# Dinky

> A tiny macOS compression app for images, videos, and PDFs. Converts stills to WebP, AVIF, lossless PNG, or HEIC; exports video to smaller MP4 (H.264 or HEVC); shrinks PDFs. Drag and drop, get smaller files back. Free, open source, and entirely local — files never leave your machine.

## What it does

- **Images** — JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, HEIC/HEIF, TIFF, BMP → WebP, AVIF, lossless PNG, or HEIC
- **Videos** — common formats (e.g. MP4, MOV) → MP4 with H.264 or HEVC and quality presets
- **PDFs** — **Flatten (default)** rasterizes pages (PDFKit + JPEG) for reliable size wins; **Preserve (best-effort)** uses bundled **qpdf** (with lossless stream coalescing + resource cleanup) then PDFKit — only keeps output when smaller. **Scan OCR (optional)**: Vision text layer on scan-like PDFs before flatten/preserve. **Target file size**: set a ceiling (e.g. 10 MB) and Dinky steps down quality tiers until the output fits. **Image downsampling**: opt-in mixed-mode rasterizes image-heavy pages at 144 DPI while keeping text/link pages selectable — high-impact on 300 DPI scan PDFs
- Drag and drop or file picker; batch compression with live results
- **URL drop** — drag or paste a direct `http(s)` link to an image, video, or PDF; Dinky downloads (max 500 MB), compresses, and cleans up the temp file
- **Clipboard Compress** — system-wide hotkey (default ⌘⇧V) works even when Dinky isn't focused; pastes file URLs, raw image bytes, or media URLs from the clipboard
- **Custom keyboard shortcuts** — rebind Open Files, Clipboard Compress, Compress Now, Clear, and Delete in Settings → Shortcuts
- **Launch at login** — opt-in via SMAppService so Dinky and any watch folders are ready at login
- **Localized** — functional UI follows the system language for 12 Tier-1 macOS locales (de, es, fr, it, ja, ko, nl, pt-BR, ru, tr, zh-Hans, zh-Hant); brand voice and playful copy stay in English
- **Originals** — keep, move to Trash, or move to a Backup folder per preset / globally
- **Batch speed** — Fast (one at a time), Faster (up to three parallel), or Fastest (up to eight)
- Max width resizing (common web presets or custom value)
- Max file size targeting via binary search on quality (images); step-down quality targeting for PDFs
- Smart quality: detects photos vs graphics (UI, illustrations, logos, screenshots) via Vision framework + EXIF, adjusts quality per content type
- Finder Quick Actions — compress without opening the app
- Manual mode: drop files, then right-click each one to pick format individually
- Skip threshold: skip files below a minimum savings target — Off, 2%, 5%, or 10%
- Completion sound scales with savings: Tink (< 100 KB), Pop (< 1 MB), Glass (< 5 MB), Hero (5 MB+)
- Update checker: polls GitHub Releases on launch, shows banner if newer version exists

## Version line

- **1.x** (from 1.0): images only. **2.0+**: images, videos, and PDFs. Older 1.x binaries remain on GitHub Releases for archival use.

## Technical details

- macOS 15 Sequoia or later (liquid glass UI on macOS 26 Tahoe; frosted material fallback on Sequoia)
- SwiftUI + AppKit, zero SPM dependencies
- 33 MB installed
- Image engines bundled: cwebp (Google), avifenc (AOM), oxipng (Rust/MIT)
- PDF: flatten via PDFKit + ImageIO; preserve path via bundled **qpdf** + PDFKit; video via AVFoundation export
- No cloud, no accounts, no telemetry (site uses Fathom analytics, app has none)
- Open source: MIT license

