If you have your own dedicated server, this tip might be useful for you. Today I was researching some image optimization techniques for WordPress. I tried WP-Smush.it, but it wouldn’t play nice with my server. Following a support thread from the developer, I was directed to the CW Image Optimizer plugin. The plugin requires a Linux library called littleutils. If this sounds at all useful to you, see the quick tip after the jump.
Before getting started, it’s important to note that some of the wget url’s may no longer be accurate. At the time of writing, March 20, 2013 – They’re all working. If you find that you’re getting 404′s hop on google and find the current link. If you comment here, I’ll update the post.
Install RPMforge YUM repository
Login as root, download the package containing the YUM repository settings.
$ cd /usr/local/src
$ wget http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el5.rf.i386.rpm
Install DAG’s GPG Key
$ rpm --import http://apt.sw.be/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt
Verify Package
$ rpm -K rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el5.rf.i386.rpm
Install Package
$ rpm -i rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el5.rf.i386.rpm
Install Dependencies
$ yum install gcc libpng libpng-devel gifsicle pngcrush p7zip lzip
Download the latest littleutils
$ wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/littleutils/littleutils-source/1.0.27/littleutils-1.0.27.tar.bz2?r=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Flittleutils%2Ffiles%2F%3Fsource%3Ddlp&ts=1363649060&use_mirror=superb-dca2
Uncompress littleutils
$ tar jxvf littleutils-1.0.27.tar.bz2
Install littleutils
$ cd littleutils-1.0.27
$ ./configure --prefix=/usr
$ make
$ make install
$ make install-extra
Install CW Image Optimizer Plugin
If you’ve gotten this far, I really don’t need to explain this step. Get CW Image Optimizer here.