What are JPEG artifacts?
JPEG artifacts are the visible distortions that show up when you compress an image too hard. Blocky 8×8 squares, color smearing around sharp edges, ringing halos near text, softened detail. Higher compression, worse artifacts.
Crank the compression way up on purpose and you get an image that looks like it's been shared, re-saved, and screenshotted a hundred times.
Why would you want this?
- Memes. Memes have looked deep-fried for a decade; this is how you get there. Generational loss makes any image funnier.
- Privacy. Re-encoding strips EXIF metadata (camera info, GPS location, timestamps) and makes reverse-image search significantly harder.
- Aesthetic. Vaporwave, lo-fi, glitch art, and retro internet nostalgia all lean on the crunchy JPEG look.
FAQ
What are JPEG artifacts?
JPEG artifacts are visual distortions caused by the JPEG compression algorithm. The most common are blocking (8×8 square patterns), ringing (halos around sharp edges), and color smearing from chroma subsampling. The lower the quality setting, the more obvious they get.
Is my image uploaded anywhere?
No. Everything runs locally in your browser using JavaScript and Canvas. Your image never leaves your device, and there are no analytics on what you upload.
What's generational loss?
Re-encoding a JPEG adds fresh artifacts on top of the ones already there. Do it enough times and the image looks like it's been making the rounds since 2017. The Generational loss preset does this for you.
What's the color shift slider doing?
It applies chromatic aberration: the red and blue color channels drift apart from green, the way they do through a cheap camera lens. Pair it with low quality for that broken-vintage feel.
Can I deep-fry multiple images at once?
Yes. Drop or select as many as you want and the same settings apply to all of them. Download them one at a time or all at once with the Download all button.
What input formats work?
Anything your browser can decode — JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, GIF. Output is always JPEG (that's the whole point).
Why does the effect look subtle on huge images?
JPEG compression works in 8×8 pixel blocks. On a 4000px image those blocks are tiny relative to the frame, so the same quality setting that wrecks a 400px image barely touches a 4000px one. By default we scale images down to 1280px on the longest edge so the artifacts actually read. Turn off Limit output to 1280px if you want full resolution.
Does it work on phones?
Yes. The whole UI is touch-friendly and processing runs entirely client-side, so any modern mobile browser handles it.