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I'm doing my portfolio (graphic design) on Wordpress and I was wondering if you know what the dimensions (in inches or pixels) that I should use for the image of the thumbnail for my portfolio.

Is there a standard thumbnail size we should use? Or is it dependent on the theme we are using? I'm using this theme: http://demo.select-themes.com/stockholm4/three-column-gallery/ and they are all the same size boxes rather than masonry.

P.S. are we supposed to design the thumbnail image on indesign or illustrator or photoshop? does it matter? is it best to save it as jpeg (as the other images on my site are saved as jpeg) but I was wondering if we should save in another format for best quality to display as thumbnail?

Thank you!! =))

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1) Wordpress will create the thumbnail for you. It depends on the theme you're using for how big the featured image is.

If you have a bunch of images already uploaded and then you applied a theme, You can use the plugin Regenerate Thumbnail to change the thumbnail sizes.

From the plugin page

  • A new thumbnail size has been added and you want past uploads to have a thumbnail in that size.
  • You’ve changed the dimensions of an existing thumbnail size, for example via Settings → Media.
  • You’ve switched to a new WordPress theme that uses featured images of a different size.

2) You can create the thumbnail in whatever program you're most comfortable using. Deciding what to save the image as depends on what you're using the image for. Most of the time you will be saving as a JPG.

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  • Hi, thank you for replying!! I'll keep the plugin in mind if I ever need to use that some day. I applied a theme first and I'm building my website from there as it's my first official portfolio Wordpress site. I understand the site will create thumbnail for you. My question now is if I create a document in indesign at 500 by 500 pixels, my concern is that it will be a tad small that when uploading, the resized thumbnail appears pixelated so that's why I wanted to know like a certain size document to start with so that when uploading, when it gets resized, it still shows clear in the thumbnail
    – user124889
    Jul 19, 2018 at 22:05
  • Would you happen to know a document size to start with? Thanks!! =))
    – user124889
    Jul 19, 2018 at 22:07
  • @LisaWeng I think your themes largest thumbnail is ~400px. So your images should be larger than that. It's common to save images for web around 1000px. I think that is a happy medium between small file size and a somewhat large image.
    – AndrewH
    Jul 20, 2018 at 12:54
  • I see, thank you for that advice!! =)) So 1000 by 1000 px for the size of the thumbnail image? I'm wondering because the images inside the portfolio projects could also be 1000 by 1000 px. I have images that are like 1000px by around 800px currently. Since the boxes for the thumbnails of this theme are all same size squares, is it recommended to use the same width and height like 1000 by 1000px rather than something like 1000 by 700px? Thank you, wondering =)
    – user124889
    Jul 21, 2018 at 8:40
  • @LisaWeng Hi, your thumbnail would not be he same size as the original image. The thumbnail is sized based on your theme which you can see in Wordpress settings. You can have your images at 1000x700 but your thumbnail might be a 1:1 ratio so it would clip the image until the person clicks on the image to view it at 100%.
    – AndrewH
    Jul 22, 2018 at 1:32

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