To change generated image quality use the following code:
add_filter('jpeg_quality', function($arg){return 80;});
If a problem with minifying – also using of plugins like https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-smushit/ is recomended
For detecting image quality ImageMagick could be used:
# yum install ImageMagick.x86_64 # identify -verbose CA0002-1-204x160.jpg Image: CA0002-1-204x160.jpg Format: JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF format) Class: DirectClass Geometry: 204x160+0+0 Resolution: 72x72 Print size: 2.83333x2.22222 Units: PixelsPerInch Type: TrueColor Endianess: Undefined Colorspace: RGB Depth: 8-bit Channel depth: red: 8-bit green: 8-bit blue: 8-bit Channel statistics: Red: min: 14 (0.054902) max: 255 (1) mean: 218.905 (0.858452) standard deviation: 49.2991 (0.19333) kurtosis: -0.115958 skewness: -1.00308 Green: min: 13 (0.0509804) max: 255 (1) mean: 218.695 (0.857629) standard deviation: 49.4865 (0.194065) kurtosis: -0.142898 skewness: -0.993778 Blue: min: 11 (0.0431373) max: 255 (1) mean: 219.786 (0.861904) standard deviation: 47.917 (0.18791) kurtosis: -0.132297 skewness: -0.988068 Image statistics: Overall: min: 11 (0.0431373) max: 255 (1) mean: 219.129 (0.859328) standard deviation: 48.9059 (0.191788) kurtosis: -0.12572 skewness: -0.996289 Rendering intent: Undefined Interlace: None Background color: white Border color: rgb(223,223,223) Matte color: grey74 Transparent color: black Compose: Over Page geometry: 204x160+0+0 Dispose: Undefined Iterations: 0 Compression: JPEG Quality: 90 Orientation: Undefined Properties: date:create: 2015-11-08T02:29:20+02:00 date:modify: 2015-11-08T02:29:20+02:00 jpeg:colorspace: 2 jpeg:sampling-factor: 1x1,1x1,1x1 signature: a940ce5a3f82fc8ae13a1eec334389466c2052dd14384b761646c12d1bda8f0c Artifacts: verbose: true Tainted: False Filesize: 5.63KBB Number pixels: 32.6KB Pixels per second: 326.4TB User time: 0.000u Elapsed time: 0:01.000 Version: ImageMagick 6.7.2-7 2015-07-23 Q16 http://www.imagemagick.org
Quality: 90 is the answer.