Smart Cropping

The Smart Cropping feature in Optimole automatically identifies the most important or "interesting" part of an image. When the image is resized or needs to fit into a different shape or dimension, this feature ensures that the interesting part stays in the center and is visible rather than getting cut off.

🔌 Enable the Feature

To enable this feature, navigate to WP  Dashboard > Optimole.

1

Open the Settings tab.

2

Expand the Advanced accordion and open the Resize panel.

3

Use the toggle to enable Smart Cropping.

🚀 User Site and Image Impact

In the following image, you can see how the image is cropped before and after enabling smart cropping:

🔄 Benefits and Trade-offs

Benefits

• focus on key points - using this algorithm, instead of randomly cropping an image and cutting off important parts, Smart Cropping ensures that the most meaningful part of the picture remains visible.
• automated efficiency - this feature allows you to adjust images so that the best part is showing without your manual intervention, saving the website's maintenance time.

Trade-offs

• subjectivity - sometimes, the most interesting part determined by the algorithm might not align with your needs. In such cases, you can force manual cropping, and here is a guide that can help you with this.
• loss of full image - while Smart Cropping focuses on the most important part, it might cut off other sections of the image that could also be relevant or add context.

🧩 Use Cases

The Smart Cropping feature can be very advantageous for multiple use cases, such as:

• e-commerce websites (online shops) - smart cropping will focus on the product itself rather than the background. In this way, visitors will see what is most relevant, which could lead to higher sales.
• photography portfolios - photographers might enjoy displaying their photos in different sizes on their portfolios. Smart Cropping helps highlight the key parts of each photo, saving photographers from manual adjustments.
• news/blogging websites - featured article images come in different sizes, so smart cropping can automatically adapt them to highlight the most captivating sections.
• online menus for restaurants - dish photos can be smartly cropped to emphasize the main course, excluding less important elements like the table or other dishes, making the food look more delicious.
• educational websites - when displaying educational material like diagrams or charts, Smart Cropping ensures the most important parts of these images take the spotlight, improving the learning experience.

⚙️ Related Settings

This feature is developed for use with images that have been resized, such as thumbnails, where the typical practice is to crop the image to a specific size. For other cases, check these related settings:

• Add New Image Crop Size - doc

🗂Useful Resources

These guides could offer valuable insights:

• WordPress Image Sizes: What They Are and How to Change Them
• Adaptive Images for WordPress: What They Are, How to Use Them

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