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Images play a crucial role in improving your site’s appeal. It improves your storytelling and engages the audience.
It is important to customize featured images as it is the first image a reader sees. And that’s why it is important to get it right from the start.
Also read: How to Hide Featured Image in Post WordPress
In this article, we’ll look into ways how to change WordPress featured image size. Our methods will cover both approaches, i.e., setting up the sizes so that new featured images adjust to it automatically and also looking at WordPress plugins that let you resize already uploaded featured images. Furthermore, we’ll also take a look at how to customize WordPress-featured images in a child theme.
Let’s get started.
How To Change WordPress Featured Image Size
What is Featured Image in WordPress? And, How to Set it?
A featured image is the primary image for a blog post or page. It is presented first when a reader visits the blog post. That’s why its main function is to attract the visitor’s attention and invite them to continue reading. Additionally, featured images are shared via social sites and are helpful for SEO purposes.
Every site has a different take on the featured image. In most cases, the WordPress theme you’re using determines the look and feel of the featured image, including its size.
Despite the WordPress theme you’re using, you can follow the steps below to set a featured image in WordPress.
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
- Now open the editor for the page or post.
- Click on the gear option to open the settings panel(located in the top right corner).
- Now select Featured image > Set featured image.
- Upload the feature image according to your choice or select from the media library.
You may also want to add alt text, title, or caption during upload. Finally, click on “Set featured image.”
Understanding WordPress Featured Image Size
Before we proceed and learn how to change the featured image size, let’s learn about WordPress Featured Image size. By default, it is a good idea to pick up the featured image size as 1200 x 628 pixels. However, it completely depends on the site’s theme.
The main goal is to match the theme layout and the user’s experience. For example, some sites have an ultra-wide layout where the featured image size goes up to 1600px width.
Currently, WordPress comes with four image sizes. These include:
- Thumbnail: 150 x 150 pixels
- Medium: 300 x 300 pixels(maximum)
- Large: 1024 x 1024 pixels(maximum)
- Full size: Default original image size
By default, WordPress-featured images and thumbnails share a default 150 x 150 pixels size. You must understand the role of each four image sizes. Whenever you upload a featured image, it gets four different image sizing. This is essential to bypass the need to resize featured images in smaller dimensions/sections across the theme.
For example, suppose you upload a 1500 x 900 pixels image as a featured image. In that case, WordPress will automatically put the best resolution to the top of the post(or any other location for the featured image, depending on the theme).
Next, it’ll create copies and use them in different sections without resizing the original image every single time.
As each theme or site has different needs, let’s learn how to change the featured image size in WordPress in the following section.
How to Change Featured Image Size in WordPress
In this section, we’ll take a closer look at the methods required to change featured image size in WordPress. However, before we proceed, check your theme featured image dimensions and the option to change them. To do so, go to Appearance > Options. If you find the option to change your theme’s featured image size, do it. Otherwise, follow any of the methods mentioned below.
Using WordPress in-built Image Resizer
WordPress offers an easy way to change default image sizes. To get started, go to Settings > Media. You’ll now see the following image sizes option.
As you can see, you can change the width/height for thumbnail, medium, and large-size images. In our case, we have set the large size as 1170 x 736, which reflects the featured image size. The thumbnail and medium sizes are also changed according to the theme.
Here, you can make changes and click on “Save changes.”
Now, all the featured images uploaded will follow your preferences.
Resizing Old featured images
For older images, you need to either manually resize and replace them again or use plugins such as Force Regenerate Thumbnails or Simple image sizes. By installing Simple image sizes, you get additional image variant options.
Customizing WordPress Featured Image With a Child theme
If you want to customize your theme, you need to create a child theme. A child theme helps you to keep your customizations under control, even when the main theme is updated.
Any new WordPress theme comes with a pre-defined featured image size. So, once you create a child theme, you can customize the featured image size.
To get started, install a child theme. Once done, then you need to find the featured image name. For example, if you want to change the image size of the blog post, the name should be “blog-thumbnail.” Also, depending on your theme, the code can be in archive.php or another location. It should look like the one below.
<div class=”featured-image”><?php the_post_thumbnail( ‘blog-thumbnail’ ); ?></div>
Check the code by inspecting the theme elements to pinpoint the featured image. For example, on my site, it is “attachment-large.”
Now, you need to add a function to customize the size.
function themename_child_theme_setup() {
add_image_size( ‘attachment-large’, 1200, 822, true );
}
add_action( ‘after_setup_theme’, ‘themename_child_theme_setup’, 11 );
Here, we set 1200 x 822 as the featured image size. You can also opt just to set only width as well.
And that’s it! You now need to regenerate your images with the help of the Force Regenerate Thumbnails plugin.
How To Change WordPress Featured Image Size – Final Thoughts
That’s it! You have successfully learned how to change WordPress featured image size. Doing your research beforehand is always a good idea before setting the featured image size. Also, it is vital to optimizing featured images from the start.
In short, featured images boost your site’s visibility and SEO and give your content a meaningful way to connect to your audience. Customizing them is necessary as it’ll surely improve your site’s reach and user retention.
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