Support for Squoosh and remove the initial copy step

[aguilar1181]

For reference, I continue to rely on the outdated Squoosh CLI for bulk image processing, as it has proven to be an exceptional tool. I’m seeking an alternative that allows me to avoid writing commands I no longer remember or have no reference anywhere. A user-friendly graphical interface would be a great solution.

I was trying to convert 16 JPG images to WEBP, and it is taking way too long to do so. While the original images are quite large (~20MB), the 'how to convert' tool took about 12-15 minutes spinning, and in the end the images were not converted. No error message or anything; the spinning wheel on the convert button just stopped, and the images were not WEBP. I conducted another test using a single image, and once again, the tool took approximately 4-5 minutes without successfully completing the conversion.

Additionally, the settings window is confusing. Some documentation for the settings would be great. I have no idea how much compression the default "level of compression" is. Having to redo images every time I finally manage to convert them due to improper compression levels—whether too low or too high—is a frustrating waste of time. A couple of feature requests for the settings window as well:

1- Add an 'X' to close the window rather than having to click the save button every time.
2- Allow selecting an output folder

Finally, I decided to benchmark the conversion speed against the original and now outdated Squoosh CLI, and to my surprise, the CLI completed the conversion of all images in under a minute.

I am on a M1 Mac mini and I have downloaded the FFmpeg, Magick and Pandoc dependencies.

[jakemanger]

Hi @aguilar1181, thanks for the report.

Just to get a better idea of what the issue is, could you answer these questions:

1. Was the log stuck at "Making temporary copy of file.." or was the app actually frozen? That is quite unusual so I think there may be a bug going on here.
2. After the conversion completed, did you hit the save button? If you are converting multiple files then it lets you specify the output folder to save to. That would also explain why you didn't see your converted files.

I have two major updates that will improve speeds for large numbers of files:

1. removing the temporary copy step (this was needed for the initial release, but I have found a work around)
2. supporting squoosh itself, so there should be no speed differences with squoosh

[jakemanger]

Just an update on this. I have removed the temporary copy step and this has led to a dramatic speed improvement ~2-10x on larger files that I've tested. Let me know if you still have issues, but I will convert this to a discussion about adding Squoosh

v1.0.6 has dramatic speed improvements for anyone reading this. Please use > v1.0.6 from the site at https://howtoconvert.co/dashboard