Automatic image downsizing

One of the foundational principles of a responsive site like ProPhoto is to make images load fast.

To achieve this, our software provides smaller versions of your photos when a visitor is using a screen size or device where the original image would be too large and take too long to download. This is often called “image optimization” and you’ll find it built into ProPhoto 7.

You may switch between two different tools which process your photos by visiting the ProPhoto > Settings > Site Settings > Misc > Individual image downsizing area, seen in this video clip:

Your web server might provide both the GD Library (Graphics Draw Library) and the ImageMagick Library for processing photos, or it might only offer one of them.

Image downsizing options

Several options are available in this area – you can enable image downsizing for faster performance across all devices which visit your site.

Enable or disable image downsizing

ProPhoto will optimize images that you upload when the page is viewed for the first time. After the first viewing, you and your visitors should notice an improved loading speed because downsized image copies will be available for the pictures in your blog posts, your pages, your photo galleries, and images in your design.

We recommend leaving downsizing enabled for the fastest website speed. You can disable image downsizing if you discover a conflict with caching plugins or other tools you use for optimizing your website, but ProPhoto image downsizing should be compatible with most other tools.

Select the image modification library

You can also select between different image downsizing tools if they are available on your web server, and you can control the amount of post-sharpening applied to downsized images, and you can adjust the threshold for ProPhoto image downsizing to prevent server errors or timeouts. We recommend leaving the max threshold slider as high as possible. If you encounter problems, errors, or timeouts on your web server (rare) you can reduce this slider control to see if the problems are eliminated.

Click to read a brief description of each software library:

GD Library

The GD software library comes installed on nearly every web server by default. Typically the GD library is a fine option for creating large, medium, small, and thumbnail size copies for the photos you upload in your posts, pages, and galleries. ProPhoto 7 provides better support for the GD library than previous versions so you have control over compression (see below) for smaller file sizes, but ImageMagick optimizes compression automatically and offers post-sharpening, which helps your photos to look better.

GD is a good option if ImageMagick is not available on your web server, but ask your hosting company about enabling ImageMagick for better image appearance on your website – see below.

ImageMagick Library

The ImageMagick software library may be installed on your web server by default, or it may need to be turned on or installed before it can be used by WordPress and ProPhoto. It is becoming more common to find this option available by default, though. We recommend using ImageMagick if you can because it provides post-sharpening for your photos, along with automatic compression optimization. The result is smaller file size with better appearance for your images, which is great for a photography website.

To confirm if ImageMagick is ready to use on your server, log into WordPress and visit ProPhoto > Settings > Site Settings > Misc > Individual Image Downsizing to check if ImageMagick is an option.

It should be selected by default, but if it is not, you may select it there.

Image compression quality (GD only)

Reduce your image file size by lowering this slider control. Smaller image file size helps your site load more quickly for all devices, which is a good thing.

You may want to experiment with the value, since smaller quality numbers may make some photos look blotchy or soft.

Sharpening (ImageMagick only)

Images which are downsized to fit different device screens are automatically optimized for file size, and have post-sharpening applied so that downsized image copies look their best. A middle value of 5 or 6 is typically a good balance, leaving images sharp and natural, but you can reduce or increase the sharpening level to your taste.

Imagick changes

Delete modified images

After ProPhoto has created optimized copies of your photos, it will not recreate them unless you click to delete the downsized copies.

Your original photos are still available, but the duplicates which are generated at smaller sizes will be cleared.

This can be used to clear some space on your web server, and it is also necessary to delete image copies if you make changes to the quality/sharpness controls mentioned above.

ImageMagick extension is not currently active on your server

If you see a message indicating that ImageMagick isn’t active on your server, it may still be available.

You can often enable the Imagick module in a PHP Configuration area in your web hosting control panel. Or, if you need help, contact your web host support and tell them something like this:

Hi, I have a website which uses the WordPress platform, and it processes my photos to make thumbnails and other smaller copies of my images. I would like my website to use the “ImageMagick” tool, but my WordPress theme developer says that the “Imagick” is not enabled on my server. Can you please check to make sure my server has the ImageMagick software installed, and also that my server PHP environment has the Imagick 3.4.3 PECL module enabled? Thank you!

A good web host will enable this for your web server. If your host is unable or unwilling to turn on ImageMagick, it’s okay–the GD library will still be used to downsize images for an improvement in speed.