Wait - you can regenerate your thumbnails in WordPress? Answer - yes you can. In this article, you’ll learn why you might need to do that, and how to regenerate thumbnails in WordPress.
What is a thumbnail in WordPress?
A thumbnail is a smaller version of an image. This image might be necessary for the website to load faster. However, in WordPress, it could also mean resizing images in general to have a specific size.
In the general web community, these images are great for featured images, like for ecommerce shopping catalogs. You could sell books, and have a thumbnail image represent the listing. You could even use a thumbnail image to represent an article.
Why would you need to regenerate thumbnails in WordPress?
Here are a few reasons why you need to regenerate thumbnails in WordPress.
Resize post or page’s featured image
Resize product image
Reduce overall image load
Fit image to work with theme’s preferred image dimensions
Generate images that are smaller and look best in smaller devices
Resize post or page’s featured image
Your posts may need a specific thumbnail size, other than the default 150x150 that WordPress offers. While you can adjust that size, you might want to keep that size and use a regenerate thumbnail related plugin to create new size images.
Resize product image
If you run an ecommerce store, your store’s product catalog may have different images from your post and page thumbnails.
Reduce overall image load
Having a fast loading WordPress site is important. A smaller image does load faster. Just make sure to optimize your images so while they may be smaller, they are at their best loading speed.
Fit image to work with theme’s preferred image dimensions
Every WordPress theme is different, and requires different image sizes. These images could be to complement specific design areas of your website, content images, and more.
It’s important to note, that instead of manually cropping or resizing, or using the image edit tool in the WordPress Media Library, a regenerated thumbnail plugin can help reduce that time, so you can use your time for creating more content and promoting it.
Additionally, if your WordPress site has gone through a new theme change, your new theme may not have the same exact recommended image sizes. You will want to regenerate the image sizes or even crop to fit the new dimensions.
Generate images that are smaller and look best in smaller devices
In regenerating smaller versions of your images, you can also use CSS to help make your site look more responsive in smaller devices, like tablets and smartphones. While you may have optimized your images, in most cases, you’ve probably optimized them for desktop users. You will want to also consider your mobile users so the website loads just as fast for them.
