An exciting new feature for photographers using Wordpress is the new image editor in Wordpress 2.9. Here’s a quick rundown on how it works.
In order to edit a picture you must first upload it. You can do so by using the usual Upload/Insert buttons when you write a post, or by opening the Media tab and clicking on Add New. If you want to edit an image that you’ve already uploaded, you should have a look in your Library under the same tab.
Once you’ve found or uploaded your image, you’ll see this screen:
The button called Edit image just above the fields where you enter the title, alternate text and so on is new. Click it and you’ll open the image editor. At the top you’ll find a few simple tools for you to use. They are, from right to left: Crop, Rotate CCW, Rotate CW, Flip vertically, Flip horizontally, Redo, Undo and in a separate box Scale Image. The crop tool is the only one that needs a real explanation – to use the others simply click on their corresponding button.
To use the crop tool, simply select an area in your picture by clicking and dragging.
To the right you find a few options. Under the Image crop tab you find a few numbers to help you get the exact dimension you want – you can set the aspect ratio and size by pixel there. Below it is a box called Thumbnail settings – here you’ll define which image sizes the crop should be applied to.
Once you’re done with your crop, hit the crop button at the top left to apply your changes. Then to save them, simply hit save at the bottom (or cancel if you don’t want to go through with the changes).
Obviously, the image editor won’t replace Lightroom, Aperture or Photoshop (or whatever your favorite editor may be), but it’s not bad at all to do quick crops or image flipping. Just remember that each time you hit the save button the image is saved anew – if you’re editing a .jpg it is compressed again. Do this a lot of times and it may end up with a lot of artifacts due to heavy compression. If you want to know more about using Wordpress image editor, head on over to the Wordpress Codex.
Others about the image editor
- Designora tested the image editor in the early 2.9 beta.
- Dragon Blogger tested the editor after upgrading to Wordpress 2.9.
Thanks for mentioning my article about testing the image editor, I rarely use it except if I am traveling and not on my own computer where I can manipulate an image with Paint.NET before I upload it. Though it does let you create quick custom thumbnails if you need them and are crunched on time.