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Display Featured Image for Genesis

By Robin Cornett

Design & Themes / Themes & Templates

Display Featured Image for Genesis Review - In-Depth Analysis

This plugin enhances the Genesis Framework by displaying featured images in various dynamic styles. It intelligently selects images based on their size and provides default options.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.74/10

User Rating

4.9/5 (based on 33+ reviews)

Active Installations

1,000+

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

This plugin takes a different approach to how we use and display featured images for posts and pages. Instead of simply reusing an image which already exists in the post/page content, the plugin anticipates that you will want to use lovely large images for your featured images, but to do so intelligently.

Depending on what you upload, the plugin will display the image as a banner image if the image is wider than your site's Large Media Setting. It will display the image above your post/page content, centered and up to the width of the content, if your image is larger than your Medium Media Setting, and less than or equal to your Large Media Setting. If your featured image width is less than or equal to your Medium Media Setting, it will display nothing. Additionally, it can display a default featured image as a banner image if one is uploaded.

Display Featured Image for Genesis allows you to select a default, or fallback, Featured Image, which will be used if a post/page does not have a Featured Image set, or if the post/page's Featured Image is too small. You may set the Default Featured Image under Appearance > Display Featured Image Settings.

You may set a Featured Image for each term within a taxonomy. This image will be used on taxonomy archives, and as a fallback image for posts within that taxonomy if no featured image exists. If a post is assigned to multiple terms and has no featured image of its own, the most used term which has a featured image assigned will be the one used.

If your site uses Custom Post Types, you can set a Featured Image for each Post Type. If your single post within this type does not have a featured image, the Post Type Featured Image will be used as a fallback.

Now you can add the Featured Image from each post to your RSS feed. This is an optional setting and applied intelligently. If your feed is set to output the full text, the Featured Image will be added to the beginning of your post content as a full width image. If your feed is set to output only the summary of your content, the Featured image will be added to the beginning of your summary as a thumbnail, aligned to the left.

Display Featured Image for Genesis has some styling built in but I have intentionally tried to keep it minimal. All styling is for the banner image options, as the large options seem pretty straightforward.

Comparing to Alternatives

Display Featured Image for Genesis is a specialized plugin designed to enhance featured image display within Genesis child themes. Compared to other plugins, it focuses solely on this functionality without additional features.

Top alternatives

Display Featured Image for Genesis

Strengths

Simple and focused on displaying featured images in Genesis themes.
Easy to use without complex setup.
Responsive support from the developer.
Works well with various Genesis child themes.
No unnecessary features, keeping it lightweight.

Weaknesses

Limited to Genesis framework users only.
Lacks advanced customization options out of the box.
No built-in option to place images below post titles without code.
No premium version to unlock additional features.

User Sentiment Analysis

Users generally appreciate the plugin's simplicity and effectiveness, especially praising the developer's responsiveness. However, some users expected more out-of-the-box flexibility.

Positive highlights

"Kudos!" - Antony Agnel
"Fantastic plugin with awesome support." - senordeer
"Absolutely amazing, very nice." - Enrique J. Ros
"Works very well with my Genesis child theme." - gols
"Worked exactly how I needed it to." - michelleoverby

Common complaints

Requires additional code for some placements, like below post titles.
Limited to Genesis themes, not useful for other frameworks.
No advanced customization options.
No premium version for extended features.

Weaknesses

Some users must add custom code to achieve desired layouts.
Not suitable for users unfamiliar with Genesis or coding.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users running Genesis child themes who want a straightforward solution to display featured images without complex configurations.

Not ideal for

Users seeking a plugin with extensive customization or those not using the Genesis framework will find this plugin unsuitable.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version provides all core functionalities needed to display featured images in Genesis themes effectively without any cost.

Final Verdict

Display Featured Image for Genesis is a reliable and focused plugin that fulfills its purpose well within the Genesis ecosystem. Its simplicity and developer support make it a valuable tool for Genesis users.

However, its limited scope and lack of advanced features mean it is best suited for users comfortable with Genesis and possibly some custom coding. Those needing more flexibility may need to look elsewhere.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Display Featured Image for Genesis plugin.

Featured Image

Genesis

Banner

Screenshots

FAQ

Yes and no. Technically, it does, even older (XHTML) themes. However, depending on other factors such as the individual theme’s styling and layout, the output may be unexpected, and require some tweaking. Not recommended for themes such as Sixteen Nine Pro, or The 411 Pro due to layout, and not for Ambiance Pro or Minimum Pro without changing some theme functionality.

Check the settings page before digging into filters. As of version 3.0.0, most questions/support requests have been implemented as options on the settings pages, including:

setting a sitewide preferred image size
setting a preferred image size per content/post type
setting preferred fallback images for content types, search results, and 404 pages
changing the default hooks/priorities the plugin uses for image output

Additionally, some of these can be overridden on any individual post, page, or content type, which can be set to use the default image size, not show a featured image at all, or force a large/banner image for that post only.

