was taken.

Level: beginner · Time: 45 minutes · Before this: the five lessons

What you need

• A photo you took yourself, as a JPG. A phone photo of something harmless (a plant, a mug) taken with location turned on is ideal, because it will have EXIF data to remove. An iPhone HEIC photo will not work in these apps: export it as JPEG, or take a new one after choosing Most Compatible under Settings → Camera → Formats.
• CompressX on Linux, Windows or Android. The image tools work on all three.
• Creator Toolkit on Linux, Windows or Android.
• DL Image Tools in Chrome or Firefox, or Dhiva Tools in any browser. DL Image Tools is needed for the metadata checks.

Step	App	You make
1–2	DL Image Tools, CompressX	A working copy, and a record of what is in it
3	CompressX	A clean master with EXIF removed
4	CompressX	An email copy under 1 MB
5	Creator Toolkit	An Instagram square post
6	DL Image Tools or Dhiva Tools	A WebP
7–8	DL Image Tools	A size and quality comparison, and a metadata check

Set up

1. Make a working copy. Create a folder called media-lab and copy your photo into it as photo.jpg. Keep the real original somewhere else and do not touch it during the lab.

2. Check the CompressX safety setting. Open CompressX, select Settings, and make sure Keep original files is on. It is on unless someone turned it off. When it is off, the image modules permanently delete each original after processing.

   Expected: Keep original files is switched on.

Part 1: record what you start with

1. Open DL Image Tools from the browser toolbar, select Choose image and pick media-lab/photo.jpg.

2. Open the Metadata tab and write down Size, Dimensions, Aspect ratio, Megapixels and Metadata (EXIF).

   Expected, for a typical phone photo:

   Field	Example value
   Type	image/jpeg
   Size	2 to 6 MB
   Dimensions	4032 × 3024
   Aspect ratio	4:3
   Megapixels	12.2 MP
   Metadata (EXIF)	Available

   If EXIF shows Not available, the photo has already been through an app that removed it. The lab still works; the metadata steps will have nothing to remove.

The popup closes when you click outside it, and loses the image. That is fine here: you will load files again later.

Part 2: make a clean master

Every version you make in this lab will start from one copy with the metadata removed, so nothing can carry your location forward by accident.

1. In CompressX, select Image Compressor and add photo.jpg to the drop box.

2. Under Presets, select Best quality. It sets Quality to 95 and leaves the dimensions unchanged.

3. Turn on Remove metadata (EXIF).

4. Select Compress 1 file.

   Expected: a green tick on the row and a new file photo_compressed.jpg next to photo.jpg. It may be bigger than the original: Lesson 2 showed that saving at quality 95 can cost more bytes than the camera used, without adding detail.

5. Rename photo_compressed.jpg to master.jpg.

Saving once at quality 95 loses almost nothing you could see. It is the one extra save this lab allows, and from here on you only make copies of master.jpg.

Part 3: an email copy

1. In Image Compressor, select Clear list, then add master.jpg.

2. Under Presets, select Email (< 1 MB). Target size (JPG) changes to 1 MB and the Quality slider is greyed out.

3. Select Compress 1 file.

   Expected: the row shows the old and new size, such as 4.2 MB → 870 KB, and a file master_compressed.jpg. If the master was already under 1 MB, the row says the original was kept.

4. Select the finished row. Zoom in on the same detail in Original and Compressed, such as an edge, text or a face.

Now make a second email copy the Lesson 2 way, by resizing first:

1. Select Clear list and add master.jpg again. The button only processes files that are not finished yet, so a finished row would be skipped.

2. Set Target size (JPG) to None, Max dimension to 1920 px, and Quality to 80. The Email preset is deselected.

3. Select Compress 1 file.

   Expected: a second file, master_compressed (1).jpg. CompressX adds a number instead of overwriting. It is usually smaller than the first, with all the detail a screen can show.

Part 4: an Instagram square

1. In Creator Toolkit, select Social Media Presets.

2. Under Platform, choose Instagram. Under Preset, choose Square Post · 1080 × 1080.

3. Add master.jpg.

4. Select Export for Instagram.

   Expected: the row shows 1080 × 1080, quality 85, and the file master_instagram-square-post.jpg appears in the CreatorToolkit folder in your home folder (on Android, the app's own CreatorToolkit folder).

5. Open the result. A 4:3 photo has lost a strip from the left and right edges, because the preset fills the square and crops from the centre.

If the subject was near an edge and got cut off, try Portrait Post · 1080 × 1350 instead: 4:5 is closer to the photo's shape, so less is cropped.

Part 5: a WebP

CompressX cannot write WebP, so use a browser tool. Pick one.

