[HN Gopher] Show HN: A fast, privacy-first image converter that ...
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Show HN: A fast, privacy-first image converter that runs in browser
Hey HN I built ImageConverter.dev because I got tired of "free"
image converter sites that force uploads, or throttle conversions.
So I made a tool that runs 100% client-side -- meaning your images
never leave your device. It's built for speed, simplicity, and
privacy. What it does Convert images between JPG, PNG, WebP
Works offline once loaded (PWA support) How it works It uses the
Canvas API and WebAssembly to handle conversions directly in the
browser. There's no upload, no tracking, no server costs, and it's
fast even on mid-range devices. Why I built it I wanted an
instant, no-ads, privacy-safe way to handle images for my personal
projects -- something lightweight enough to replace desktop tools.
Try it https://imageconverter.dev Would love feedback from the
community -- especially on: Performance on different
browsers/devices Thanks for reading!
Author : wainguo
Score : 31 points
Date : 2025-10-24 12:21 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (imageconverter.dev)
(TXT) w3m dump (imageconverter.dev)
| martypitt wrote:
| Congrats on shipping.
|
| However, the "Privacy First" and "No Ads" claim gets eroded
| pretty quickly by cookies, and requests to trackers like
| n.clarity.ms, google-analytics and adtrafficquality.google.
|
| Note - I don't actually have an issue with any of those things -
| if you wanna monetize this service through analytics and ads,
| that's up to you. But it's at odds with your privacy first
| claims.
| wainguo wrote:
| Thanks for your advice, I'll update some of the text to fix the
| issue
| blopker wrote:
| Yeah, I made a local image compressor/converter for myself
| that's actually private: https://github.com/blopker/alic
| wainguo wrote:
| Good job!
| no_no_no_no wrote:
| upload... no uploads...
| throwanem wrote:
| The FileReader web API enables you to make local files
| available to content running in the browser. This entails a
| file picker and, depending on the verbiage in your browser UI,
| that _may_ talk about "upload." That doesn't mean anything is
| being sent anywhere. See MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
| US/docs/Web/API/FileReader
|
| (Or that _nothing_ is; I have not audited this code. But I
| vouched the parent comment to point out that browsers do offer
| this capability, and there 's nothing facially suspicious in
| claiming to use it.)
| wainguo wrote:
| Great explanation!
|
| Maybe I should not use the text 'upload' to avoid the
| confusion
| throwanem wrote:
| Oh, I see it there in your copy. Yes, I would use a
| different verb there, such as "pick" or "choose" or
| "select."
| brightbeige wrote:
| "open"
| wainguo wrote:
| Images never upload to any server, all images processed in your
| browser
| lukaslukas wrote:
| Welcome to imageconverter.dev imageconverter.dev asks for your
| consent to use your personal data to:
|
| Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content
| measurement, audience research and services development Store
| and/or access information on a device ...
|
| WTF? Privacy first?
| wainguo wrote:
| Oh, The privacy policies is a template, Here privacy is mainly
| refer to the images data never upload to any server.
| raymondgh wrote:
| I love free+local. Can you add SVG->PNG with transparency? I
| never need help with any of the conversions you support today,
| but going from vector to raster would be super convenient!
| wainguo wrote:
| sure,I will try to add SVG support tomorrow
| mentalgear wrote:
| I like the local first, but would be great if you'd mention the
| converter libs that you are using (probably jsquash wasm).
| wainguo wrote:
| I build cool image tools: Here is another two tools you may found
| helpful
|
| https://bulkresizeimages.online/
|
| https://resizeimage.dev/
|
| all these tools process image just in browser and never upload
| images to any server.
|
| And more tools in the kitchen
| jauntywundrkind wrote:
| https://squoosh.app/ has long been my go-to. UI is fantastic
| for letting me do the thing I most often am looking for,
| shrinking down large image files.
| wainguo wrote:
| how about this ? can shrink bulk images lighting fast:
| https://bulkresizeimages.online/
| jauntywundrkind wrote:
| I'd take Squoosh every day. This provides no live image
| preview, no immediate feedback on file size as you adjust.
|
| In this link, the controls dominate the page. In Squoosh,
| the controls are an overlay atop the actual thing you are
| working on. The primacy of the subject is what I want, not
| the tools.
| tacone wrote:
| Very fast, would you share the libraries you're using to handle
| conversion and resize?
| nasso_dev wrote:
| See also: https://vert.sh/
| pacmansyyu wrote:
| Congratulations on building this! I certainly do agree with the
| fact that there are a lot of sites that force you to upload, ask
| for your email, and sometimes even add a watermark to the image;
| amongst other unknown things.
|
| Although from first look, I can tell you that there's a lot of
| text on the site and it's a bit too cramped. From my perspective,
| tools like these should get out of the way and the UX should be
| self-explanatory for an image "conversion" tool. Basically, just
| a box to select, drag/drop images, a few user inputs such as the
| output quality and format. That's about it. A single line at the
| top explaining what the tool does (and that it is local) should
| be good enough.
|
| Also, the title says "PNG to JPG converter," but the rest of the
| site claims it can convert to quite a lot more than just those
| format. You can possibly change that to, as an example, something
| like: "ImageConverter - Convert images between formats, locally".
| And you can get rid of multiple pages, turning it into a single-
| page with all the possible output options.
|
| As a sidenote, I've been using Mazanoke for this:
| https://github.com/civilblur/mazanoke. It's not my project, just
| something I happened to stumble upon a while ago, but it's
| similar to your project and works exactly like you would want it
| to.
|
| From my test, the rest of it works great. Good luck!
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(page generated 2025-10-24 23:01 UTC)