A preset combines four settings under a single name: target dimensions, resizing mode (Fit, Cover, Crop, Contain, or Stretch), compression quality level, and allowed formats. Rather than repeating these four settings every time an image appears in the theme, you define them once for the intended use, then call the preset by name from the editor block, widget, or automatic replacement. The benefit goes beyond mere convenience: changing the size of catalog thumbnails later or tightening the compression of category banners is done by modifying a single preset,every location in the theme that uses it automatically inherits the changes, without having to go through the code or edit existing images one by one.
ImagePipe provides five ready-to-use presets, each designed for a specific e-commerce use case. product_card styles catalog and grid thumbnails using either Cover or Crop mode, ensuring a visually consistent grid even when product photos don’t all have the same aspect ratio. product_page handles the main image on a product page, which is displayed large and sometimes zoomed in: it uses more moderate compression than product_card, where many thumbnails are visible at once and every kilobyte saved has a greater impact on the page’s total size. category_banner covers the wide banners on category pages, typically using “Cover” or “Contain” depending on whether the image should fill the entire space or remain fully visible. manufacturer_logo is optimized for logos, which are most often in transparent PNG format: “Contain” or “Fit,” never “Crop,” to ensure that no part of the logo is ever cropped. mobile_thumbnail follows the same approach as product_card but with smaller dimensions and tighter compression, designed for small screens and slower mobile connections.
On WordPress, most images require no manual configuration: once automatic replacement is enabled in the settings, ImagePipe automatically applies the correct preset to standard theme and WooCommerce locations,product grid and gallery, site logo, and featured images. For a more specific location, such as an image manually inserted into a page or post, the ImagePipe Gutenberg block and the corresponding Elementor widget directly offer the five presets in a drop-down menu, without requiring you to know their internal settings.
The presets also serve a second, less visible purpose: in the watermark settings in the admin panel, each checkbox in the “Apply to automatic replacement families” section corresponds to one of the five presets. Checking “product_card” applies the watermark to all product thumbnails displayed on the site, not just the images explicitly requested via that specific preset,this is the same mechanism that drives automatic replacement. A preset is therefore not just a configuration shortcut: it’s also the unit that ImagePipe uses internally to determine which family of images a given option should affect.