How to compress of reduce the size of an image before uploading to Parse as PFFile? (Swift)

Solution 1:

Yes you can use UIImageJPEGRepresentation instead of UIImagePNGRepresentation to reduce your image file size. You can just create an extension UIImage as follow:

Xcode 8.2 • Swift 3.0.2

extension UIImage {
    enum JPEGQuality: CGFloat {
        case lowest  = 0
        case low     = 0.25
        case medium  = 0.5
        case high    = 0.75
        case highest = 1
    }

    /// Returns the data for the specified image in JPEG format.
    /// If the image object’s underlying image data has been purged, calling this function forces that data to be reloaded into memory.
    /// - returns: A data object containing the JPEG data, or nil if there was a problem generating the data. This function may return nil if the image has no data or if the underlying CGImageRef contains data in an unsupported bitmap format.
    func jpeg(_ quality: JPEGQuality) -> Data? {
        return UIImageJPEGRepresentation(self, quality.rawValue)
    }
}

edit/update:

Xcode 10 Swift 4.2

extension UIImage {
    enum JPEGQuality: CGFloat {
        case lowest  = 0
        case low     = 0.25
        case medium  = 0.5
        case high    = 0.75
        case highest = 1
    }

    /// Returns the data for the specified image in JPEG format.
    /// If the image object’s underlying image data has been purged, calling this function forces that data to be reloaded into memory.
    /// - returns: A data object containing the JPEG data, or nil if there was a problem generating the data. This function may return nil if the image has no data or if the underlying CGImageRef contains data in an unsupported bitmap format.
    func jpeg(_ jpegQuality: JPEGQuality) -> Data? {
        return jpegData(compressionQuality: jpegQuality.rawValue)
    }
}

Usage:

if let imageData = image.jpeg(.lowest) {
    print(imageData.count)
}

Solution 2:

If you want to limit size of image to some concrete value u can do as follow:

import UIKit

extension UIImage {
    // MARK: - UIImage+Resize
    func compressTo(_ expectedSizeInMb:Int) -> UIImage? {
        let sizeInBytes = expectedSizeInMb * 1024 * 1024
        var needCompress:Bool = true
        var imgData:Data?
        var compressingValue:CGFloat = 1.0
        while (needCompress && compressingValue > 0.0) {
        if let data:Data = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(self, compressingValue) {
            if data.count < sizeInBytes {
                needCompress = false
                imgData = data
            } else {
                compressingValue -= 0.1
            }
        }
    }

    if let data = imgData {
        if (data.count < sizeInBytes) {
            return UIImage(data: data)
        }
    }
        return nil
    } 
}

Solution 3:

  //image compression
func resizeImage(image: UIImage) -> UIImage {
    var actualHeight: Float = Float(image.size.height)
    var actualWidth: Float = Float(image.size.width)
    let maxHeight: Float = 300.0
    let maxWidth: Float = 400.0
    var imgRatio: Float = actualWidth / actualHeight
    let maxRatio: Float = maxWidth / maxHeight
    let compressionQuality: Float = 0.5
    //50 percent compression

    if actualHeight > maxHeight || actualWidth > maxWidth {
        if imgRatio < maxRatio {
            //adjust width according to maxHeight
            imgRatio = maxHeight / actualHeight
            actualWidth = imgRatio * actualWidth
            actualHeight = maxHeight
        }
        else if imgRatio > maxRatio {
            //adjust height according to maxWidth
            imgRatio = maxWidth / actualWidth
            actualHeight = imgRatio * actualHeight
            actualWidth = maxWidth
        }
        else {
            actualHeight = maxHeight
            actualWidth = maxWidth
        }
    }

    let rect = CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, CGFloat(actualWidth), CGFloat(actualHeight))
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(rect.size)
    image.drawInRect(rect)
    let img = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
    let imageData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(img!,CGFloat(compressionQuality))
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
    return UIImage(data: imageData!)!
}