Beamr officially announces the release of JPEGmini Pro 3 has with better support for jpeg compression, support for HEIC files, a UI update, and more.

“After research and listening to feedback from users, the JPEGmini team worked hard to enhance features for a better experience. Everyone at JPEGmini is excited to share our new update with our creators.”

Design-wise, JPEGmini brings a new minimalistic style, starting from the icon (no more can). The UX/UI functionality are changed to help the users get through the process. The most notable changes are the change of the preferences window to the upper right corner, a more natural place. Also, the preferences window now is given the entire app screen, enabling more options and text.

Last, they’re made animations to help to explain the various resizing options.

Now there is the possibility to save custom presets, about resizing options (max dimensions) and are included built-in presets for Facebook and Instagram that can update dynamically for changes in the platform.

Back in 2017, Apple enabled HEIC support on iPhones. The JPEGmini team decided to launch heictojpg.com​, a free website that enables free online HEIC to JPEG (JPEGmini optimized) conversion.

The tool was used by millions worldwide and led them to develop a more optimized desktop version and include it inside JPEGmini Pro 3. HEIC was introduced primarily as a way to save space over standard JPEG files. The company claims the conversions from HEIC to JPEGmini produce files that are 10%-15% smaller than the original HEIC files. The output JPEG files contain all metadata, similar to the HEIC files, and are perceptually identical – same as the JPEG optimizations.

Finally, JPEGmini Pro 3 introduces a new licensing model, and they would like to talk about it:

“Since its creation, JPEGmini has had a pay-once licensing model, where updates would remain free no matter when you bought the app.
After careful consideration, and in order to ​sustain product development and new features,​ we have decided to change our product payment plan.
The most important part of this change is that we will now require a yearly fee for ​updates​. Once you buy JPEGmini that version is yours to keep forever, but in order to upgrade to the newest version, we ask for an additional yearly fee.
We feel that this still keeps our basic premise of a lifetime license, and allows us to keep delivering ​new features and innovations​ for our users. Furthermore, we feel that this licensing model will force us to keep pushing new features, ideas, and creating worthwhile updates.”

To recap – existing users will always be able to use their bought app, but new updates (starting with version 3) will require additional purchase.

JPEGmini Pro 3 is available from now at $59 for the standalone app and $89 for the studio suite that includes Photoshop, Lightroom, and Capture One plugin.

More info on JPEGmini’s website.