Progressive Portfolio Loader
A CLI plus drop-in image tag that converts your photography portfolio into progressive-scan JPEGs so visitors see a recognizable preview in 100 ms and watch detail fill in on slow wifi — no JavaScript required.
photographers and visual artists whose portfolio sites lose viewers to slow image loading
- Scan-aware encoder that splits each image into previews plus detail layers
- One-line img tag with built-in progressive behavior — pure HTML
- Bandwidth throttler that serves fewer scans on slow connections
- Hover-to-rewind-at-12x speed mode for portfolio reviewers
Photographers constantly publish portfolios on hotel or café wifi, and the post's progressive-scan trick turns a 50-year-old JPEG standard into a modern UX win without shipping new formats.
Searches for 'progressive JPEG photographer portfolio' returned zero results; general photography site speed is a concern (fstoppers, qrolic articles) but no evidence of specific demand for progressive-scan JPEG tooling.13 Signs Your Photography Website Is Costing You Clients ↗Why Your Photography Portfolio Loads Like It's 2005 (And How to Fix It) ↗
Image-optimization CLI space is heavily saturated — ImageOptim-CLI, slimg, optimize-images-cli, plus Kraken.io/TinyPNG/Smush already exist and most already output progressive JPEGs; the 'no JS' niche is a tiny slice of a crowded market.GitHub - JamieMason/ImageOptim-CLI ↗Comparison of all optimisation tools | ImageOptim-CLI ↗clroot/slimg: Image optimization CLI & library ↗
Image optimization is commoditized with strong free/open-source options (ImageOptim-CLI, slimg, optimize-images-cli) and cheap SaaS (Kraken/TinyPNG/ShortPixel); no evidence photographers will pay a premium specifically for progressive-scan output.GitHub - JamieMason/ImageOptim-CLI ↗Optimize Images CLI ↗
Progressive JPEGs are 5% larger than baseline JPEGs and are being displaced by AVIF/WebP/JPEG XL which deliver better compression plus native progressive decoding; the 'no JavaScript' wedge weakens as LQIP/blurhash techniques mature.Image format comparison: JPEG vs. PNG vs. WEBP vs. AVIF ↗
Trivial to build as a thin CLI wrapper around mozjpeg/jpegtran with a small CSS/HTML snippet for the drop-in image tag; multiple comparable open-source CLIs already ship, proving the build path.GitHub - JamieMason/ImageOptim-CLI ↗clroot/slimg: Image optimization CLI & library ↗