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Change default thumbnail size?

  1. gmaletic
    Member

    Has WordPress.com added the ability to change the default size for thumbnails? 128 pixels is smaller than ideal...something like 250 or 300 would be much better, at least for the situations I encounter.

    My trick to solve this problem in the past was to upload the full-size image and simply resize it in the post. What I -didn't- realize when I first started doing that is that WordPress doesn't really resize the image...it just resizes the <img> width and height, meaning that the full image is getting downloaded every time the page is viewed! So in fact, this approach makes WordPress.com servers work 10x as hard and dramatically increases page load time.

    So: if this feature doesn't exist yet, it would be phenomenally nice to have! Thanks.

    (I know that I can create my own virtual "thumbnail" at the size I want, upload it, then upload my full-size screenshot somewhere else and link the two together...but that takes something that should be one step, turns it into ten steps, forces me to create multiple copies of the same image, etc. It's a lot of work for something that should be trivial.)

  2. raincoaster
    Member

    Thumbnails are set as small as they are for legal reasons: courts in the US have upheld the right of people to use images smaller than 150px across while ruling that larger images are not necessarily okay to use. That is why they are set that small. Decreasing the size of your images prior to uploading it is an option.

  3. gmaletic
    Member

    If that's really the reason...I apologize if this comes off as rude, but that's absolutely absurd.

    First of all, it's unnecessary: all of the images I'm uploading are of my own copyright. (Does WordPress do anything to keep me from uploading copyrighted text, or copyrighted audio?)

    Second, I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty certain that the courts did not say that it was fine to upload images of any size, as long as the thumbnails used to link to those images are less than 150 pixels wide. If they said anything, I'm sure they said that the -actual- copyrighted image being used needs to be less than 150 pixels wide, not simply the thumbnail that links to it. (If all you have to do to get to a higher-quality image is click on it, then that completely subverts the fair use restriction. Sort of like if I posted a 30-second audio clip of a song and hid behind "fair use", despite the fact that you could click on my 30-second snippet and download the entire song.) If WordPress were really concerned about this issue, it wouldn't let me upload images of greater than 150 px width...yet it does. Which opens up far more serious copyright issues than the thumbnail issue.

    Finally, the fact that it keeps thumbnails so small makes WordPress users employ a workaround that is far worse for both its users and its own servers, which is utilize full-size images on its pages. That's a ton a bandwidth that's simply being thrown away.

    I guess I have to ask the question: is that -really- the reason? I don't know that it really stands up to scrutiny.

  4. andy
    Staff

    raincoaster: Where do you come up with this stuff? Please link to a credible source or refrain from posting information that only confuses the issue.

    gmaletic: The thumbnail size is arbitrarily set because the developers did not deem that to be a variable worthy of a user interface. If you would like to see changes made to WordPress, a good place to make you voice matter is the official Ideas database, where someone may have already posted your idea.

  5. lettershometoyou
    Member

    Actually I've seen this come up numerous times: option to vary the size of the thumbnail. Small, medium, large, XL anyone? Since photos are so important, yet so time-consuming to upload and manage, if implemented it would be the biggest improvement on WP.com for a long time.

  6. sunburntkamel
    Member

    may have? resizing thumbnails is the second most popular idea:
    http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=13&replies=57
    h/t to drmike, the thumbnail size as it pertains to fair use was part of the perfect 10 v. google lawsuit:
    http://fairuse.stanford.edu/primary_materials/cases/perfect10google.pdf

  7. mark
    Support

    Perfect 10 has nothing to do with an image you own and you want to put on your blog.
    The OP did not indicate otherwise so it should not be assumed.

  8. matt
    Staff

    "My trick to solve this problem in the past was to upload the full-size image and simply resize it in the post."

    Actually that should on-the-fly create a resized version of the image. Is that functionality not working? If so let us know a link.

  9. mattalgren
    Member

    Where do you come up with this stuff?

    That was needlessly rude.

    It would be nice to have more size options, though I doubt I would use it personally.

    Unless I'm understanding my tech wrong (a good possibility) WordPress.com already does what the OP is requesting when we upload our avatars. Would it be relatively easy to run that over to other images that we upload?

  10. mattalgren
    Member

    Actually that should on-the-fly create a resized version of the image. Is that functionality not working? If so let us know a link.

    One problem I can see with that is that potentially the user is uploading a ginormous file that will both take up more of their allotted space and take longer to load for the blog reader.

  11. raincoaster
    Member

    @ Andy; here you are:

    CNET
    PC Pro
    The Professional Photographer's Legal Handbook
    Out-Law.com
    Reuters
    Techlaw Journal
    Peace Corps Online
    United States District Court of the Southern District of New York

    And a well-wisher sent me this one as well:
    FairUse project, Stanford University

  12. matt
    Staff

    Raincoaster, I think Andy was referring to the fact that the thumbnail size has nothing at all to do with the legal cases you refer to, not that there may be legal cases or not about thumbnails. You said that we set them that small for legal reasons, which is not correct. (Andy wrote the code, he knows.) Anyway, maybe start a new thread about it? It's not really helping the original poster with their question.

  13. raincoaster
    Member

    You're right.
    I thought I WAS answering the OP's question: I just interpreted it to mean why are thumbnails in general that size. That's the standard now across the industry because it's legally protected. As for why WP.com uses this particular size, you're right, I jumped to the conclusion that WP set them that size because of the legal protection. If it didn't, it was a lucky thing in any case.

  14. lowrylore
    Member

    Blogger allows different thumbnail sizes. That is reason enough to switch (Well not so much for me, but for my wife it is. She keeps complaining to me about the headache of uploading two images to get a bigger thumbnail size). WordPress developers please help!

  15. raincoaster
    Member

    Why would you have to upload two images? You'd just need to upload one and resize, as the OP did.

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