How to Improve Image Quality in WordPress

Smush is an online image optimization tool that allows users to make their images look more vivid and realistic using a series of optimizations. Images optimized with Smush look sharper, more vivid, and more realistic. By selecting from different options, you can configure Smush to optimize images for different purposes. For example, you can optimize images for the web or for printing.

Improved image quality

When optimizing an image, Smush starts by identifying the number and type of colors in each image. It then generates a high-quality version of the image using only the specified number of colors. This process is called color reduction, and it will make your image look more realistic by reducing the number of colors it contains. Images optimized using this technique are referred to as lossless. Smush also uses lossless compression to create smaller and faster versions of your images. Smaller versions are then used to produce larger and higher quality versions of your images. These enhanced images are referred to as pre-touches or preprocessing. Smush also uses other optimization techniques to further enhance your images.

Improve brightness, contrast, saturation

You can further improve the quality of your images by choosing from different presets that adjust different aspects of image quality. For example, you can adjust the brightness, contrast, and saturation levels in an image to achieve different colors for the effect. You can also adjust the sharpness and focus levels in the image to get a more focused effect. Other presets adjust color space, skin tone, hair color, facial features, and vignetting levels in various ways to create dozens of unique effects. You can even add various digital effects, such as layer masks and drop shadows, by clicking the button.

Image size

To save bandwidth when uploading an image, you should consider changing it to a lower resolution before optimizing with Smush. You should also verify that your image does not exceed the maximum size allowed by your hosting provider. Failure to comply with these precautions will result in large files when optimizing images with Smush. To avoid this limit, upload smaller versions of your original images through services such as imgflip or Tinyimage, which reduce file size without affecting quality. Following these precautions will help you optimize your images without affecting their quality too much.

The plugin is available for download in every WordPress site administration. You can find it in the categories »Plugins« and »Plugin installation« under the name »Smush – Lazy Load Images, Optimize & Compress Images«.