There are several filters built into Display Featured Image for Genesis, to give developers more control over the output. Several of them are very similar, and are applied in a specific order, so an earlier filter will take precedence over a later one.

Available filters include, but are not limited to:

display_featured_image_genesis_skipped_posttypes: select post type(s) which will not have the featured image effect applied (Note: this filter still totally works, but there is now a setting to handle this. It’s on the Content Types tab.)
display_featured_image_genesis_use_default: force post type(s) to use your sitewide default image (set on the main plugin settings page) for the featured image effect, regardless of what is set as the individual post’s featured image
displayfeaturedimagegenesis_use_post_type_image: force post type(s) to use the image assigned as the custom post type featured image (if one is set), regardless of what is set as the individual post’s featured image
display_featured_image_genesis_use_taxonomy: force post type(s) to use a taxonomy term’s image (if one is set) for the featured image effect, regardless of what is set as the individual post’s featured image
Note: as of version 2.5, you can set any post type to use a fallback image without using one of the above filters. It will use the images in this order as they exist: term, content type, default.
display_featured_image_genesis_use_large_image: force post type(s) to output the featured image as a large image above the post content, and to not use the banner effect at all
display_featured_image_genesis_omit_excerpt: force post type(s) to not move the excerpt to overlay the featured image, even if the “Move Excerpts/Archive Descriptions” setting is selected

These filters all work the same way, so using any one in your theme will all follow the same pattern. For example, to prevent the featured image effect on the listing or staff post types, you would add the following to your theme’s functions.php file:

add_filter( 'display_featured_image_genesis_skipped_posttypes', 'rgc_skip_post_types' ); function rgc_skip_post_types( $post_types ) {     $post_types[] = 'listing';     $post_types[] = 'staff';      return $post_types; }

To force a post type to use the sitewide Featured Image, use this filter instead:

add_filter( 'display_featured_image_genesis_use_default', 'rgc_force_default_image' ); function rgc_force_default_image( $post_types ) {     $post_types[] = 'post';      return $post_types; }

Alternatively, you can also set a specific post type to use the taxonomy featured image, if one exists, even if the post type has its own Featured Image:

add_filter( 'display_featured_image_genesis_use_taxonomy', 'rgc_use_tax_image' ); function rgc_use_tax_image( $post_types ) {     $post_types[] = 'post';      return $post_types; }

If a post has no featured image of its own, and is assigned to multiple taxonomy terms which do have images assigned, the plugin will opt to use the featured image from the most popular term (the one with the most posts already).

If you’re needing to have a little more control than just specifying which post type to skip, and maybe want to use WordPress conditional statements, you’ll want a different filter. This example disables the plugin on WooCommerce term archives:

add_filter( 'displayfeaturedimagegenesis_disable', 'prefix_skip_woo_terms' ); function prefix_skip_woo_terms( $disable ) {     if ( 'product' === get_post_type() && is_tax() ) {         return true;     }     return $disable; }

If you do not want the height of the banner image to be quite the height of the user’s browser window, which is the standard, you can reduce it by just a hair. Go to Appearance > Display Featured Image Settings and change the ‘Height’ number from the default of 0. The higher this number is, the shorter the window will be calculated to be. Feel free to experiment, as no images are harmed by changing this number.

Note: Display Featured Image for Genesis determines the size of your banner image based on the size of the user’s browser window. Changing the “Height/Pixels to Remove” setting tells the plugin to subtract that number of pixels from the measured height of the user’s window, regardless of the size of that window, which is partly why you cannot set this to more than 400.

If you need to control the size of the banner Featured Image output with more attention to the user’s screen size, you will want to consider a CSS approach instead. You can use the plugin’s Maximum Height setting, which will affect all screen sizes, or add something like this to your theme’s stylesheet, or the additional CSS panel in the Customizer:

.big-leader, .big-leader__image {     max-height: 700px; }  @media only screen and (max-width: 800px) {      .big-leader,     .big-leader__image {         max-height: 300px;     } }

Note: if your theme has CSS like this in it already, and you change the Maximum Height setting, it will (most likely) override your theme’s styling, due to the order in which stylesheets load.

As of version 3.0.0, you can change the hook/location of the large featured image without code by going to Appearance > Display Featured Image for Genesis, and then the Advanced tab.

There is a filter for this, too. By default, the large (as opposed to banner) image is added before the Genesis loop, which places it above your post or page title. You can add this filter to your theme’s functions.php file to move the image below your post/page title:

add_filter( 'display_featured_image_genesis_move_large_image', 'prefix_move_image' ); function prefix_move_image( $hook ) {     return 'genesis_entry_header'; }

Note: because the entry header applies to all posts on a page, on archive pages, this filter will be overridden with the default genesis_before_loop. To move the large image on an archive page, do not use a hook related to a single post.

Similar hooks:

display_featured_image_genesis_move_large_image_priority: change the priority of the large featured image output
display_featured_image_move_backstretch_image: change the hook of the banner featured image output
display_featured_image_move_backstretch_image_priority: change the priority of the banner featured image output