Images and EWWW Image Optimizer

  • images
  • webp
  • ewww

Overview

Dirigible Optimize keeps uploaded images small and takes over the jobs most Dirigible sites used EWWW Image Optimizer for. Find the controls on the Images card in Dirigible → Optimize Settings.

Very large uploads are shrunk

A photo straight off a camera or phone is often 4,000 to 8,000 pixels wide, far bigger than any page shows. When you upload an image longer than 2,400 pixels on its longest side (the largest size the Dirigible theme uses), Optimize shrinks it to 2,400 before it reaches the Media Library.

  • The Media Library keeps one file at that size, not the full original plus a smaller copy. A 4,000-pixel photo of about 1.8 MB typically ends up around 600 KB.
  • Phone photos stay the right way up, and the photo's hidden details (camera, GPS location) are removed.
  • Images at or under 2,400 pixels, and animated GIFs, are left as they are.
  • Only files you upload are shrunk, as with the JPG conversion below. While EWWW Image Optimizer is active, it does this with its own settings instead.

If a client needs the full-size file (for print, say), upload it inside a .zip file, or share it from another service. There's no setting to keep full-size originals.

PNG and GIF uploads become JPGs

When you upload a PNG with no transparency, or a GIF that isn't animated, Optimize saves it as a JPG if that makes the file smaller. Photos and screenshots saved as PNG usually shrink 3 to 10 times. Flat graphics such as logos and icons often don't shrink, so they stay PNG.

  • The image is a JPG from the moment it lands in the Media Library: its file name, sizes and URL all end in .jpg. Nothing on your pages needs to change.
  • PNGs with transparent areas and animated GIFs are never converted.
  • Only files you upload are converted (Media Library, block editor, classic editor). Images that come in another way, such as sample data, imports or an image URL pasted into the editor, keep their format.
  • While EWWW Image Optimizer is active, Optimize leaves uploads alone. EWWW converts them with its own settings, and the card says so.

To keep every PNG and GIF as uploaded, check Keep PNG and GIF uploads as they are and save.

EWWW Image Optimizer's WebP and lazy load are off

If the site runs EWWW Image Optimizer, Optimize switches off four of its features: WebP copies, both kinds of WebP page rewriting, and its lazy load script. On Rocket.net, Cloudflare already serves WebP to browsers that support it, and the Dirigible theme lazy loads images without a script. EWWW's rewriting held back the largest image on the page, which lowered PageSpeed scores.

Your EWWW settings aren't changed, only overridden. To use them again, check Let EWWW Image Optimizer make WebP copies, rewrite pages to WebP and lazy load images and save. That checkbox only appears while EWWW is active.

One-time cleanup of EWWW's WebP copies

The .webp copies EWWW already made are removed once, in the background. Only EWWW's own copies go: a WebP file you uploaded yourself, a WebP size WordPress made, or one a page, field or setting links to is kept.

  • When it runs: straight away on most sites. If EWWW was rewriting pages to point at its WebP copies, the cleanup waits 31 days, until pages cached during that time have expired.
  • Progress: the Images card shows when the cleanup will start, how far it has got, and afterwards how many files and how much space it freed.
  • Skipped: on multisite networks, on sites where EWWW was never installed, and while another image plugin that makes WebP copies (such as Imagify, ShortPixel or WebP Express) is active. The card says why.
  • Stopped: checking the EWWW restore checkbox cancels a cleanup that hasn't finished.

EWWW Image Optimizer is deactivated afterwards

Once the cleanup finishes, Optimize deactivates EWWW Image Optimizer, because Optimize now does its remaining jobs (shrinking very large uploads, and PNG and GIF to JPG). The Images card confirms it. EWWW stays active if it uses an EWWW API key or Easy IO (paid services Optimize doesn't replace), if you restored its WebP, or if it's network activated.

EWWW's settings are kept. If you reactivate it, it picks up where it left off, and the restore checkbox appears again on the Images card.