WP SmartCrop Pro

Crop to your layout while keeping a focal point visible

WP SmartCrop crops images to the width and height set by your CSS instead of stretching or squashing them. It keeps a selected focal point in view and places it as close as possible to a rule-of-thirds composition. This can help the same image fit responsive cards, featured images, post content, or galleries with various aspect ratios.

WP SmartCrop Pro is presented as adding automatic focal-point selection. The WP SmartCrop instructions say that automatic selection was still in development, so its current availability is unclear. The documented process lets you pick a focal point manually in the Media Library.

Image controls and responsive behavior

• Enable or disable smart cropping on individual images.
• Target images for styling with the img.wpsmartcrop-image selector.
• Use an automatic image preloader intended to prevent partially loaded images from appearing.
• Use WordPress responsive srcset sources.
• Apply legacy support for existing cropped thumbnail sizes without changing existing CSS.

The extension is described as lightweight, with image processing that also works inside post content. It uses semantic HTML5 and CSS3 in modern browsers and falls back to HTML4 and CSS2 for older browsers.

Set a focal point and style an image

1. Install and activate the plugin, then upload an image to the Media Library.
2. Select the image, enable Smart Cropping, and choose Edit Focal Point.
3. Click the image area you want to keep in view, such as a portrait's eye or another defining capability, then apply the change. You can choose a different point later or disable smart cropping for that image.
4. Insert the image into a page or post, then add CSS for the img.wpsmartcrop-image selector.

For a basic check, try display: block, width: 100%, and a fixed height such as 200px. Adjust the dimensions and other styling to fit your theme or content area.

Compatibility and theme use

The plugin listing names W3 Total Cache, Wordfence, WPEngine EverCache, Better WordPress Minify, and Google's PageSpeed Module among compatible caching and optimization utilities. It lists Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge as primary test browsers.

The listing also says the plugin has not been tested with the latest three major WordPress releases. It may no longer be maintained or supported and could have compatibility issues with newer WordPress versions. The publisher describes a separate paid branch for theme developers, with integration considerations to discuss before building it into a theme.