Permute 3 4+

I wanted an app that can easily convert audio files to MP3 format on my Mac. Used a couple of apps before, which required too many clicks and confirmations for a simple task like converting to MP3. Not this app, Permute 3. It's as simple as draging and droping and one more click. It then converts the file you drop into the app into mp3 and saves it to the same destination as your original file. No more unnecessary dialogue boxes. What's more amazing is that it does PDF conversion and processing too, a nice surprise. I generate easy to read PDFs from my keynote presentations, but because I use full-resolution images in my presentation, the PDFs are almost 500 GB in size when generated by Keynote. Permute 3 has this additional function where they shrink the size of the PDF to mobile friendly versions. My 460 GB PDF then becomes 4.9 GB in 3 seconds. All the letters in the PDF are still crystal clear, only the images are compressed to mobile friendly resolutions, which is exactly what I want. This is quite an amazing app, simple and powerful.

This is one of greatest video coverter that helped my converting work easy and efficient.
I've took lots of family video(h.264) with my digital camera and it occupied huge space in my computer.

I converted 4k 264 video to HEVC(h.265) flawlessly, and it reduced lots of space in my hard drive with this application.
This app also provide the option to preserve CREATIOM DATE of orginal video file while converting. So, it didn't messed up my PHOTOS Library after conversion.
I also emailed support team whether they could increase bitrate option in Permute 3 for better video quality. 2 days later, they promptly released 'updated version' which support the customer request.

I strongly recommend this if you are considering to convert your old bulky video to latest(ie. h.264 or 265) format!!

I really liked Permute, until I found another piece of software called OptiMage.

I covert mostly PNG and JPG files to smaller versions, including HEIC. I also shrink some h.264 and h.265 movie files, especially family outings which tend to be huuuuge.

Aside from lack of h.265 support, OptiMage compresses smaller files and at higher quality than Permute. It's just so easy, I mostly find myself using OptiMage these days.

I can also get much smaller movie files with Handbrake, without even much fuss. If you really sit there with Handbrake, you can make massively small files with neglible quality loss.

JPEGMini also tends to make somewhat better JPGs.

That said, I do like Permutes interface. There's lots of flexability here.

Sadly, the one thing I don't like is their compression settings too much. I really think they need to work through these more. If they just sit there and keep tweaking, they shuodl be able to beat the rest in this class of software. But it's work that needs to be done.

Permute seems here to stay, though, so I look forward to seeing them do that optimization work.

Also ps/hint: If you're shrinking movie files, don't let Permute use the included hardware compressor. Use software. You'll get higher quality and lower file sizes. It's too bad Apple's built in hardware doesn't compare yet to software compression results.