Hey folks,
I’ve been wrestling with image workflows lately and thought I’d share a small Docker-based setup I ended up using. It might be useful to anyone who deals with a lot of photos or web assets.
The problem I was trying to solve
My usual pain points:
- Lots of phone photos in HEIC that I can’t easily use everywhere
- Needing to shrink images for the web (blogs, docs, websites, etc.)
- Liking services like TinyPNG, but not loving the idea of uploading personal photos to a third-party service
- Not wanting to install extra tools or libraries on every machine I touch
So I put together a Docker image that exposes a simple web UI for image compression and conversion:
Self-hosted TinyPNG alternative to compress, convert, and resize images (HEIC, JPG, PNG, PSD, etc.). Runs 100% locally using Docker for privacy.
What the web UI does
The idea was to make it feel like TinyPNG, but running on my own machine or server.
The typical flow looks like this:
- Start the container
- Open the web UI in your browser
- Drag & drop a bunch of images
- Choose what you want to do:
- convert (e.g. HEIC → JPG/PNG)
- compress (tune quality)
- resize (set max width/height)
- Download the result (e.g. as a zip)
All processing happens inside the container. You can run it on a laptop, a home server, or a NAS that supports Docker.
If you like visuals, this is where I’d normally insert a short GIF demo: drag & drop → choose options → download. (Haven’t attached one here, but recording a quick 3–5 second GIF works well to show it off.)
How I run it with Docker
For quick local use, I usually just do:
docker run -d \
--name imgcompress \
-p 3001:5000 \
karimz1/imgcompress:latest web
Then I open:
http://localhost:3001
and use the web UI.
With Docker Compose, something like this:
services:
imgcompress:
image: karimz1/imgcompress:latest
container_name: imgcompress
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "3001:5000" # HOST:CONTAINER
environment:
- DISABLE_LOGO=true # optional, keeps the UI more minimal
command: ["web"] # start the web interface
Bring it up with:
docker compose up -d
Why I used Docker for this
Main reasons:
- Privacy – all images stay on my machine or server
- Portability – same setup on Linux, macOS, or anywhere Docker runs
- No host clutter – no need to install image-processing libraries on the host
- Batch-friendly – can handle multiple images at once without manual uploads
There’s also a CLI mode in the image for scripting and CI workflows, but for day-to-day use I mostly stick to the web UI because it’s simple and easy to share with less technical people (they just need a browser).
If you want to have a look or try it out, the project is open source here:
I’d be happy to hear feedback from other Docker users: things you’d do differently, ideas to improve the setup, or other approaches you’re using for “TinyPNG-style but self-hosted in Docker.”
