Batch processing

imgsqz accepts multiple inputs in a single command. Every flag you set applies to all of them, and you get a per-file size report.

Multiple files

List them explicitly:

imgsqz a.png b.png c.png -f webp -q 75

Globs

Your shell expands globs before imgsqz runs, so any glob your shell supports works:

# Every PNG in the current directory
imgsqz *.png -f webp

# Every JPG, recursively (zsh / bash with globstar)
imgsqz **/*.jpg -f avif -q 50

bash

Enable recursive globs first:

shopt -s globstar
imgsqz **/*.png -f webp -q 75

zsh

Recursive globs work out of the box:

imgsqz **/*.png -f webp -q 75

fish

imgsqz **.png -f webp -q 75

PowerShell

PowerShell doesn’t expand globs the same way — pipe paths instead:

Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Filter *.png |
  ForEach-Object { imgsqz $_.FullName -f webp -q 75 }

How batches behave

• Each input is processed in order, one at a time.
• Each success prints its three-line report (unless --quiet).
• Each failure prints ✗ <file>: <reason> to stderr and continues.
• If any file failed, imgsqz exits with code 1 — handy for CI.

a.png
  → a_20260611_132517.webp
  1.20 MB → 180.04 KB (↓ 85.3%)
b.png
  → b_20260611_132517.webp
  900.00 KB → 120.50 KB (↓ 86.6%)
✗ broken.png: Input file not found: /path/broken.png

--output is single-input only

-o, --output names one exact file, so it can’t be combined with multiple inputs. For batches, rely on the default timestamped names, --no-timestamp, or --replace. To control the output directory per file, use a shell loop (below).

Quiet batches

For large folders or CI logs, silence the per-file output:

imgsqz *.jpg -f webp -q 75 --quiet

Errors still print, and the exit code still reflects failures.

Shell loops for full control

When you need per-file output paths or a separate output directory, loop:

bash / zsh

mkdir -p optimized
for f in src/*.png; do
  name=$(basename "$f" .png)
  imgsqz "$f" -f webp -q 75 -o "optimized/$name.webp"
done

fish

mkdir -p optimized
for f in src/*.png
  set name (basename $f .png)
  imgsqz $f -f webp -q 75 -o "optimized/$name.webp"
end

PowerShell

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force optimized | Out-Null
Get-ChildItem src\*.png | ForEach-Object {
  imgsqz $_.FullName -f webp -q 75 -o "optimized/$($_.BaseName).webp"
}

Parallel batches

imgsqz processes its own inputs sequentially. To use all your cores, fan out with xargs or GNU parallel, one file per process:

# 4 files at a time with xargs
ls *.png | xargs -P 4 -I{} imgsqz {} -f webp -q 75 --quiet

# GNU parallel
parallel imgsqz {} -f webp -q 75 --quiet ::: *.png

Tip

Each imgsqz process uses sharp’s own internal threading too, so don’t over-fan — -P 4 to -P 8 is usually plenty before you saturate I/O.

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Next: Output paths & naming.