## Comparison

- vs **ImageOptim**: ImageOptim is same-format (lossless) — a JPEG stays a JPEG. Dinky **converts** stills to WebP/AVIF/HEIC/PNG for larger wins; use ImageOptim when you must keep the original extension.
- vs **TinyPNG**: TinyPNG uploads images to their servers. Dinky is 100% local.
- vs **Squoosh**: Browser-based, one image at a time. Dinky is native, batch, offline.
- vs **Optimage**: Similar feature set but Optimage costs $15 and weighs 62 MB. Dinky is free and 33 MB.
- vs **HandBrake**: HandBrake is built for deep video encoding (tracks, chapters, many settings). Dinky is drop-and-done for smaller MP4s and lives beside images and PDFs in one app.
- vs **QuickTime**: QuickTime ships with macOS for playback and simple one-file export. Dinky adds named H.264/HEVC presets, batch folders, watch folders, and still-image plus PDF compression in the same app.
- vs **Apple Compressor**: Compressor is for Final Cut and pro encoding batches. Dinky is a lightweight drop zone when you only need a smaller MP4 plus images/PDFs in the same MIT app.
- vs **Permute**: Permute is a broad Mac media converter. Dinky is compression-first with open source PDF and still-image pipelines alongside video.
- vs **FFmpeg**: FFmpeg is CLI-first with unlimited flexibility. Dinky wraps common shrink tasks in a native GUI and adds PDFs and stills—no shell flags.
- vs **Adobe Acrobat**: Acrobat is a full subscription PDF suite and a large install. Dinky targets straight compression—flatten, preserve, target size, optional scan OCR—in a ~33 MB free app.
- vs **Preview**: Preview handles still exports and smaller PDFs via Quartz filters for one-off saves. Dinky adds batch, watch folders, target size, WebP/AVIF/HEIC conversion for images, flatten/preserve PDF modes, and mixed media in one workflow.
- vs **PDF Squeezer**: Both are Mac-native PDF compressors; Dinky is MIT-licensed and bundles image + MP4 compression in the same app.
- vs **Smallpdf**: Smallpdf is browser-first with uploads. Dinky keeps PDF, image, and video compression on disk.
- vs **Clop**: Clop is menu-bar and clipboard–first with a Pro tier for some automation. Dinky is a free MIT window–first drop zone with watch folders included and deeper PDF tooling in a smaller install.
- vs **Picmal**: Picmal is a paid Mac app for images, video, PDFs, and audio with a large footprint. Dinky is free, open source, ~33 MB, and covers images, video, and PDFs without an audio pipeline.

## Links

- Website: https://dinkyfiles.com
- Comparisons index: https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/
- Comparisons (SEO): https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/imageoptim/, https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/optimage/, https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/tinypng/, https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/squoosh/, https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/clop/, https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/picmal/, https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/handbrake/, https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/compressor/, https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/permute/, https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/ffmpeg/, https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/quicktime/, https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/adobe-acrobat/, https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/preview/, https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/pdf-squeezer/, https://dinkyfiles.com/compare/smallpdf/
- Support: help@dinkyfiles.com
- GitHub: https://github.com/heyderekj/dinky
- Latest release: https://github.com/heyderekj/dinky/releases/latest
- Download v2.7.12: https://github.com/heyderekj/dinky/releases/download/v2.7.12/Dinky-2.7.12.dmg
- Homebrew (optional): `brew tap heyderekj/dinky https://github.com/heyderekj/dinky` then `brew install --cask dinky`

## Author

Derek Castelli — freelance web designer (Webflow, Figma, Cursor)
- Website: https://heyderekj.com
- GitHub: https://github.com/heyderekj

## Agent integration

This website is a static marketing page for the Dinky macOS app. There is **no public HTTP API**, **no OAuth/OIDC**, **no protected API resource**, and **no remote MCP server** on dinkyfiles.com.

- Machine-readable discovery: `https://dinkyfiles.com/openapi.yaml` (empty paths; documents no API), `https://dinkyfiles.com/.well-known/api-catalog`, `https://dinkyfiles.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json`, and this file (`https://dinkyfiles.com/llms.txt`).
- **WebMCP** (Chromium): when supported, the homepage registers in-browser tools via `navigator.modelContext.registerTool()` — e.g. scroll to FAQ, open install help, copy the quarantine Terminal command, open GitHub Releases.
- Automation outside the browser: use **GitHub** (source, issues, releases) and direct **DMG download URLs** from the Releases page — not site APIs.