How to compress an image via Javascript in the browser?

@PsychoWoods' answer is good. I would like to offer my own solution. This Javascript function takes an image data URL and a width, scales it to the new width, and returns a new data URL.

// Take an image URL, downscale it to the given width, and return a new image URL.
function downscaleImage(dataUrl, newWidth, imageType, imageArguments) {
    "use strict";
    var image, oldWidth, oldHeight, newHeight, canvas, ctx, newDataUrl;

    // Provide default values
    imageType = imageType || "image/jpeg";
    imageArguments = imageArguments || 0.7;

    // Create a temporary image so that we can compute the height of the downscaled image.
    image = new Image();
    image.src = dataUrl;
    oldWidth = image.width;
    oldHeight = image.height;
    newHeight = Math.floor(oldHeight / oldWidth * newWidth)

    // Create a temporary canvas to draw the downscaled image on.
    canvas = document.createElement("canvas");
    canvas.width = newWidth;
    canvas.height = newHeight;

    // Draw the downscaled image on the canvas and return the new data URL.
    ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");
    ctx.drawImage(image, 0, 0, newWidth, newHeight);
    newDataUrl = canvas.toDataURL(imageType, imageArguments);
    return newDataUrl;
}

This code can be used anywhere you have a data URL and want a data URL for a downscaled image.

I see two things missing from the other answers:

• canvas.toBlob (when available) is more performant than canvas.toDataURL, and also async.
• the file -> image -> canvas -> file conversion loses EXIF data; in particular, data about image rotation commonly set by modern phones/tablets.

The following script deals with both points:

// From https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLCanvasElement/toBlob, needed for Safari:
if (!HTMLCanvasElement.prototype.toBlob) {
    Object.defineProperty(HTMLCanvasElement.prototype, 'toBlob', {
        value: function(callback, type, quality) {

            var binStr = atob(this.toDataURL(type, quality).split(',')[1]),
                len = binStr.length,
                arr = new Uint8Array(len);

            for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
                arr[i] = binStr.charCodeAt(i);
            }

            callback(new Blob([arr], {type: type || 'image/png'}));
        }
    });
}

window.URL = window.URL || window.webkitURL;

// Modified from https://stackoverflow.com/a/32490603, cc by-sa 3.0
// -2 = not jpeg, -1 = no data, 1..8 = orientations
function getExifOrientation(file, callback) {
    // Suggestion from http://code.flickr.net/2012/06/01/parsing-exif-client-side-using-javascript-2/:
    if (file.slice) {
        file = file.slice(0, 131072);
    } else if (file.webkitSlice) {
        file = file.webkitSlice(0, 131072);
    }

    var reader = new FileReader();
    reader.onload = function(e) {
        var view = new DataView(e.target.result);
        if (view.getUint16(0, false) != 0xFFD8) {
            callback(-2);
            return;
        }
        var length = view.byteLength, offset = 2;
        while (offset < length) {
            var marker = view.getUint16(offset, false);
            offset += 2;
            if (marker == 0xFFE1) {
                if (view.getUint32(offset += 2, false) != 0x45786966) {
                    callback(-1);
                    return;
                }
                var little = view.getUint16(offset += 6, false) == 0x4949;
                offset += view.getUint32(offset + 4, little);
                var tags = view.getUint16(offset, little);
                offset += 2;
                for (var i = 0; i < tags; i++)
                    if (view.getUint16(offset + (i * 12), little) == 0x0112) {
                        callback(view.getUint16(offset + (i * 12) + 8, little));
                        return;
                    }
            }
            else if ((marker & 0xFF00) != 0xFF00) break;
            else offset += view.getUint16(offset, false);
        }
        callback(-1);
    };
    reader.readAsArrayBuffer(file);
}

// Derived from https://stackoverflow.com/a/40867559, cc by-sa
function imgToCanvasWithOrientation(img, rawWidth, rawHeight, orientation) {
    var canvas = document.createElement('canvas');
    if (orientation > 4) {
        canvas.width = rawHeight;
        canvas.height = rawWidth;
    } else {
        canvas.width = rawWidth;
        canvas.height = rawHeight;
    }

    if (orientation > 1) {
        console.log("EXIF orientation = " + orientation + ", rotating picture");
    }

    var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
    switch (orientation) {
        case 2: ctx.transform(-1, 0, 0, 1, rawWidth, 0); break;
        case 3: ctx.transform(-1, 0, 0, -1, rawWidth, rawHeight); break;
        case 4: ctx.transform(1, 0, 0, -1, 0, rawHeight); break;
        case 5: ctx.transform(0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0); break;
        case 6: ctx.transform(0, 1, -1, 0, rawHeight, 0); break;
        case 7: ctx.transform(0, -1, -1, 0, rawHeight, rawWidth); break;
        case 8: ctx.transform(0, -1, 1, 0, 0, rawWidth); break;
    }
    ctx.drawImage(img, 0, 0, rawWidth, rawHeight);
    return canvas;
}

function reduceFileSize(file, acceptFileSize, maxWidth, maxHeight, quality, callback) {
    if (file.size <= acceptFileSize) {
        callback(file);
        return;
    }
    var img = new Image();
    img.onerror = function() {
        URL.revokeObjectURL(this.src);
        callback(file);
    };
    img.onload = function() {
        URL.revokeObjectURL(this.src);
        getExifOrientation(file, function(orientation) {
            var w = img.width, h = img.height;
            var scale = (orientation > 4 ?
                Math.min(maxHeight / w, maxWidth / h, 1) :
                Math.min(maxWidth / w, maxHeight / h, 1));
            h = Math.round(h * scale);
            w = Math.round(w * scale);

            var canvas = imgToCanvasWithOrientation(img, w, h, orientation);
            canvas.toBlob(function(blob) {
                console.log("Resized image to " + w + "x" + h + ", " + (blob.size >> 10) + "kB");
                callback(blob);
            }, 'image/jpeg', quality);
        });
    };
    img.src = URL.createObjectURL(file);
}

Example usage:

inputfile.onchange = function() {
    // If file size > 500kB, resize such that width <= 1000, quality = 0.9
    reduceFileSize(this.files[0], 500*1024, 1000, Infinity, 0.9, blob => {
        let body = new FormData();
        body.set('file', blob, blob.name || "file.jpg");
        fetch('/upload-image', {method: 'POST', body}).then(...);
    });
};

In short:

• Read the files using the HTML5 FileReader API with .readAsArrayBuffer
• Create a Blob with the file data and get its url with window.URL.createObjectURL(blob)
• Create new Image element and set it's src to the file blob url
• Send the image to the canvas. The canvas size is set to desired output size
• Get the scaled-down data back from canvas via canvas.toDataURL("image/jpeg",0.7) (set your own output format and quality)
• Attach new hidden inputs to the original form and transfer the dataURI images basically as normal text
• On backend, read the dataURI, decode from Base64, and save it

Source: code.