[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #44441: Remove the settings for "medium" and "large" image sizes from Settings => Media

[WordPress Trac]

#44441: Remove the settings for "medium" and "large" image sizes from Settings =>
Media
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 Reporter:  azaozz        |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect (bug)  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal        |   Milestone:  5.0
Component:  Media         |     Version:
 Severity:  normal        |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                |     Focuses:
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Comment (by rogerlos):

 If we're wish-listing how WP could better handle the administration of
 images and their many-and-varied sizes, here's my experience implementing
 100 custom themes for various clients, both designed by me or designed by
 someone else:

 * Hardly anyone whose job it is to administer web sites cares about actual
 ''pixel dimensions''
 * Nearly everyone cares about image ''aspect ratios''...and in adaptive
 layouts, the desired aspect ratio may be different for different device
 widths
 * It's incomprehensible for your average site admin (I have heard this
 ''dozens'' of times) that changing a theme or changing the image size
 means having to install a plugin to "regenerate thumbnails" for their
 existing image library if they want to see the new size
 * Wordpress does have some inconsistent behaviors surrounding images,
 especially if the user has used the editor to alter the original uploaded
 image. (I lodged a bug which never got any traction noting that if a user
 edits an image in such a way that it's now smaller than a defined size,
 WordPress silently uses the unaltered image instead if the large size is
 called for.)

 I think it's smart for WordPress to silently, based on stats/best
 practices/whatever to define some image sizes to be used by srcset. When a
 theme or a plugin defines a size, they should be defining the **aspect
 ratio**. (And if they don't care about the aspect ratio, they don't need
 to define a size at all.)

 Really, rules about max sizes (like "left-aligned images in the body
 should never be more than half the width of the content box") should be
 defined with CSS rules in any case.

 This would mean WP could be smart about thumbnail creation...if my plugin
 creates `dorky_plugin_wide => [ 16, 9 ]` and the theme creates
 `theme_content => [ 16,  9 ]`, WordPress only needs to go get its set of
 `myimage-16-9-{width}.jpg` images.

 (Out of the box, WP could ship with 16:9, 4:3 and square. That covers
 nearly every use case for some very large percentage of sites, eh?)

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/44441#comment:17>
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