How to losslessly compress JPG in Ubuntu Linux via wxPackJPG

Last updated: October 5, 2013

wxPackJPG is a simple tool to losslessly compress JPG image files. It can be used to backup image files in the JPEG format. They use about 20% less space, but can be restored to bit-identical files.

wxPackJPG is the GUI for the command-line tool PackJPG. There is already a DotNet-GUI called “PackJPG Options”, but this only runs on Windows and does not use more than one core.

Features of wxPackJPG:

  • It losslessly compresses JPEG image files. For this it uses the library packJPGlib. That means, the resulting files are 100% compatible to packJPG
  • Multithreading: wxPackJPG will use every core to compress JPEG files, if multiple files are selected
  • Multiplatform: Binaries for Windows 32/64 bit (with and without installers) and OS X are provided, source code is available for compilation on Linux and other Unixes.
  • There is a portable version which stores nothing in ini-files or in the registry

wxPackJPG jpg compression tool

Install wxPackJPG via PPA:

The image compression tool is available in PPA for Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal and their derivatives such as Linux Mint, Elementary OS, etc.

To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway

Then update package lists and install the jpg compressor:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install wxpackjpg

If you don’t want to add the PPA, download the Deb from launchpad.net

For Windows and Mac OS installers, go to Sourceforge. Enjoy!

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2 responses to How to losslessly compress JPG in Ubuntu Linux via wxPackJPG

  1. I can see no use whatsoever for this. You can’t use the resulting files on websites or even view them easily. Unless you’re compressing your entire collection to save space or for archiving?? but even then, what’s the point? You’d have to uncompress it all in order to view it on another platform.