Basic Guide to WordPress Image Sizes

When it comes to using images in WordPress, you’re probably wondering what are the best image sizes, and how WordPress manages them. In this article, you’ll learn all this, as well as some tips on WordPress image sizes.

Basic Guide to WordPress Image Sizes

This guide covers many of those burning questions about WordPress image sizes. Here are some of them:

• What is an image size?

• What are the best image sizes to use for WordPress?

• How does WordPress manage images?

• What image sizes should you use in your blog posts?

• What image size should you use for your post's featured images?

• What image sizes should you upload to WordPress for social media sharing?

• What’s the best size to use for your WordPress website's logo?

• How do you edit images in WordPress?

What is an image size?

An image size is the measure of how wide and tall an image is. It is measured in pixels, which is a unit of measurement in graphic design that is the smallest adjustable point, and when many are grouped together, with each having a color, it creates an image. The size of an image can also be known as an image’s dimensions.

Image size is not to be confused with the image file size, or weight of the image, as they are measured in bytes. The bigger the image, more than likely, the more disk space will be used.

Aside from image file size taking up space, the type of image file format (example: JPEG, GIF, or PNG) also can be a contributing factor to how much disk space will be used. Images that are big should be optimized for site speed, in order to make sure your website loads quickly.

What are the best image sizes to use for WordPress?

Most WordPress users will need images for the following areas of their website:

• Logo

• Header image

• Featured image

• Social sharing images for posts and pages

• Content images

The question about what are the best image sizes to use for WordPress, is based on what you’re using for your theme. Each theme has its own unique design, and your logo and other image areas could be different from another theme.

However, by default, WordPress usually has some default image sizes already set. With every image that you upload to your Media Library, WordPress will use the default dimensions and resize your original image into several other sizes. The original one will still exist, but the others are there for you to use, if you need smaller sizes.

How does WordPress manage images?

When you upload an image from the uploader in the WordPress media library, it will save to your web hosting, in the uploads folder of your WordPress installation’s wp-content folder. As you’re uploading the image, WordPress will create other sizes based on both the default image size settings, and your theme’s image sizes.

What image sizes should you use in your blog posts?

If your theme’s design is responsive, it should be able to handle even large images, and resize them to fit your content, no matter if you are using a full width content (also known as single column layout), or a content-sidebar (also known as a two-column layout). If you prefer a size, it’s probably safe to use something like 1200 pixels wide by 630 pixels tall, which is what is used for the first image of this article.

What image size should you use for your post’s featured images?

A featured image is also called a post thumbnail, which is an image that represents your post. The image size that you should use is usually specified in your theme’s documentation. If it isn’t, then ask the theme’s developer on the recommended featured image size. Image sizes will vary from theme to theme, including featured images.

What image sizes should you upload to WordPress for social media sharing?

Plugins like Yoast SEO help you deliver a specific image for social network sites like Facebook and Twitter. This means when someone shares a post or page to either social network, and you’ve used the Yoast SEO plugin’s social media settings for the individual post or page. Facebook’s image size is 1200 pixels wide by 630 pixels tall. Twitter's recommended image size is 1600 pixels in width by 900 pixels in height, but will accept the old format of 1200 pixels wide by 675 pixels tall.

What’s the best size to use for your WordPress website’s logo?

Unfortunately, not every theme has the same exact size dedicated to a logo. Some are small, and some are large. If you do development, you can add code or CSS styling to adjust the size and even position of your logo. In some cases, your Customizer will tell you if there’s a recommended size for your logo.

Otherwise, you will want to consult your theme’s documentation or developer to find out what image size is best for your website’s logo.

How do you edit images in WordPress?

When it comes to editing images in WordPress, you can choose between using the Media Library or a graphic editor.

When you go to your WordPress Media Library, you can choose any image to edit.

When you choose the image you want to edit, click on it and the image will open in a lightbox type window. Click on the Edit Image button.

After clicking on the Edit Image button, you’ll be sent to an edit screen where you can:

• Crop the image

• Rotate the image

• Flip the image horizontal or vertical

• Scale the image

• Adjust thumbnail settings.

Just make sure to save the image after you’ve edited it.

In the case the WordPress Media Library image editor isn’t doing it for you, then you can use your graphic editor. If you don’t have one, you can use free ones like Pixlr and Gimp.

In Summary

Hopefully this article has done a good job of explaining some of the basics about WordPress image sizes. In the case you have trouble deciding what image sizes to use, check back with your theme’s developer, or the theme’s documentation. It’s important to make sure once you’ve added your images to your site, to work on speeding up your site, so your visitors don’t have to wait to see those images take a lot of time to load up.

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