diff --git a/src/ExportManager.cpp b/src/ExportManager.cpp
--- a/src/ExportManager.cpp
+++ b/src/ExportManager.cpp
@@ -286,6 +286,15 @@
 {
     QImageWriter imageWriter(device, format);
     imageWriter.setQuality(SpectacleConfig::instance()->compressionQuality());
+    /** Set compression 50 if the format is png. Otherwise if no compression value is specified
+     *  it will fallback to using quality (QTBUG-43618) and produce huge files.
+     *  See also qpnghandler.cpp#n1075. The other formats that do compression seem to have it
+     *  enabled by default and only disabled if compression is set to 0, also any value except 0
+     *  has the same effect for them.
+     */
+    if (format == "png") {
+        imageWriter.setCompression(50);
+    }
     if (!(imageWriter.canWrite())) {
         emit errorMessage(i18n("QImageWriter cannot write image: %1", imageWriter.errorString()));
         return false;
diff --git a/src/SpectacleConfig.cpp b/src/SpectacleConfig.cpp
--- a/src/SpectacleConfig.cpp
+++ b/src/SpectacleConfig.cpp
@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@
 
 int SpectacleConfig::compressionQuality() const
 {
-    return mGuiConfig.readEntry(QStringLiteral("compressionQuality"), 89);
+    return mGuiConfig.readEntry(QStringLiteral("compressionQuality"), 90);
 }
 
 void SpectacleConfig::setCompressionQuality(int value)