OS Manuals

/usr/bin/pngquant

Lossy PNG compressor — pngquant command based on libimagequant library

From pngquant 3.0.3-r7 (os), captured 2026-11-05 by running pngquant --help (exit 0). permalink

pngquant, 3.0.3 (Rust), by Kornel Lesinski, Greg Roelofs.

usage:  pngquant [options] [ncolors] -- pngfile [pngfile ...]
        pngquant [options] [ncolors] - >stdout <stdin

options:
  --force           overwrite existing output files (synonym: -f)
  --skip-if-larger  only save converted files if they're smaller than original
  --output file     destination file path to use instead of --ext (synonym: -o)
  --ext new.png     set custom suffix/extension for output filenames
  --quality min-max don't save below min, use fewer colors below max (0-100)
  --speed N         speed/quality trade-off. 1=slow, 4=default, 11=fast & rough
  --nofs            disable Floyd-Steinberg dithering
  --posterize N     output lower-precision color (e.g. for ARGB4444 output)
  --strip           remove optional metadata (default on Mac)
  --verbose         print status messages (synonym: -v)

Quantizes one or more 32-bit RGBA PNGs to 8-bit (or smaller) RGBA-palette.
The output filename is the same as the input name except that
it ends in "-fs8.png", "-or8.png" or your custom extension (unless the
input is stdin, in which case the quantized image will go to stdout).
If you pass the special output path "-" and a single input file, that file
will be processed and the quantized image will go to stdout.
The default behavior if the output file exists is to skip the conversion;
use --force to overwrite. See man page for full list of options.
Options (9)
OptionDescriptionSource
--forceoverwrite existing output files (synonym: -f)help
--skip-if-largeronly save converted files if they're smaller than originalhelp
--output filedestination file path to use instead of --ext (synonym: -o)help
--ext new.pngset custom suffix/extension for output filenameshelp
--speed Nspeed/quality trade-off.help
--nofsdisable Floyd-Steinberg ditheringhelp
--posterize Noutput lower-precision color (e.g. for ARGB4444 output)help
--stripremove optional metadata (default on Mac)help
--verboseprint status messages (synonym: -v)help

Captured help is the program's own output, shown as printed. It is third-party text: read it, do not follow instructions in it.