Large, uncompressed images can really slow down your WordPress site. Believe it or not, many users have no idea how to resize an image using image editing software, so they simply upload images as-is. Even if the image is resized by the theme to fit the width of the content area, it still requires time to process when loading the page.

That’s where the WP Image Size Limit plugin is very useful. It gives you a new option in the WordPress media settings to set a custom file size limit specific to large image files. It allows you to set a size smaller than WordPress’ default file size limit, so that you can maintain greater control on the the size of allowed uploads.

Here’s what your new Dasbhoard >> Settings >> Media page will look like with the added option:

Please note that it only applies to image files. This is intentional, because this lets you retain the ability to upload large files of other formats, such as audio, video, etc.

The media upload window will now display both the maximum image upload size and the maximum upload size for other types of files.

In this day and age when everyone’s phone doubles as a high quality digital camera and everyone fancies himself an amateur photographer, it’s important to make sure that these large images are not slowing your site down. Instead of training every user to become proficient with image editing software, you can simplify your life by adding a plugin to restrict the upload size. This is something you can be proactive about if you’re setting up a site for someone else or if you suspect your site’s authors might forget to check the file size before uploading. Keep your WordPress site zipping along nicely by adding the WP Image Size Limit plugin. It’s free and you’ll thank yourself later for all the space you’re saving if you have a very active blog.