Simple Matted Thumbnails Plugin

We have released a new plugin, Simple Matted Thumbnails. This provides a new format for thumbnails in addition to the two that come with WordPress.

Thumbnail Formats

Proportional

This is the default.  The image is resized to fit in the box, the resulting thumbnails will vary on size if images with different aspect ratios are used.
proportional

Cropped

This is a choice available from the media settings for the thumbnails and in the settings of many e-commerce plugins.  The image is cropped to the exact size requested, care must be taken in preparing images to avoid losing important content.
cropped

Matted

This is the new format provided by this plugin.  The image is resized proportionally to fit in the box and then matted out to the size requested for the thumbnail.  The mat is similar to those used to frame photographs and watercolours.  This plugin lets you choose the colour of the mat and add extra matting around the thumbnail image.
matted

Matted with extra matting

This adds a percentage of background colour around the image. extra

Where to Get The Plugin

The plugin is available from the WordPress Plugin Repository at http://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-matted-thumbnails/ and using the Plugins menu in the WordPress admin.  Please let me know of any issues using this plugin and any enhancements that you would like to see.

Early 20th Century Gadgets

We had a power outage in South East Oakville this afternoon and it really brought home how much we rely on the constant supply of electricity.  Julia had gone out and I was busy working on another WordPress plugin. The computers went down except for a laptop and a netbook, which lost their internet connection because the router was down.  By the time she got home the sun was setting and we were discussing restaurants for dinner because we couldn’t cook. The gas heat would run, but the fan wouldn’t blow, so it could get pretty cold.

The mobile phones partially worked, but only over the cellular network since our wifi was out.  The iPhone made a pretty good flashlight, Continue reading