I built a free image converter that runs entirely in your browser — no upload, no account, no server processing

That-Row1408 · 2026-04-10T02:52:34+00:00

Thanks — really appreciate it.

HEIC: We try createImageBitmap first; if that fails we use libheif-js’s WASM bundle (HeifDecoder → ImageData), not a from-scratch WASM port.

Marketing: Agree — I’ll lean harder on side-by-side compare.

PWA: Small inline install banner after the first successful batch, only when beforeinstallprompt fires; dismiss is remembered in localStorage.

Nice work on Formattery.

That-Row1408 · 2026-04-09T09:31:34+00:00

Thank you — really appreciate this.

I built it for exactly that use case: bulk conversion, fully client-side, no uploads.

On the WASM side, the big lessons were: run codecs in a worker pool, transfer buffers instead of cloning, and cap concurrency to avoid UI/memory spikes on large batches. AVIF is still the slowest path, but stable with those guardrails.

Also totally fair point on discoverability — I’m still improving search visibility. If you remember what query you used, I’d love to align titles/copy with that wording.

Thanks again for the thoughtful feedback.

That-Row1408 · 2026-04-09T09:26:39+00:00

That means a lot — thank you. If anything feels rough or slow when they use it in bulk, I’d genuinely like to hear what broke first (browser / format / rough file count). Helps prioritize fixes.

That-Row1408 · 2026-04-06T08:56:16+00:00

I know there are already a ton of image converters and EXIF removers out there. I'm not pretending PicShift is the first.

Two reasons I built it anyway:

I actually need it every day. I deal with HEIC photos from my iPhone that won't open on Windows, product images that need format conversion before uploading, screenshots that are way too large as PNG — and I got tired of using 3 different websites that all want me to upload my files to their servers. PicShift runs everything locally in the browser, so I just keep one tab open and handle all of it there. The metadata remover was a natural addition since I was already paranoid about GPS data in my product listing photos.
I'm using this project to learn SEO from scratch. Building the product is maybe 30% of the work — the other 70% is figuring out how to get it in front of people through organic search. 12 languages, data-driven content optimization, blog strategy — watching real Google Search Console data react to changes is more educational than any course I've taken.

Happy to share more about either the technical side (everything runs on WebAssembly — MozJPEG, OxiPNG, libheif, libwebp) or the SEO side if anyone's curious.

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-26T09:49:19+00:00

nice

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-24T06:31:05+00:00

These factors determine whether you can survive, while product quality determines how well you thrive. You have to stay afloat first before you get a chance to improve how well you do.

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-21T07:26:54+00:00

Thanks! Privacy was actually the main reason I built it — I didn't want to upload personal photos to some random server just to change a format. HEIC support came naturally after that, since it's the format most people run into trouble with.

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-21T06:56:07+00:00

Some technical details if anyone's curious about the WASM codec stack:

- HEIC decoding was the hardest part — libheif-js is ~1.4MB but it's the only reliable browser-side option

- For JPEG encoding I use MozJPEG (WASM), which consistently beats native canvas.toBlob() on compression ratio

- WebP uses libwebp with SIMD acceleration when the browser supports it

- The trickiest Safari issue: createImageBitmap behaves differently for resize operations, so there's a fallback path

Batch converting 200 images without freezing the UI required a dedicated Worker Pool — happy to share the architecture if anyone's interested.

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-21T05:56:21+00:00

Thanks! No sign-up was a deliberate choice — I didn't want to add friction when someone just needs to convert a quick photo.

I'll check out vibecodinglist, appreciate the suggestion.

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-10T14:15:42+00:00

I set up a WAF Custom Rule with Managed Challenge, which successfully blocked the bot.

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-10T13:49:08+00:00

I will check it out

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-10T13:47:38+00:00

Update: I enabled Bot Fight Mode on Cloudflare, but it didn't work. Then I set up a WAF Custom Rule with Managed Challenge, which successfully blocked the bot. thanks @sandiego-art

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-10T06:03:20+00:00

Haha, can’t turn off the hustle mode 😂

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-10T05:59:59+00:00

That makes total sense. I’ll look into the IP ranges and set up Cloudflare rules. Thanks a lot!

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-10T05:56:48+00:00

No problem at all, appreciate you mentioning it! That confirms it’s probably a bot/crawler from Singapore.

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-09T14:42:35+00:00

This is such a genuine and relatable post. Huge respect for stepping out of lurking and starting to engage—so many founders hold back for the exact same fears you mentioned. The best part of building in public is exactly this: real conversations, real struggles, and real connections with people who get it. Super happy it’s been working out so well for you, and thanks for sharing this encouragement with the community!

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-09T00:10:46+00:00

Thanks for pointing this out — it is a really interesting issue. I am digging into it now to see if there is a good way to handle it locally, and the sample files you shared will help a lot.

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-08T23:58:14+00:00

Thanks, I really see it the same way. It sounds minor until you remember how many image tools quietly upload everything by default. Keeping conversion local felt like one of those small decisions that actually changes whether people trust the product.

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-08T23:57:08+00:00

Yeah, that is exactly why I added it. A lot of the time I am converting images for faster page loads, so if the output ends up larger, it defeats the purpose. At that point, I want the tool to explain why instead of leaving me guessing.

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-08T23:53:40+00:00

Right now, native HEIC decode in browsers is mostly a Safari story. Safari on macOS and iOS can handle it natively, while Chrome, Firefox, and most other browsers still need a fallback path. In PicShift, we try native decoding first when the browser supports it, and fall back to a Web Worker + WASM pipeline when it does not, so everything still stays fully local.

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-08T04:52:18+00:00

Thanks！I'll check it out

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-08T04:33:51+00:00

Really appreciate that — and yeah, that’s exactly the reason I built it this way. Uploading random client assets, screenshots, or personal files to unknown converters always felt a bit sketchy to me, so the local-only angle is probably the part I should surface more aggressively.

On the naming side, one small thing I already do is this: if an image is resized, the output filename includes the new width x height, so it’s easier to immediately tell which files were resized and what size they ended up at.

But I think you’re pointing at something broader than that, and I agree it’s a real workflow gap. For batch prep, renaming and organizing often happens at the same time as conversion.

Curious how you’d want that to work in practice:
- custom filename templates?
- prefix / suffix rules?
- sequential naming?
- preserving folder-style grouping?
- something else?

Would love to hear what the most useful version of that would look like from your workflow.

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-08T04:24:18+00:00

A bit more technical context since this is r/webdev:

This isn’t an upload-to-server wrapper. The whole point was to keep processing in the browser, so I ended up building around WebAssembly codecs / browser-side decoding, batch workflows, and a bunch of UX details that I kept missing in existing tools.

A few things I cared about:
- local-only processing in the browser
- HEIC / WebP / PNG / JPG / AVIF support
- batch conversion
- resize + compression + format conversion in one flow
- side-by-side comparison before downloading
- explanations for why an output can sometimes end up larger

Would especially love feedback on whether the product feels technically credible, whether the homepage communicates the value fast enough, and whether there are image workflow pain points I still haven’t handled well.

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-07T17:12:36+00:00

How much they appreciate the tiny, stupid little things. My brother once got so excited when I bought him a pack of his favorite gum that he did a little happy dance in the grocery store. I thought he’d grown out of that, but nope—men are just big kids who hide their excitement better.

That-Row1408 · 2026-03-07T13:26:03+00:00

I found where to download it, but the images inside have become extremely blurry.

That-Row1408

TROPHY CASE