Image transformations overview
With Uploadcare, you can easily build custom image processing workflows and automate most image transformation tasks. For example, you can set up a chain of actions for user-generated images that’ll unify their look.
Use and stack transformations right in the image URL:
 Original image |  Sharpen |  Enhance |
How it works
Every URL transformation generates a modified image version on the fly, while the original file stays intact. The transformed image version will be cached on CDN nodes to optimize delivery.
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Also, you can fetch and deliver images to apply operations without explicitly uploading them:
Image processing operation may only apply to appropriate file.
On uploading, the file is analyzed by Uploadcare: file type, metadata, and so on;
the file is assigned an attribute is_image. If this attribute is true, then
an operation can be applied to the file. See the Limitations section.
When applying any image operation, a new file is created (cached on our CDN, and not counted towards your storage limits). If not set, this file is encoded with the default quality and original format. However, you can adjust them to meet your requirements better.
Full list of image transformations operations
Most of the image processing operations work on-the-fly:
Note: Some image operations can’t be perfomed on the fly and work asynchronously via REST API:
Image optimization operations can be found in a separate section:
Limitations
Image processing operations have limits that you should consider:
- Input image formats
- Mandatory usage of core operations
- File size
- Output image dimensions
- SVG files
- Image resolution
- Rotation
- Animated images
Learn more about image processing limitations.