Eye-catching visuals play a crucial role in the success of any website. Whether you manage a blog or an online store, images can enhance visitors’ appeal and comprehension of your content.
Understanding how to display and optimize photos on your site is essential. Thankfully, WordPress offers several options for image sizes. By mastering a few key customizations, you can ensure that the images on your website are sharp and well-organized.
Here, we will explore the default WordPress image sizes and the appropriate times to use them. We will also demonstrate how to manage and modify these settings and how to incorporate custom image sizes into your site.
Upload Images in WordPress
Before delving into the array of image sizes offered in WordPress, it’s essential to understand how to upload photos to your site and access them.
As you’re likely aware, the intuitive Block Editor allows you to insert pictures seamlessly into your posts and pages.
To add an image to your page or post, click the plus sign (+) and select the Image block. Then, you will choose “Upload” to select a file from your computer or click on “Select Image” to use an existing image on your site.
Another option is to upload images directly to your Media Library. To do this, navigate to “Media” in your WordPress dashboard and click “Add New.”
This feature is beneficial if you already have specific photos in mind for your website but have yet to decide where to place them. It also allows you to upload multiple images at once.
Every photo you upload will be saved in your Media Library, making it easy to access them without searching your posts. We suggest using descriptive names for your image titles and writing a brief description.
You will likely have a growing collection of photos. Giving your images descriptive names will make finding them on your site easier. If you encounter errors when uploading images, the solutions are usually straightforward. Follow these tips to resolve any upload issues.
Method to Use the Default WordPress Image Sizes
When you upload a photo to your site, WordPress automatically generates different sizes for it. These are the default sizes for every site:
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Thumbnail: 150px square
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Medium: Max width and height of 300px
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Large: Max width and height of 1024px
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Full Size: The original size of your image
When uploading a photo to a post, ensure that you select the image and then access the Image size option in the settings panel. Click on the drop-down menu to choose your desired size.
Depending on your theme, the menu may offer a few extra image size options. However, we will concentrate on the default WordPress sizes mentioned earlier.
Let’s begin with thumbnails, the small images typically seen in your blog feeds.
When you set a featured image for a post, that image will appear as a thumbnail next to (or above) the post’s title in the blog feed. However, you may also use the thumbnail version of an image within your post.
For example, you could display a few small photos in a row.
When posting, it’s important to use larger images most of the time. This will make your content more visually appealing and help break up long blocks of text.
If you’re showcasing your work, using large image sizes will also help draw attention to the details in your photographs. When you want your visuals to stand out, choose between the Large or Full-Size options.
The latter serves your images in their original sizes, preserving their quality. Pictures displayed in their original sizes are sharper than those set to Large image size.
Use large, full-size images for headers and banners. Alternatively, utilize the medium size option for smaller photos in your posts or to prevent overloading your site with heavy image files.
Although the available size options may seem limited, you can always crop images to your desired size. Let’s take a quick look at that process.
Cropping Image in WordPress
To begin, select an image in your post or page and press the crop icon in the toolbar.
You can then click on the aspect ratio icon to select a different size for your image.
You can customize your image’s dimensions by accessing the Image Dimensions section in your settings panel and making the necessary adjustments.
To edit an image from the Media Library, navigate to Media, choose the image, and press on the Edit button.
Now, you can view a new popup window. Press on Edit Image to proceed:
You can then adjust the image to your preference by dragging the corners of the frame.
If you choose the Crop option, you can select a ratio size for your image. Once you’re done, press on Done. These changes will replace the original image.
Cropping photos can take some time, so it’s good to know that WordPress allows you to customize the default image sizes.
In the coming section, we will discuss how to adjust these settings.
Default Image Sizes Adjustment
WordPress automatically generates different sizes for each image you upload to your site. This ensures the correct image is used in the right location, such as thumbnails in blog feeds and large images in headers.
However, customizing these image sizes can better suit your needs. If you find yourself constantly cropping your uploaded images, changing the default sizes can save you a lot of time and effort. For this, go to Settings >> Media in the WordPress dashboard:
These are the default dimensions for each available size. To make changes, enter your preferred dimensions in the Width and Height fields.
For example, you may want the thumbnails to be smaller or larger.
Once you are satisfied with the new image sizes, simply press the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page. From that point onwards, whenever you choose a default size for your image (e.g., medium or large), WordPress will display it using the dimensions you have just established.
How to Add More Image Sizes in WordPress
To summarize what we’ve discussed so far, WordPress comes with four default image sizes that can be adjusted as needed. You can also crop images to your preferred sizes.
Additionally, your current WordPress theme may offer extra image sizes. However, if your website has a lot of media, more than four default sizes are required. You should add more options, so you don’t have to manually crop your images whenever you want to use a different size.
Fortunately, it’s possible to add more image sizes to your site. The easiest way to do this is to use a plugin. We recommend the “Image Regenerate & Select Crop” plugin.
This powerful plugin empowers you to take control of advanced photo settings and create custom image sizes. It’s completely free to use. If you have a WordPress.com site, ensure you have the plugin-enabled plan or a higher plan to install plugins.
Install and activate the plugin on your site. When you’re ready, navigate to Image Regenerate & Select Crop >> Additional Sizes to get started.
Enter a name for your new custom image size. Then, set the desired dimensions in the Max Width and Max Height fields. Select whether you want WordPress to automatically crop your images to those exact dimensions. When you’re ready, press Save Changes.
Remember that these custom sizes will take up space in your server storage. Additionally, too many image sizes can slow your site’s performance. To remove a size you’ve created, navigate to Settings >> Media and locate a custom image size.
First, erase the text from the “Image Sizes Name” field, then press “Save Changes.” We suggest keeping only the sizes you need. If there are any options you’re not using, you may want to delete them to free up storage space.
You can also remove a default image size from your website, but this process requires some technical expertise and coding knowledge.
Additionally, some themes or plugins may rely on the default image sizes, and removing them could cause functionality issues. Therefore, we recommend avoiding the removal of default image sizes in most cases.
Accurate Featured Image Size
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question, “What size image should I use for my featured images?” The accurate size for your site’s featured image may differ from someone else’s site.
This is primarily because different themes use different layout widths. Each theme may have a custom size that works best within its layout. Check your theme’s documentation to see if it recommends a particular size.
Additionally, if you’ll be sharing your posts on social media, each service has its own “perfect image size,” of course, none of them tend to scale well with the others.
Because themes and social media sites all prefer different sizes, you’ll need to experiment to determine the best-featured image size for your needs.
Below are a few advisable featured image sizes you can try:
- 1920×1080 – This is the largest image size we recommend. This size will often work best for most themes and social media sites, but keep in mind that some areas of the image may get cropped.
- 1200×630 – This size is ideal for various classic themes and for sharing on Facebook.
- 1024×512 – This size must be considered if you plan to share on Twitter primarily.
Regardless of the chosen size, the image’s primary focus remains near the center. Therefore, whenever possible, leave ample space above, below, and to the sides of the focus.
Most services crop the edges, leaving the center of the image displayed, so there’s no need to worry about cropping out essential parts of the image.
Conclusion
Images can enhance the appeal and readability of your content for your audience. WordPress has default sizes for images, such as thumbnails and large photos. You can also display images in their original sizes or crop them to fit your specific dimensions.
If you need more customization options, you can utilize a plugin like “Image Regenerate & Select Crop” to add custom image sizes. However, if you’re not using any custom image sizes, removing them from your site is advisable to free up storage space and enhance your site’s performance.
