A form that refuses anything over 2 MB
Visa portals, insurance claims, and school applications still enforce hard caps. A recent phone JPEG is often 4–8 MB. Crush: cap the long edge at 2048, JPEG 80, download. If it is still over, 1600 and 75. Do this from the original in Files or Photos, not from a screenshot of the photo. Keep the original; the portal does not need EXIF anyway, and Canvas will drop it.
A CMS that times out on 9 MB product shots
Studio JPEGs straight off a tethered camera are enormous. Your product grid may only show 800 pixels. Resize to 1600–2000 on the long edge, then JPEG or WebP depending on what the stack serves. Crush will not replace a proper DAM, but it unblocks a merchandiser who is not about to install ImageMagick. Do not JPEG a transparent PNG cutout — you will get a matte.
Sending a lookbook through chat without a second crush
WhatsApp, iMessage, and Telegram re-encode images unless you send them as documents. If you pre-size to something the messenger will not feel the need to destroy (for example 1600 px JPEG 80) and send as a file where the app allows it, the recipient sees what you saw. If you drop a 12 MB original into the chat composer, the messenger will crush it for you, badly. Crush first, then attach.
Publishing a photo without a map pin
Camera phones embed GPS. Canvas re-encode as a side effect strips most EXIF, including location. That is not a dedicated redaction suite — it will not search pixels for badges or faces — but it is enough when the threat model is “the JPEG should not contain a coordinate.” Keep the original offline. If you need to keep IPTC captions, Crush is the wrong step; use a metadata editor.
Batch of screenshots for a bug report
PNG screenshots are often already small. Crush may only shave metadata. If a report tool caps total ZIP size, try PNG as-is first; if you must, WebP. Do not JPEG a screenshot of logs or a spreadsheet. The quality page exists because this mistake is common.
When Crush is the wrong tool
- HEIC from iPhone Camera — wrong codec.
- 4K video, screen recordings, Live Photo motion.
- Print masters and color-managed campaigns.
- Animated meme GIFs you want to keep moving.