FRESH01

Today, while working on some client work, I came across a bit of an ‘issue’ with the WordPress 2.5 media uploader. Today wasn’t the first time I ran into this ‘issue’, but previously I didn’t worry about it too much. But seeing as this was a client project, I had to sort it out.

The thing is that WordPress automatically re-sizes your “full-size” images to a width 0f 500px. So let’s say you have a content column 600px wide and you want to insert a image into a post that spans the full width of that column. So you crop your image to 600px, then upload it using WordPress’ media uploader. Next you select the “full-size” option for the image and insert it in the post.

I should now have a 600px image in my post that spans the full width of my content column. But that’s not what happens. WordPress automatically re-sizes the “full” image to a width of 500px. Which isn’t cool. Also, the WordPress admin panel only allows you to edit the thumbnail and medium image sizes under “Settings -> Miscellaneous”.

After some searching I came across this support thread on the WordPress site. Which means I wasn’t the only person experiencing the problem. The thread gave me some clarity on what was going on, and also some reasoning on why WordPress does this.

I finally found an easy work-around on Weblog Tools Collection. At the bottom of that post there is a link to download the “No Image Width or Height” plugin by Ronald Huereca. All you need to do is install and activate the plugin like you would any other and the full-size image downsizing is no longer a problem.

I understand the reasoning why WordPress does this, but it defies the point of inserting a “full” image. I hope future releases of WordPress will allow you to edit the size of “full” images through the admin interface. Until then this plugin is a perfect and easy to implement solution.