Best image squasher?

Any free ones?

[dazz]

My banner on the website is fairly large, is there any way you can reduce the size of the image file without losing too much quality?!?

[Edouard_H]

I'm not sure what the current version is, but a search for "Formati" should turn up a pretty decent freeware application - if that's what you're looking for.

[Macguru]

I like Graphic Converter, a Mac freeware. Else, I believe that Macromedia hands a time limited demo of Fireworks. Fireworks is hard to beat, for a commercial software.

[StepOne]

It's not free, but I've found that Image Optimizer from xat.com does a much better job of reducing the file size of JPGs than PaintShop Pro.

For the same file size, images are of MUCH better quality when using Image Optimiser, don't ask me why!

[mivox]

If you visit the Graphics Forum Library [webmasterworld.com], threads #12 & 13 give a great overview of the different techniques and software a lot of our members use for GIF and JPEG compression.

[dazz]

Thanks guys, ill start squashing.

[skibum]

I'll second Fireworks, and while not free (but cheaper than Fireworks) Ulead makes some good stuff that'll do a great job on compression and/or animated GIFs