Dinky
Dinky makes files smaller.
A macOS app making images, videos, and PDFs smaller. Automatic codec conversion. Free and open source.
33 MB · v2.7.12 · Requires macOS 15 Sequoia ·
Dinky makes files smaller.
A macOS app making images, videos, and PDFs smaller. Automatic codec conversion. Free and open source.
33 MB · v2.7.12 · Requires macOS 15 Sequoia ·
Drop images, videos, or PDFs on the window, the Dock icon, or use the file picker. No fussing.
Copy an image anywhere — screenshot, Figma export, browser grab — and hit ⌘⇧V. Works system-wide, even when Dinky isn't focused.
One app for all three — JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, HEIC, PDF, MP4, MOV, and more. Drop anything; Dinky picks the right pipeline.
Save your favorite settings as a named preset and apply them in one click.
Images: WebP, AVIF, lossless PNG, or HEIC — oxipng for PNG fidelity. Video: H.264/HEVC export. PDF: flatten, preserve, target size; optional Vision OCR on scan-like pages before encoding.
Auto-detects photo vs. graphic (UI, illustration, logo, screenshot) and picks quality accordingly. Or force Photo, Graphic, or Mixed per preset.
Pick a folder for Dinky to mind. New files that land there get shrunk on the way in — one global watcher, or one per preset.
For example, watch a Dropbox-synced folder such as ~/Dropbox/Inbox so saves and downloads compress as they appear on disk. Cloud folders & details in the FAQ →
Save next to the original, pick a custom folder, and decide what happens to originals: keep them, move to the Trash, or tuck them into a Backup folder — set per preset or globally.
Resize on the way out with common web presets or a custom value.
Binary-searches the quality level to hit an exact KB or MB target.
Multiple files compress concurrently with live results as they finish.
Pick batch speed: Fast is one at a time, Faster runs a few jobs together, and Fastest opens the taps — up to eight at once when your Mac is game.
Drop files without compressing. Right-click any item to pick a format and fire when you're ready.
Slider or side-by-side. Compare the original and the compressed version, then keep it or back out — nothing lands on disk until you say so.
Compress straight from Finder’s right-click menu, no app launch needed.
Drop or paste a direct image, video, or PDF link. Dinky downloads it, compresses, and cleans up the temp copy. Up to 500 MB.
Drop Dinky’s Compress Images action into any Apple Shortcut and pass the smaller files to the next step.
Rebind Open Files, Clipboard Compress, Compress Now, Clear, and Delete in Settings → Shortcuts.
Scrubs EXIF, GPS, and camera data on the way out. Smaller files, nothing personal left behind.
No sign-in and no upload step — files stay on disk unless you choose a cloud folder yourself.
Open History to see what you compressed — paths, formats, and before/after sizes, all in one place.
Functional UI follows your Mac into English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Simplified, and Traditional Chinese.
Opt in once and Dinky's ready the moment you log in — handy alongside Watch Folders for set-and-forget compression.
Most image tools don't do PDFs. Most PDF tools don't do video. Dinky covers all three — includes optional scan OCR before PDF compression — free, open source, and tiny.
*We don't want you to give up quality for a smaller footprint — Dinky stays light without cutting corners on how your images, video, and PDFs look.
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Dinky
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Image
ImageOptim
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Video
HandBrake
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PDF
Preview
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Price
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Free | |||
macOS native
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Batch processing
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Presets
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Watch folder
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Strip metadata
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Outputs optimized format
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Files stay on device
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App size
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33 MB |
Menu-bar and clipboard–first, with freemium Pro automation. See how that stacks up against a free MIT drop zone with watch folders included and heavier PDF tooling.
Full comparison → Dinky vs Picmal PicmalPaid Mac suite for images, video, PDFs, and audio in a larger install. Compare when open source, zero license cost, and a ~33 MB footprint matter more than an all-in-one paid bundle.
Full comparison →Each page is Dinky vs one other app—images, video, or PDFs.
Real quotes from GitHub Discussions. Want to share your take? Leave a review.
That's Gatekeeper — macOS blocks first launch for apps outside the App Store and Apple Developer Program.
Yes. It’s SwiftUI + macOS frameworks; a Windows or Linux port would be a different app.
macOS 15 Sequoia or later. On macOS 26 Tahoe you get the full liquid glass UI; on Sequoia it falls back to the frosted material look.
Yes. Free to download, free to use, open source on GitHub under MIT. No trial, no watermarks, no "pro" tier.
Nope. Everything runs locally on your Mac. Your files never leave your machine — no servers, no accounts, no uploads.
In Settings → Originals, choose Keep, Move to Trash, or a backup folder. Default is Keep.
Images: JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, HEIC/HEIF, TIFF, BMP → WebP, AVIF, lossless PNG, or HEIC. Video: MP4/MOV → MP4 (H.264 or HEVC). PDFs: flatten, preserve, target size; scan-like PDFs can get OCR for search first.
Saved settings (format, quality, destination, etc.) — one click from the sidebar. Create them in Settings → Presets.
Yes, with Watch Folder. Any supported file saved or moved into a watched folder is picked up and compressed — handy for Figma, Lightroom, or screenshot exports. You can watch a path inside Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud Drive, or any other cloud folder that syncs to your Mac; Dinky reacts once the file is fully on disk (the sync app has to finish downloading first).
Yes. Drag a direct media link (https://…/photo.jpg, etc.) onto the window, or copy it and hit ⌘⇧V (Clipboard Compress). Direct file URLs only — not web pages.
Not directly. Set a preset’s destination to a cloud-synced folder (e.g. ~/Dropbox/Compressed/) so outputs sync automatically. The same idea applies to Watch Folder: pick a watched path under your Dropbox (or Drive) folder for inputs, or a synced subfolder as the destination so compressed files upload with everything else.
Dinky walks quality down as far as your preset allows to stay under the cap. If the file is still larger than your target at minimum quality, you’ve hit the practical floor for that source at its current pixel dimensions — Dinky returns the smallest output it could produce, not a magically smaller one.
The 1.x line (from 1.0) was images only. 2.0 added videos and PDFs alongside images. Older 1.x DMGs and ZIPs stay on GitHub Releases for archival use.
Derek Castelli is a freelance web designer in Figma and Webflow. He made Dinky after Optimage crashed mid-project.