Featured Image Sizing in Balance Theme

[chrisfordParticipant Post count: 6]

I recently installed Genesis and the Balance Child theme at http://www.myfordassociates.com – On installation, the featured image of a blog post does not appear under the heading of the most recent blog post the way it does in the sample. The sample’s most recent post is a single column and the image is 600X200. I would like all of my blog posts to appear this way without having to create a 600X200 image in Photoshop every time I post.

I’ve been trying, unsuccessfully to get the featured images to resize correctly on the main page the same way they show up on the sample site.

I checked here, and found a post that seems to discuss the exact same issue. http://www.studiopress.com/forums/topic/featured-image-in-balance-theme/

They kinda go through some back and forth before he figures it out. I followed what he said he did on his site:

Went into functions.php, added image size as follows:

add_image_size( ‘featured’ , 600, 200, TRUE );

Went into home.php and adjusted feature_image_size from ’0′ to ‘featured’; reuploaded the image.

Following these instructions, my featured image does appear, but it’s not resized to fit the 600×200 size. I’ve been exchanging email with someone from support here, but in her last email, she said that there is no way to do this.

To have the posts look like the demo site, just insert the image in the post. That is all we did. We did not add extra code to the theme. If we had, it would be in your copy. Insert the image in the post. Choose the option to not link the image.

But I’ve at least confirmed that I can set the home.php and functions.php so the featured image appears on the main page, so I know it’s possible. Now, how do I get them to be the right size?
I did remove the featured image and even uploaded an entirely different image. I’ve also tried the Regenerate Thumbnails plug-in. Nothing seems to work. Even the small thumbnails aren’t sizing properly. The images are cropped.
Do images used for the feature image need to be a specific ratio in order to work correctly?
 

[braddaltonParticipant Post count: 2455]

How about the Genesis > Theme Settings > Content Archives > Include the Featured Image?

The custom size you added in your functions.php will now display in the drop down menu under Content Archives.

What size are all your existing featured images?

Are the same the same size or larger than 600×200?

Are they already added as featured images in all your edit post/page screens?

Shouldn’t need to edit the home.php

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WordPress Developer & Consultant
Brad Dalton @ WP Sites – Click Here to Get Genesis Child Theme Tips Delivered.

[chrisfordParticipant Post count: 6]

Great suggestion Brad. That worked for the archive page, but still no dice on the main blog page. The featured image I uploaded is 1280×720 and it’s resized to 620×349 which is 48%. I wonder if there’s a percentage resize setting somewhere that I’m not seeing.

I’m noticing that it crops the image proportion for the grid on the main page and for the archive, but not for the top blog post which is interesting. I don’t really like that it crops, but I guess it’s better than going a couple of sizes smaller on the width in order to get the full picture in the box. I’ve got a different theme on another blog that does that, but it uses a more common image proportion for the featured blog images. (600X400).

I really like the slim rectangular image they’ve got on the sample. So if I can get it to resize to 600 width then center crop the height, I’d be happy with that.

[chrisfordParticipant Post count: 6]

I think the best way is just to create featured images 600×200 or at least in that proportion so they resize consistently, since it won’t crop them. It’ll look better anyway. At least I got the featured image to show up in that position. That was kinda driving me crazy.

[braddaltonParticipant Post count: 2455]

Thats what i do so they’re the right size from the beginning and any resizing based on the image sizes you set in functions works perfectly:

Example: 600 X 300

add_image_size( ‘featured’ , 600, 300, TRUE );
add_image_size( ‘archives’ , 300, 150, TRUE );  

Cropping the images to the same size as your featured image before uploading is better than resizing.

When i tested this, the existing featured images didn’t change size.

I also try and keep the images to a size which will work if i decide to change child themes.

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WordPress Developer & Consultant
Brad Dalton @ WP Sites – Click Here to Get Genesis Child Theme Tips Delivered.

[chrisfordParticipant Post count: 6]

Thanks Brad. That’s exactly what I did… it works great, too. I thought about scalability, and using more common image proportions, but still went with the 600×200. It just looks really good on this theme, I think.

Thanks for the info and your help… my site’s looking great!

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