My Wordpress Image Process

I think I finally have the image process for WordPress figured out. It’s been a long time in the making. I’ve been running WordPress since March of ‘04. I’m no blog expert and have very limited PHP and CSS, but I’m apt to try, and try I’ve done. I’ve had 5 or 6 themes that I’ve massaged into doing what I’ve wanted and I’ve been fretting about the images all along. On the latest blog that I’ve done I think it has all gelled. That means it’s time to get it all down so in 6 months when I get around to doing it on my site I’ll still be able to remember what I’ve done and how to do it again.

What I’m trying to accomplish…

Uploading - I want to be able to upload images in bulk or one at a time. If I load them up one at a time I would expect to have the thumbnails made and the image sized. For bulk uploads I would do thumbnails and sizing that before hand.

Storing - I need a way to store my images in all the various sizes that I desire without breaking the bank and breaking into a new tier on my virtual server plan. I want my image storage to act as a supplemental backup for my images as well as serving the sized and thumbnail versions.

Displaying - I want to be able to easily place images in my post where and when I want them. I want these images to be pre styled to float (top right or left), and or contain the correct titles, alternate text, description, etc. I would also like the pre style to allow for lightbox and simple gallery displays. Oh yeah, all of these need to work together.

I use the following tools to get all this done and wanted this to be an all-in-one post, but I doubt that I could ever be so brief, especially with the many plugins and tools that I use. This will have to be done in parts. Here are my tools.

GIMP, Phatch, Flexible Upload, S3, WordPressS3, Iimage Gallery, Random Image, Lightbox 2