Blog Filter – Post Grid Filter by Category or Tag vs Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN

Need a beautiful blog post grid for your site? This plugin is built for you. It helps you show your posts in clean grids or masonry layouts. Visitors can instantly filter posts by Category or Tag without loading new pages. This makes your site faster and much easier to explore. Upgrade To Premium – Blog Filter Plugin Premium Blog Filter Plugin Demo Simple and Powerful Our Blog Filter fetches your content automatically. You can choose two main styles for your Post Grid: * Grid Layout: Shows your posts in even rows and neat columns. * Masonry Layout: Fits posts tightly together like Pinterest, saving empty space. Who Needs a Filterable Post Grid? Bloggers: Let readers sort through articles by Category or Tag. News Sites: Arrange top news into easy sections that users can toggle. Portfolio Sites: Showcase your work dynamically in a clean visual grid. Writers: Help users find specific topics using simple button clicks. Blog Filter Post Grid Key Features Instant Category or Tag Filters Users click filter buttons above your grid. Posts will instantly sort by their Category or Tag. Responsive Layouts Your Post Grid looks great on phones, tablets, and desktops. The design adapts to every screen size. Grid and Masonry Styles Switch between standard grids or masonry layouts with one click. Masonry works best for images of different heights. Fast Load More Button Instead of slow page numbers, use our AJAX Load More button. It loads new posts fast without refreshing. Page Builder Ready Works with classic editors and modern page builders. Fully compatible with Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Divi. Quick Setup Guide Install and activate the plugin through your WordPress dashboard Navigate to “Plugins Menu > Blog Filter Settings” Configure the appearance and filtering options Copy the generated shortcode Paste the shortcode into any page, post, or widget area That’s it. The plugin handles the rest automatically. Available Languages Blog Filter supports multiple languages out of the box: Arabic (ar) Chinese (zh_CN) Dutch (nl_NL) Finnish (fi_FI) French (fr_FR) German (de_DE) Hebrew (he_IL) Hindi (hi_IN) Hungarian (hu_HU) Indonesian (id_ID) Italian (it_IT) Japanese (ja_JP) Polish (pl_PL) Portuguese (pt_PT) Russian (ru_RU) Spanish (es_ES) You can also translate the plugin into your native language using standard WordPress translation methods. Blog Filter Features Automatic Post Detection The plugin automatically pulls in your existing WordPress posts. There’s no manual entry required – just install, configure your display preferences, and your posts appear in the filtered layout. Category and Tag Filtering Choose whether to filter posts by categories, tags, or both. Filter buttons appear above your post grid, allowing visitors to narrow down content with a single click. Responsive Grid Layout Posts display in a grid format that adapts to screen sizes. Whether someone visits on a desktop monitor, tablet, or smartphone, the layout adjusts accordingly. Masonry Arrangement Enable masonry layout to create that Pinterest-style look where posts of varying heights fit together without awkward gaps. This works particularly well when your posts have featured images of different dimensions. Image Quality Control Select the image resolution for displayed thumbnails. You can opt for high-resolution images on design-focused sites, or choose smaller sizes for faster page loads. Multi-Color Filter Buttons Apply different colors to your filter buttons to match your site’s design or to help visitors visually distinguish between categories. Post Titles and Details Show or hide post titles, dates, authors, and other metadata. Control what information appears beneath each post thumbnail. Automatic Post Links Each post in the grid links directly to its full single post page. No additional configuration needed. Shortcode-Based Placement Use the generated shortcode to place your filtered post grid anywhere on your site – pages, posts, sidebar widgets, or page builder sections. Load More Functionality Instead of pagination, you can enable a “Load More” button that fetches additional posts without page reloads. Custom Post Type Support Display posts from custom post types, not just standard WordPress posts. Premium Version Features The premium version of Blog Filter includes additional capabilities: BLOG FILTER PREMIUM FEATURES WITH DEMO Blog Filter Premium Layout 1 Blog Filter Premium Layout 2 Blog Filter Premium Layout 3 Blog Filter Premium Multiple Column Layout Blog Filter Premium Without Image Blog Filter Premium Without Filters Blog Filter Premium With Hover Effects Blog Filter Premium With Lightbox Blog Filter Premium With Single Post Link On Image Blog Filter Premium With Second Variation for Title, Date & Author Premium Features Include Multiple pre-designed templates Up to 4-column layouts Five hover effects for post thumbnails Lightbox popup for featured images Unlimited filter colors Custom CSS option for advanced styling Widget support for sidebar placement Additional post metadata display options Bootstrap-based framework Priority support Understanding Masonry Layouts Masonry layout arranges elements in a grid where items are positioned to fill vertical space efficiently. Unlike traditional grids where each row has the same height, masonry allows items of different sizes to stack closely together. This layout style became popular through sites like Pinterest and works well for: Posts with varied featured image dimensions Content archives with mixed media types Visual portfolios and galleries Magazine-style homepage designs Blog Filter handles masonry calculations automatically. You enable the option, and the plugin takes care of positioning each post to minimize empty space. Lightbox Functionality The premium version includes Swipebox lightbox integration, which displays featured images in an overlay popup. Key lightbox features: Swipe gestures for mobile navigation Keyboard navigation on desktop CSS transitions with jQuery fallback Retina-ready UI icons Browser compatibility: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, IE9+, iOS 4+, Android, Windows Phone Recommended Plugins Other plugins from the same development team: Portfolio Filter Gallery – Create filterable image galleries for portfolios, photography, and artwork. Instagram Type Gallery – Display images in Instagram-inspired grid layouts. Grid Gallery – Simple grid layout for image galleries in posts, pages, and widgets. Image Gallery – Lightbox-enabled gallery for displaying images. Photo Gallery – Versatile gallery supporting photos, videos, links, and maps. Responsive Slider Gallery – Create responsive image sliders with shortcode placement. Video Gallery – Display video content in organized gallery layouts. Contact Form Widget – Add contact forms via shortcodes and widgets. Social Media Widget – Display social media profile links in your sidebar. Slider Responsive Slideshow – Lightweight responsive slider for WordPress. Facebook Like Box – Embed Facebook page like boxes on your site.

