Theme Blvd Piecemaker Addon vs Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN

This plugin will add the Piecemaker 2 Flash slider to the Slider Manager’s built-in slider types when using a WordPress theme with the Theme Blvd framework version 2.0.4+. Who is this plugin for? If you’re not using a Theme Blvd theme, and you’re looking to incorporate Piecemaker into your WordPress site, the following plugin is what you’re looking for: https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/the-piecemaker-image-rotator/ However, if you are using a Theme Blvd WordPress theme, this plugin will allow you to use Piecemaker 2 within the the features of the framework. This means that you can use your theme’s current Slider Manager to create Piecemaker sliders. You can then use those sliders in all standard places like within the Layout Builder and via the [slider] shortcode in pages and posts. How do I use the plugin? After you install this plugin, a new slider type will be added to the current slider types you already have. So, you’ll need to go to the Sliders page in your WordPress admin panel, and now when you click the “Add New” tab, you’ll notice “Piecemaker” has been added to the list of slider types you can choose from. Proceed in creating your slider as you normally would, however you will notice that you obviously have less options for configuring your slides than with the framework’s standard slider type. Plugin Limitations Since the Theme Blvd framework v2.0+ is 100% responsive, this Piecemaker addon obviously comes with its limitations. If it had no limitations, we would have most likely incorporated it into the core sliders of the framework. Slider Location: First of all, because Piecemaker is a Flash/XML slider, it cannot be setup to automatically re-size with the rest of your site. So, this limits you in where you can actually use this slider within your site. The standard slider type that comes with your Theme Blvd theme can be placed essentially anywhere in your site. However when you’re using the Piecemaker Addon, it can only be used within a “full-width” area. So this means you can either use it up in the “Featured Area” or in the “Primary Area” only when you have a “Full Width” sidebar layout selected. Mobile Devices and Tablets: Second, also because piecemaker is a Flash/XML slider, it obviously will not work at all on iOS devices (i.e. iPads and iPhones), which provide no support for Flash. Also, because the theme will get scaled down on other mobile and tablet devices that do support Flash anyway, the slider would look bad because your images would be cut off. So, for this plugin what I’ve done is provide a responsive fallback. When your site is being viewed on any device with a viewport 800px or smaller, the Piecemaker plugin gets hidden, and in its place, you will see all of your slider’s images listed out. Important Note After installing this plugin, you must give the “xml” directory within the plugin writeable file permissions (755 or 777 depending on your server). Not doing this will make the plugin impossible to use because the XML files required for your Piecemaker sliders will not be generated.

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.