{"id":74411,"date":"2026-05-19T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/?p=74411"},"modified":"2026-05-05T18:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T10:14:11","slug":"compress-images-videos-pdfs-mac-dinky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/compress-images-videos-pdfs-mac-dinky\/","title":{"rendered":"Compress Images, Videos, PDFs on Mac for Free with Dinky"},"content":{"rendered":"

File compression apps tend to fall into two camps: image-only tools that barely touch videos or PDFs, and bloated converters that feel like overkill for quick jobs.<\/p>\n

Dinky<\/a> is a free Mac app that compresses images, videos, audio files, and PDFs without sending anything to the cloud.<\/p>\n

You drag something in, pick a format or preset, and get a smaller file back.<\/p>\n

\"Dinky<\/figure>\n

It also does more than squeeze files blindly.<\/p>\n

For images, it converts them into more efficient formats such as WebP<\/code><\/a>, AVIF<\/code>, HEIC<\/code>, or lossless PNG<\/code>.<\/p>\n

For videos, it exports to MP4<\/code> with codec and quality presets.<\/p>\n

For audio, it can convert between formats like AAC<\/code>, MP3<\/code>, FLAC<\/code>, WAV<\/code>, ALAC<\/code>, and AIFF<\/code>.<\/p>\n

For PDFs, it lets you choose between flattening for smaller sizes or preserving structure when you need text and links to survive.<\/p>\n

What Dinky Does Well<\/h2>\n

The strongest part of Dinky is that it treats different file types differently instead of pretending one compression method fits everything.<\/p>\n

\"Dinky<\/figure>\n

For images, you can output WebP<\/code>, AVIF<\/code>, HEIC<\/code>, or lossless PNG<\/code>.<\/p>\n

There is also Smart Quality, which detects whether the image looks more like a photo or a graphic and adjusts compression accordingly.<\/p>\n

If you need tighter control, you can set a max width or target a specific file size.<\/p>\n

For video, Dinky exports to MP4<\/code> with H.264<\/code> or HEVC<\/code> and a range of quality presets.<\/p>\n

It also supports an optional FPS cap, which can help shrink screen recordings or demos that do not need full frame-rate output.<\/p>\n

For audio, it can compress or convert common formats including AAC<\/code>, MP3<\/code>, FLAC<\/code>, WAV<\/code>, ALAC<\/code>, and AIFF<\/code>.<\/p>\n

That gives it a broader reach than the earlier versions of the app, which started out focused on images alone.<\/p>\n

For PDFs, the app offers two paths.<\/p>\n

You can flatten the file for smaller output, which works well for scanned or image-heavy documents, or preserve text and links for a lighter-touch rewrite.<\/p>\n

There is also optional on-device OCR for scan-like PDFs, so documents can stay searchable before compression.<\/p>\n

If your workflow includes extracting pages first, this guide on how to convert PDF to image formats on Mac<\/a> is a useful companion.<\/p>\n

Built for Quick Repetitive Jobs<\/h2>\n

The interface is straightforward: drag files onto the Dinky window, the Dock icon, or use the file picker. There is also a system-wide clipboard shortcut for images. Copy an image, press Command<\/kbd> + Shift<\/kbd> + V<\/kbd>, and Dinky compresses it even if the app is not frontmost.<\/p>\n

You can also drop or paste a direct file URL. Dinky downloads the file first, then compresses it locally, with support for links up to 500 MB.<\/p>\n

This is the kind of detail that makes the app more than a one-off utility. It is built for people who compress files often enough to care about friction.<\/p>\n

Presets, Watch Folders, and Batch Speed<\/h2>\n

Dinky gets more useful once you stop treating it as a manual drag-and-drop tool.<\/p>\n

You can save presets that bundle format, quality, size limits, destination folder, watch folder, and filename behavior together.<\/p>\n

So instead of redoing the same settings every time, you can keep one preset for blog images, one for client PDFs, and another for lightweight video exports.<\/p>\n

If you mainly want to optimize images on your MacBook<\/a>, that broader workflow still applies here too.<\/p>\n

The watch folder feature pushes that further. Drop files into a watched folder and Dinky compresses them automatically using your chosen preset.<\/p>\n

It also supports batch processing with speed settings that control how many jobs run in parallel. If you process lots of files in one go, that is more useful than a pretty interface.<\/p>\n

What Happens to the Originals<\/h2>\n

Dinky gives you sensible control over the original files after compression. You can keep them where they are, move them to the Trash, or send them to a backup folder.<\/p>\n

That is a small feature, but a good one. Compression tools are easy to trust right up until they replace something you wanted to keep.<\/p>\n

Should You Use It?<\/h2>\n

If you regularly resize screenshots, convert images for the web, shrink exported videos, clean up PDFs, or re-encode audio files, Dinky is easy to like.<\/p>\n

It is not trying to be a full editor.<\/p>\n

It is a focused compression utility with better format support than most free Mac apps in this category.<\/p>\n

The presets, watch folders, and clipboard shortcut make it easy to keep using.<\/p>\n

You can download it from the official Dinky site<\/a> or browse the code on GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dinky is a free Mac app that compresses images, videos, audio, and PDFs with presets, watch folders, and native macOS workflow shortcuts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3397],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["entry-content","is-maxi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCompress Images, Videos, PDFs on Mac for Free with Dinky - Hongkiat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dinky is a free Mac app that compresses images, videos, audio, and PDFs with presets, watch folders, and native macOS workflow shortcuts.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/?p=74411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Compress Images, Videos, PDFs on Mac for Free with Dinky\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dinky is a free Mac app that compresses images, videos, audio, and PDFs with presets, watch folders, and native macOS workflow shortcuts.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/?p=74411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hongkiatcom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-19T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/compress-images-videos-pdfs-mac-dinky\/dinky-app.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hongkiat.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hongkiat.com\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=74411#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=74411\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hongkiat.com\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7cc686597d92f9086729e4bcc1577ba3\"},\"headline\":\"Compress Images, Videos, PDFs on Mac for Free with Dinky\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-19T13:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=74411\"},\"wordCount\":728,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=74411#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/assets.hongkiat.com\\\/uploads\\\/compress-images-videos-pdfs-mac-dinky\\\/dinky-app.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Desktop\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=74411\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=74411\",\"name\":\"Compress Images, Videos, PDFs on Mac for Free with Dinky - 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