Compress images, optimize images, and enable image lazy load automatically with the powerful Smush image optimizer to keep your WordPress site fast, without losing quality. Smush makes it easy to optimize images, compress images, and deliver images faster across your entire WordPress site. This all-in-one image optimizer automatically reduces image file sizes, enables image lazy load, and serves modern formats like WebP and AVIF, all without breaking image quality or adding extra work. Whether you’re running a blog, store, or portfolio, Smush helps you optimize images at scale and keep your site fast with a trusted WordPress image optimizer. Trusted by 1+ Million Sites | 4.8/5 Star Rating Get everything you need to optimize images and speed up your site. Smush works out of the box with no complicated setup – just install and let it handle the rest. Compress images without losing quality Reduce image file size automatically while keeping your images sharp and clear. Smush is an easy-to-use image optimizer which let’s you compress images using both lossless and lossy compression, giving you the best balance of quality and performance without extra work. You can also compress images outside the media library using Directory Smush, making it easy to optimize images stored in theme folders, plugins, or other directories on your server. Lazy load images for faster pages Enable image lazy load across your site so images load only when needed. This image optimizer improves initial page speed and creates a smoother experience for visitors without extra configuration. Serve WebP and AVIF images automatically (PRO) Convert images to WebP and AVIF and serve them automatically to supported browsers. Smush helps you optimize images using next-gen formats to reduce file size and improve load times across your WordPress site. Deliver images faster with an Image CDN (PRO) Serve images through a global image CDN to reduce latency and improve load times for visitors around the world. 119 global CDN servers Up to 500 GB of bandwidth Faster image delivery based on visitor location Improved performance for image-heavy and high-traffic sites Automatically resize and fix image dimensions (PRO) Eliminate common PageSpeed warnings and improve layout stability with automatic image sizing. Smush dynamically resizes images to perfectly fit their containers, regardless of original size, helping fix the “Properly size images” warning in Google PageSpeed Insights. It also automatically adds missing width and height attributes to your images, improving rendering speed and reducing layout shifts. This helps you meet the “Ensure images have explicit width and height” recommendation without any manual work. Optimize your entire site, automatically Smush works across your whole site as a powerful image optimizer to optimize images as you upload them and maintain performance over time without manual work. Optimize images automatically on upload Compress images in bulk or individually Works with your existing media library No need to re-upload images Enable image lazy load across your site Convert images to WebP and AVIF Deliver images with an integrated image CDN Automatically resize and serve correctly sized images Optimize images outside the media library with Directory Smush Built for performance Smush improves page speed and overall performance by reducing image weight and improving how images are delivered. Reduce page load times Improve user experience Better performance for image-heavy pages Supports image lazy load and preload images (PRO) for faster perceived performance Works with your existing setup Smush is built to work with your current WordPress setup, including popular themes, page builders, and plugins. Compatible with Gutenberg, Elementor, WPBakery, and more Works with WooCommerce stores No need to change your workflow Easy to enable and configure Designed to be simple You don’t need to be a performance expert to optimize images with Smush image optimizer. Works out of the box Simple settings when you need them No technical knowledge required Safe to use on any site Why choose Smush? There are plenty of image optimization plugins, but Smush focuses on making it easy to optimize images, compress images, and improve performance without complexity. As a leading WordPress image optimizer, Smush gives you powerful optimization tools without the technical hassle. Trusted by over 1 million WordPress users Built specifically for WordPress Regular updates and improvements Backed by the WPMU DEV team Get started in minutes Install Smush, activate it, and start to compress images, optimize images, and enable image lazy load right away. This easy-to-use image optimizer helps most sites see improvements immediately without changing how they upload or manage images. About Us WPMU DEV is a premium supplier of quality WordPress plugins, services and support. Learn more here: https://wpmudev.com/ Don’t forget to stay up to date on everything WordPress from the Internet’s number one resource: WPMU DEV Blog Hey, one more thing… we hope you enjoy our free offerings as much as we’ve loved making them for you! Contact and Credits Originally written by Alex Dunae at Dialect (dialect.ca, e-mail ‘alex’ at ‘dialect dot ca’), 2008-11.