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Crop-Thumbnails

By Volkmar Kantor

Content Management / Media Library & Asset Management

Crop-Thumbnails Review - In-Depth Analysis

Crop Thumbnails allows precise control over image cropping for featured and gallery images. Easily adjust the crop region to showcase specific image details.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

7.01/10

User Rating

4.6/5 (based on 67+ reviews)

Active Installations

40,000+

Update Frequency

Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

1 / 10 (Very Low Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

The plugin provides the functionality to adjust the crop region of cropped images. It adds buttons to the edit pages and media dialog to access a crop editor.

In the crop editor, you can choose one or more images sizes and cut off the part of the image you want. This plugin is especially useful for theme developers who want to keep full control over cropped image sizes.

If you want to dive even deeper, you can get information about the hooks and filters on the GitHub page of the plugin.

Comparing to Alternatives

Crop-Thumbnails offers a straightforward approach to cropping thumbnails in WordPress, standing out for its simplicity and reliability compared to similar plugins.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Simple and easy to use interface
No ads or upsells, providing a clean experience
Efficient for custom thumbnail cropping
Lightweight with no unnecessary features

Weaknesses

Lacks advanced cropping options found in some alternatives
Recent updates removed freeform cropping by clicking anywhere
No pro version to offer enhanced features
Limited to thumbnail cropping without broader image editing

User Sentiment Analysis

Users generally praise Crop-Thumbnails for its ease of use and effectiveness, though some note minor inconveniences after recent updates.

Positive highlights

'Easy to use' - yikai
'Very useful plugin' - cezaro
'Fast and easy to use, no bloat' - jhtjards
'Perfect solution for an annoying problem' - Hilary Caws-Elwitt
'Super handy plugin' - Anthony Hortin

Common complaints

Removal of freeform cropping by clicking anywhere on the image
Resize grid adjustment adds extra steps to cropping

Weaknesses

Cropping process became slightly more time-consuming after update
Limited customization options for cropping

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users seeking a lightweight, no-frills plugin to quickly crop thumbnails without distractions or ads will find Crop-Thumbnails ideal.

Not ideal for

Those needing advanced cropping features or freeform cropping capabilities may find this plugin limiting, especially after recent changes.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version includes all core features necessary for cropping thumbnails efficiently without any ads or upsells.

Final Verdict

Crop-Thumbnails is a reliable and straightforward plugin that excels at its core function of cropping thumbnails with minimal fuss.

While it lacks advanced features and a pro version, its clean interface and ease of use make it a valuable tool for users needing simple thumbnail cropping.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Crop-Thumbnails plugin.

crop thumbnails

image cropping

media library

Screenshots

FAQ

The plugin do not add additional image sizes, it only provides functionality to edit the crop area.

You can use “add_image_size” inside your functions.php to add additional cropped image sizes. See “add_image_size” documentation.

add_action( 'after_setup_theme', 'my_adjust_image_sizes' ); function my_adjust_image_sizes() {     //add an cropped image-size with 800 x 250 Pixels     add_image_size( 'my-custom-image-size', 800, 250, true );       /**      * The following image sizes use a dynamic value.      * USE WITH CARE      * Also the plugin supports these image-sizes, i do not recommend them!      **/     //a dynamic cropped image size with 500 pixel height and the width of the original image     add_image_size( 'my-dynamic-width-1', 9999, 500, true );      //a dynamic cropped image with the same ratio as the original image and 500 pixel width     add_image_size( 'my-dynamic-zero-height-1', 500, 0, true ); }

After you add the image-size any futher image uploads will produce a cropped image “my-custom-image-size” which you can use in post-loop:

if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) {     the_post_thumbnail( 'my-custom-image-size' ); }

You can add the following filter in the functions.php of your theme to adjust the ratio of one or more specified image-sizes.
CAUTION: use only when the ratios are really close.

add_filter( 'crop_thumbnails_editor_printratio', 'my_crop_thumbnails_editor_printratio', 10, 2); function my_crop_thumbnails_editor_printratio( $printRatio, $imageSizeName) {     if($imageSizeName === 'strange-image-ratio') {         $printRatio = '4:3';//do override ratio     }     return $printRatio; }

Yeah, there is a way. After the crop-thumbnails-modal closed it triggeres a javascript event on the body element. You could use jQuery to cache-break your cropped thumbnail (in backend-view).
The event called “cropThumbnailModalClosed”. The plugin also provides a global function that could be called (only in post-edit-view and mediathek) to do the cache-break.
Example-Code:

$('body').on('cropThumbnailModalClosed',function() {     CROP_THUMBNAILS_DO_CACHE_BREAK( $('.your-image-selector') ); });

You can add the following filter in the functions.php of your theme to adjust the ratio of one or more specified image-sizes.
CAUTION: use only when the ratios are really close.

add_filter( 'crop_thumbnails_editor_printratio', 'my_crop_thumbnails_editor_printratio', 10, 2); function my_crop_thumbnails_editor_printratio( $printRatio, $imageSizeName) {     if($imageSizeName === 'strange-image-ratio') {         $printRatio = '4:3';//do override ratio     }     return $printRatio; }