by Presswell 5 (2 reviews)

Presswell Art Direction

Name: Presswell Art Direction
Rating: 5.0 (2 reviews)
Author: Presswell

Manage focal-point cropping and on-demand custom image generation in WordPress.

Presswell Art Direction ranks #17,402 among WordPress.org plugins with 80+ active installations, is #1,857 of 6,651 in the Media category, a 5/5 rating from 2 reviews, and was last updated Oct 15, 2026. Data from WordPress.org, refreshed twice daily — see methodology.

Compatible with WP 7.1

v2.2.0 Current Version v2.2.0

Updated 3 weeks ago Last Update on 15 Oct, 2026

Refreshed 1 week ago Last Refreshed on

#1,857 of 6,651 in Media Top 25% by installs Downloads +128% this week Actively maintained

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Rank

#17,402

— No change

Active Installs

80+

-5.9%

KW Avg Position

— No change

Downloads

4.6K

+17 today

Support Resolved

— No change

Rating

100%

Review 5 out of 5

5 (2 reviews)

Next Milestone 90

Total Progress 80%

80+ 90+

339

Ranks to Climb

Growth Needed

8,000,000

Active Installs

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Rank Changes

Current #17,402

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Active Installs Growth

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Active Installs 0,000,000+

Growth +0.0%

Peak 0,000,000

Downloads Growth

Downloads

Growth

Peak

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Reviews & Ratings

5.0

2 reviews

Overall 100%

2 (100%)

0 (0%)

Security History

Source: WPVulnerability

No known vulnerabilities on record for Presswell Art Direction. Checked 3 months ago.

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Plugin Details

Version: 2.2.0
Last Updated: Oct 15, 2026
Requires WP: 6.6+
Tested Up To: 7.1
PHP Version: 7.4 or higher
Author: Presswell

Support & Rating

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5
Reviews: 2
Support Threads: 0
Resolved: 0%

Keywords

crop focal-point image responsive images thumbnails

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TL;DR

AI summary of the plugin's readme

Presswell Art Direction is for WordPress editors and developers who need control over image cropping and custom thumbnail sizes. It solves the problem of wasted storage and processing by generating non-core image sizes only on demand instead of at upload time, while letting editors set focal points to keep crops centered on the right subject.

Focal-point cropping
Custom image sizes with nested thumbnails
Custom sizes selectable in block/classic editor
Dynamic on-demand thumbnail generation
Batch thumbnail regeneration tool
Endpoint Mode for 404 handoff issues
Import/export size definitions
WP-CLI commands for regenerate/cache management

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Presswell Art Direction

When viewing an image in the media library click the 'Set Focal Point' button. Use the size dropdown to change the crop preview. Click and drag the blue focal point marker to identify the subject of the image. When finished, click the 'Save Focal Point' button to update the focal point settings and clear the image thumbnail cache for regeneration.

Focal points let you control crop framing across many sizes without manually defining crop coordinates for every variant.

Themes often register many custom sizes, but only a subset are used on the live site. Dynamic generation creates only the thumbnails that are actually requested.

Endpoint Mode serves generated images through a WordPress endpoint when your server does not pass filename-based 404 image requests to WordPress. The plugin can auto-enable this mode when compatibility checks fail.

Open Media -> Regenerate Thumbnails and run the regenerator, or run wp pwad regenerate from WP-CLI.

Turn on Image Block Support under Settings -> Art Direction. The Image block's Resolution then lists your image sets (with core's Thumbnail, Medium, Large, and Full Size) instead of every generated size, and srcset serves each set's smaller sizes. Pick a set to choose the image's shape: it uses the set's real crop, cut around the image's focal point. The block's Art Direction panel shows which set is in use and lets you drag the image's focal point without leaving the editor, with any set's crop outlined on the image (it starts with the block's Resolution). Saving rebuilds the image's crops around the new point; the focal point belongs to the image, so it applies everywhere the image is used. The Image block's aspect ratio presets are removed, so shapes come from your sets rather than CSS crops; other blocks keep the theme's presets. Image blocks that already use an aspect ratio matching a set are served that set's crop, and other aspect ratios are centred on the image's focal point. Nothing is changed in saved posts, so turning the setting off returns everything to how it was.

Add the Art Directed Image block. Choose an image, then pick an image set for Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile in the block's sidebar; tablet uses the desktop crop and mobile uses the tablet crop unless you choose another. Choosing a device also switches the editor's preview, so the canvas shows the crop you're working on. The block outputs a <picture> element, so browsers download only the crop that fits the screen. The breakpoints come from WordPress itself (480px for mobile and 782px for tablet by default, or your theme's settings.viewport in theme.json), so crops switch exactly where the editor's device preview and the theme's responsive styles do. The block has the same focal point editor as the Image block, plus alt text, a caption, alignment, and a transform to and from the Image block.

Settings -> Art Direction -> Debug has a status table covering how images are generated and served (Smart Cache, Compatibility Mode, missing file requests, the image editor, the uploads folder, and custom sizes), focal points, the last regenerator and cache command runs, and any conflicting plugins. It also has an image debugger that shows every size and URL for one image, and the private debug log.