[Image Modification] Add Sharp as a local image-optimization backend
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- Dominant language
- TypeScript
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Description
Summary
add Sharp as a local backend for the existing Optimize Images command
Current behavior
Image Modification currently uses several format-specific paths:
- JPEG:
NSBitmapImageRepthrough AppleScript - PNG: bundled PNGOUT binary
- WebP: bundled
cwebp - AVIF:
avifenc/avifdec - SVG: SVGO
Proposal
Sharp could improve Image Modification’s common raster operations by replacing several disconnected AppleScript, SIPS and command-line pipelines with one local processing API. JPEG, PNG, WebP and AVIF images could be decoded, transformed and encoded directly without temporary JPEG or PNG round trips.
Sharp also provides explicit quality, lossless, effort, progressive-encoding, palette-quantization and metadata controls, while eliminating manually selected WebP binaries and the external libavif installation.
SVGO, Core Image, Vision, ExifTool, PDFKit, Potrace and SIPS would continue to handle features Sharp doesn't. Compression results could benfit from benchmarking because while Sharp is architecturally simple, I don't know if it would perform better on the all the various images it could be configured for.
Metadata and timestamps
Sharp strips metadata by default, so the behavior should be explicit:
- Allow embedded metadata, including EXIF/GPS, to be preserved
- Keep Strip EXIF Data as a separate intentional action
- Preserve the original filesystem modification date when replacing a file
- Document whether the macOS creation date can also be restored reliably
Selective removal of only GPS metadata could be handled separately through the extension’s existing ExifTool support.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by locating the existing Image Modification “Optimize Images” command and its JPEG, PNG, WebP, and AVIF processing paths. Evaluate how a local Sharp backend could fit alongside SVGO, Core Image, Vision, ExifTool, PDFKit, Potrace, and SIPS, then benchmark representative images. Done should include explicit metadata and timestamp behavior plus documented scope for features Sharp does not replace.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- typescript
- Domain
- desktop
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100