Resized images much bigger than original ones

  • Hi, I decided to start this topic because after looking everywhere I still don’t know how to fix this and work with WordPress.

    I’m currently building my portfolio and uploading images. But before I do, I optimise them perfectly to make them as small as possible without compromising quality. Most have big dimensions, around 1920 in width so depending on extension and content I use different techniques for size reduction.

    Some PNG’s I upload show simple vector graphics, so these can be compressed a lot without loosing quality, and it can be done even by reducing numbers of colors. Therefore I’m able to create a PNG that is 1920×1200 and has only 35KB which is great.

    But here is when a disaster begins. I upload it to WordPress, and multiple versions of this file are being created. Most of them a lot bigger then the original one. Some are 8 times, 11 times, or even 18 times bigger! Some files increased from 200KB to over 700KB!

    Here are some examples.

    This is something I cannot comprehend. I’ve got 15 years of experience in graphic design, and from what I see the most popular CMS in the world cannot handle the most important task.

    I wouldn’t even pay attention to this but when I started testing the website on smaller screens and tablets I noticed that on smaller screens it’s loading much slower and images look worse! This was hard to see on regular photos, but some PNG’s which show simple vector graphics were blurry!

    So as a result of WordPress “knowing better”, my website became heavy and it looks worse, especially on small laptops and tablets.

    —–
    Solution for future development:
    Keep and serve resized images ONLY when their size is smaller!
    —–

    As simple as that and it makes a lot of sense, especially if the designer has done much better job and prepared all the files properly. What’s the point in serving 280KB file on a tablet if the original one has only 35KB and will load in a fraction of a second?!

    I’m not sure how to get to WordPress development team with this issue, and if there is any chance of being heard, but I think this should be taken seriously.

    Do you have ideas for a workaround? I’d like to be able to serve smaller files on small devices, but for now, the smaller the screen is, the bigger the file in some cases.

    I’d appreciate your thoughts on this.
    Thanks

    • This topic was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by waveman777.
Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

  • As you know, image sizes are complicated. And serving a page with an image, and making it look good on all devices, even as their window sizes change is even more complicated. WordPress generates multiple files on upload, and that can be tweaked with plugins. Then on output, the srcset attribute is computed to try to handle different window sizes, and the theme (and plugins) can filter that.

    Here is the reference for some of the code calculating the image sizes.
    https://developer.www.ads-software.com/?s=srcset
    If you have the time, consider opening a ticket for this problem. (Search first.)
    https://core.trac.www.ads-software.com/

    Some plugins to help:
    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/fly-dynamic-image-resizer/
    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/dynamic-image-resizer/
    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/enable-image-scaling-option-on-upload/
    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/regenerate-thumbnails/
    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/resize-image-after-upload/

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by Joy.
    Thread Starter waveman777

    (@waveman777)

    Hi Joy (@joyously)

    Thanks for the response, but this is not the case. I’m not talking about pixel dimensions, but the image size in kilobytes or megabytes.

    The problem is with how files are compressed, and that generated files with less pixels are multiple times bigger, which will also affect backups. And that all the compression is done for nothing if in the end files are heavier and loading time increases.

    As for the screen size it doesn’t always really matter. If I use a 35KB image and set the width to 100%, it’s going to adapt to any screen perfectly and it will load in an instant. But right now WordPress is creating it’s own “smaller” – 300KB version of the same file which looks even worse. What for?

    Also, on your plugin list 2nd wasn’t updated for 6 years, and 3rd has been closed and is no longer available for download. The other ones have nothing to do with compression method, so no useful in this case.

    Yes, there are other plugins to tweak the upload details, such as compression ratio and whether the other sizes are created at all.
    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/disable-jpeg-compression/
    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/disable-image-compression-littlebizzy/
    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/optimus/

    Some plugins don’t need updates, so don’t let that stop you.

    Seriously, look at the core functions and write a ticket if you know how to state the problem accurately. There may be tickets already for this (obviously other people have thought about it if there are plugins). It could be as simple as incorporating an existing plugin into core. Or maybe the core code just needs to treat the different image types differently.

    Thread Starter waveman777

    (@waveman777)

    More plugins = more potential problems. WordPress already got pretty bulky.

    And none of the plugins actually gives you full control, so if the process is fully automatic, there should always be a condition:

    If a resized image file is bigger then the original one – don’t create it. and don’t use it.

    This would fix everything.

    Is there any chance to hear from developers their opinion on this without opening a ticket?

    Thread Starter waveman777

    (@waveman777)

    Is there any chance to hear from WordPress developers their opinion on this without opening a ticket?

    I’d really like to be heard.

    Thanks.

    I’m having exactly the same problem.

    Original file 1200x630px – 50KB
    “Thumb” 1140x610px – 242KB

    For this reason I keep on getting a low score on pagespeed, even if I optimize the files ??

    Looking for a solution or workaround, thanks

    Thread Starter waveman777

    (@waveman777)

    Why no one from WordPress devs responding to this topic? Can someone please tell me how to get their attention? I don’t think we should be looking for workarounds here, as it’s a huge issue with the WordPress core itself.

    tobiff

    (@tobiff)

    @waveman777 thanks for this post. I came across the very same problem and was wondering why wordpress generated images are so big compared to my export from e.g. PSP. nevertheless this is not the end of the story. If you use a specific theme, wordpress not only generates the five sizes needed, but in addition the ones the theme specifies… grrr…
    in the meantime, have you implemented for you a workaround like uploading your self-optimized pictures after uploading media to wordpress?!

    • This reply was modified 6 years ago by tobiff.

    I agree with waveman777. This is just insain. I upload a png and it’s resized to from 2KB to 18kb size. I don’t know why they think that’s clever to resize an image to 3 different sizes, all much larger in kb/mb than the original image. It’s just plain stupid and not helpful at all. So I just turned off the resizing by setting the Media settings to zero.

    tobiff

    (@tobiff)

    @thune … just one small remark. I’m using a theme and with this theme I have overall 19 generated images… all in size and quality much worse than what I can do with Photoshop…

    so long story short… as former software developer, I just created a smooth Powershell script (haha windows), which runs Photoshop and generates all the images needed with the appropriate sizes and naming… in size more than 50% less than WordPress does… then just uploading.

    I know, bad workaround, but so it be.

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
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