Compress your Javascript and CSS files using Yahoo's YUI Compressor

The YUI Compressor from the Yahoo UI Library is an effective and easy to use compressor for js and css files. By eliminating white spaces and shortening local variables, I have found the tool compresses files by as much as 50%. This is particularly compelling for large web properties. Smaller downloads translate into bandwidth savings and lower page latency. Translation: costs less and makes users happy! The compressor comes as an executable jar file whose commands are easily included in an Ant deployment script. This seems preferable anyways since while the compressed files have smaller footprints, they are not particularly legible. Compressing at deployment time allows developers to continue working with a original, human-readable files.