Shrink a Photo's File Size with sips Quality Settings
Compress a picture by lowering JPEG quality with the built-in sips command instead of resizing it.
Run sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 60 photo.jpg --out small.jpg to re-encode an image at 60% JPEG quality.
01Command
Command
$ sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 60 IMG_0001.HEIC --out IMG_0001_small.jpg02What it does
Resizing changes an image's dimensions, but when you want to keep full resolution and just cut the file size, lowering the JPEG quality is the right lever. sips -s formatOptions takes a percentage from 0 to 100, with lower numbers producing much smaller files. Combine it with -Z resampling when you also want smaller dimensions for maximum savings.
03Risk
!Warning: JPEG quality loss is permanent — always write to a new --out file so the original stays untouched. Values below about 40 produce visible blockiness.
04Undo
✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.
05Sources
- sips - scriptable image processing systemEvidence: Lists -s formatOptions as the JPEG/HEIC quality knob when setting the output format with sips.
Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Category: Media