{"id":70844,"date":"2023-06-21T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/?p=70844"},"modified":"2023-12-05T14:01:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T12:01:11","slug":"wordpress-imagick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/wordpress-imagick\/","title":{"rendered":"WordPress Imagick: What Is It and How to Enable It?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ImageMagick or Imagick is one of the libraries used by WordPress to optimize images on your site. However, by generating higher-quality images, they can also increase the size of your image files. This can slow down your site and result in a poor user experience. So, how to handle WordPress Imagick correctly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Long story short, you can enable WordPress Imagick with an easy-to-use plugin. Then, you can make sure WordPress uses Imagick every time (over other image libraries). Meanwhile, you can configure your WordPress Imagick settings to prioritize quality or size to speed up your loading times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In this post, we’ll take a closer look at WordPress Imagick<\/a>. Then, we’ll guide \ud83d\udcda you through three simple steps to enable Imagick<\/a> on your website. Let’s get to it!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\t\t \t\tWhat is #WordPress #Imagick \ud83e\udd14 and how to enable it?<\/a>\n\t\t \t<\/div>\n\t\t \t
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An introduction to WordPress Imagick<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You might not know that when you upload a new image to WordPress, the platform automatically optimizes the image<\/a> for you. To do this, WordPress relies on two PHP libraries:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. \ud83d\udc49 GD Library<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. \ud83d\udc49 Imagick (a PHP extension that uses Image Magick)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Both of them are PHP<\/a> modules that are already installed on your server (at most hosts).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    GD Library and Imagick can be used by anyone to resize, crop, compress, and optimize images. Additionally, you can use them to change the contrast of images, increase the brightness, and add text overlay to your pictures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Although these libraries work similarly, WordPress generally prefers to use Imagick over GD Library if both modules are installed on your server (as of WordPress 3.5<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This is because Imagick supports tons of image formats<\/a> and typically results in a higher-quality image.<\/p>\n\n\n

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    Why configure WordPress Imagick on your site<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    As long as your hosting server has the Imagick module installed (which almost all WordPress hosts will do<\/em>), WordPress will most likely already be using Imagick to optimize your site’s images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    That is, you do not need to do anything just to enable WordPress Imagick optimization (assuming the module is already installed on your server<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However, you might want to customize how Imagick optimizes your images, either to use more aggressive optimization (which might reduce image quality somewhat<\/em>) or to use less optimization (which will create higher-quality images, but at the expense of file size<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For example, if you run a photography website<\/a>, you might want to adjust the WordPress Imagick settings to ensure that you’re not causing any drop in quality on your portfolio images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fortunately, you can use a plugin to customize the WordPress Imagick settings according to your preferences. Then, you can choose whether you want WordPress to prioritize speed or quality.<\/p>\n\n\n

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    How to enable WordPress Imagick (3 Steps)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Now, let’s take a look at how to enable WordPress Imagick and configure the way the library manages your images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n