With DL Image Tools:

1. Import master.jpg and open the Compress tab.

2. Set Output format to JPG with Quality at 80, and write down Output size.

3. Change Output format to WebP, keep Quality at 80, and write down Output size again.

4. Select Download.

   Expected: master-compressed.webp in your downloads, usually somewhat smaller than the JPG figure from the previous step.

With Dhiva Tools:

1. Go to tools.dhivalabs.com and open WEBP Converter. The photo must be 20 MB or smaller.

2. Add master.jpg, leave Quality at 80%, and select Convert to WEBP.

3. Compare the result with the original shown next to it, then select Download WEBP.

Both work in your browser; the photo is not uploaded. Move the downloaded WebP into media-lab.

Part 6: compare

Fill in a table like this for your files:

File	Dimensions	Size	Looks
photo.jpg (start)
master.jpg
master_compressed.jpg (email preset)
master_compressed (1).jpg (1920 px, q80)
master_instagram-square-post.jpg	1080 × 1080
master-compressed.webp

The dimensions and sizes are in the Metadata tab of DL Image Tools, or your file manager's properties.

For reference, here is what the same steps gave for a 3840 × 2160 woodland photo of 3.7 MB, encoded with the Pillow library rather than the apps, so your numbers will differ:

Version	Dimensions	Size
Quality 95, same size	3840 × 2160	4.2 MB (bigger than the start)
1920 px, quality 80	1920 × 1080	633 KB
Square, quality 85	1080 × 1080	407 KB
JPEG, quality 80, same size	3840 × 2160	2.2 MB
WebP, quality 80, same size	3840 × 2160	1.9 MB

Then judge quality by eye. Open each file at 100% zoom and look at the same three places: a fine texture (leaves, hair, fabric), a smooth area (sky, a wall) and a sharp edge or text. On a normal screen, at normal size, you should struggle to tell them apart. That is the point: the small files are good enough for where they are going.

Part 7: check the metadata

1. In DL Image Tools, import each JPG in turn: master.jpg, both email copies and the Instagram square. Open the Metadata tab.

   Expected: Metadata (EXIF): Not available for all four. They were all made from the clean master.

2. Import photo.jpg again for contrast.

   Expected: Available, if it was in Part 1.

The Metadata tab checks JPG files only, so it cannot test the WebP. The WebP is still safe if you made it with DL Image Tools, whose guide says it removes EXIF from everything it produces, and it came from the clean master either way.

Why the master matters

Creator Toolkit's guide does not say whether its presets remove metadata, so this lab does not rely on it. Starting from a master that is already clean means you do not have to know.

Break it, try it

Each takes a few minutes.

• Watch generation loss. In DL Image Tools, import the email copy, compress it as JPG at Quality 50 and download. Import the download, compress it at Quality 70 and download. Keep alternating for five rounds, then compare the last file with the email copy at 100% zoom. Detail softens a little more each round, while the file size hardly changes, because every round re-compresses already-compressed pixels.
• Crush it. Set Quality to 10 on the Compress tab and look at the preview: blocking in smooth areas, halos round edges, smeared colour. Lesson 2 named all three.
• Wrong shape. In Creator Toolkit, export the master with Facebook's Cover Photo preset (820 × 312). With a portrait photo, heads get cut off. Then, in DL Image Tools, pick the Instagram Post preset on the Resize tab with Lock aspect ratio on: a 4:3 photo comes out 1080 × 810, because it is fitted inside the square, not cropped.
• Lose the transparency. Take a PNG logo or icon with a transparent background. Convert it to JPG in DL Image Tools: the transparent areas turn white. Convert it to WebP: they stay transparent.
• Hit a form's limit. In Dhiva Tools, open Reduce Image Size, add the master and choose 100 KB. Note the pixel dimensions the page reports: to get that small, the image had to shrink.

Clean up

1. Delete the media-lab folder, the lab files in the CreatorToolkit folder, and the downloads from the browser tools. Use your system's normal delete, so they go to the trash first.

2. Optionally, in CompressX, open History and select Clear history, then Clear. This removes the log only, not any files.

3. Leave Keep original files on in CompressX Settings.

Do not post the original photo.jpg anywhere if it carried location data; post a clean copy.

Check yourself

QuizLab: make one photo fit everywhere

Question 1 of 6

Why does the lab make a clean master with Remove metadata (EXIF) before any other version?

Score: 0

What you learned

• One clean master, with metadata removed once, makes every later copy safe to share.
• Resizing to the display size does more than lowering quality, and keeps the photo looking good.
• Social presets fill and crop from the centre; fitting keeps the whole photo but not the shape.
• WebP usually gives a smaller file than JPEG for similar quality, but not every app or site accepts it.
• Check the metadata of the copy you are about to share, not only the original.

Next steps

• CompressX: compress and convert images
• Creator Toolkit: social media presets
• DL Image Tools: compress and convert
• Back to the Images and media track