JCOGS Image

Advanced Image Manipulation for EE5, EE6, and EE7

JCOGS Image is a simple to use tag based image processing add-on for ExpressionEngine 5, 6 and 7. It is fast, efficient and provides a range of image manipulation options that go beyond those available within EE’s built in image processing services. For those updating from earlier versions of EE, JCOGS Image is also a ‘drop-in’ replacement for the CE Image add-on.

What’s new in Version 1.4?

Version 1.4 is a major update to the JCOGS Image add-on. For a complete list of the changes introduced for this version see the add-on’s changelog entry. The key new features comprise:

• Re-written and optimised internal workflows have improved Image version 1.4’s performance compared to 1.3 by a large amount. In tests version 1.4 was found to be about 1.7 times faster than 1.3
• Support for storing Image’s unified image cache on a variety of Cloud File Systems such as AWS S3

What does JCOGS Image do?

• Image Format Conversion
  Change the image format used by an image. Currently the add-on supports changing image formats between bmp, gif, jpg (standard and interaced), png and webp image formats. JCOGS Image can also read files saved in the HEIC format used for Apple iPhone image storage.
• Resizing
  Crop and resize images. Images can be resized to fit into a defined space (either contain or cover). Image cropping can use nominated aspect ratios and can be combined with rescaling. By default Image will preserve an image’s aspect ratio, but you can use resizing to distort an image if required.
• Manipulations
  Apply a range of image effects to an image. Current options include rotation, horizontal and / or vertical flips and the application of a range of image filters (e.g. greyscale, blur etc). Filters can be combined sequentially, and can be applied to converted / resized images. JCOGS Image also supports standard shape image masks (e.g. polygons, stars, circles, boxes) and custom masks. See the JCOGS Image documentation for more details of the filters available.
• Simplify building fast responsive pages
  JCOGS Image provides powerful extra features - such as automatically configured Lazy Loading (fully supporting progressive enhancement), and automatic generation of responsive versions of images (by generating srcset and sizes parameters for img tags, along with necessary size variants).

Why choose JCOGS Image?

• It is up to date!
  JCOGS Image has been tested on EE5, EE6 and EE7 installations and is compatible with php 7.4 through 8.3
• Single Image or Batch Processing
  Use a template tag to modify a single image or to apply the same modifications to all the images within a content block - or a mix of the two since the nesting of JCOGS Image tags is supported.
• Remote or Local Image Sources
  JCOGS Image works equally well with locally stored images or images obtained from internet based sources.
• Flexible Caching Options
  JCOGS Image has a powerful SEO friendly unified image caching system for the images it generates; cache options can be set globally and then overwritten on a tag-by-tag basis through parameter options.
• Action-Link System
  JCOGS Image provides a powerful and flexible solution for working with images when using static or template caching with your site: use the Action-Link system in automatic mode to allow your images to refresh even while the the template that they are part of is statically or template cached; use the manual mode to create dynamic links that can generate custom image transformations - allowing complete control of your images via Javascript.
• Active Support
  JCOGS Image is actively supported, both in terms of new feature development and in terms of responding to any issues encountered during use of the add-on.

“Drop-in” upgrades for sites using CE Image

JCOGS Image unlocks a simple upgrade path for existing EE5 and EE6 for sites developed using the CE-Img add-on.

Although based on a completely new image processing code base, JCOGS Image has been designed to have strong compatiblity with CE Image parameters and functions: in many cases it is possible to upgrade an existing site without loss of function simply doing a search / replace to update the tag name used: for example changing {exp:ce_img:single...} to {exp:jcogs_img:single...}.

Please Note: One CE Image image manipulation function is not replicated (ASCIIart) and some filters (e.g. pixelate) have some small differences in the output produced. See the documentation for more details.

Requirements

As of version 1.4 JCOGS Image’s minimum plaform requirements changed.

• JCOGS Image 1.4 has been tested and is supported for use on EE6 and EE7 systems.
• JCOGS Image 1.4 requires the server hosting the EE installation to be running php 8.1 (or better) and some version of the GD/GD2 library.
• JCOGS Image 1.4 requires that the php directive allow_url_fopen is enabled on the server it is being used on - at least for a short while to allow for license validation to occur. Once validated JCOGS Image will operate normally on servers where this directive is disabled, but with this directive disabled Image will be unable to retrieve remote images.

Note: For use on systems running ExpressionEngine 5 or that need to run php 7.4 or 8.0, you are recommended to use JCOGS Image 1.3.23 (included in the distribution zip file); a version that is capable of operating on platforms meeting these lower specifications. As with version 1.4, to operate version 1.3.23 your server will need to have some version of the GD/GD2 library installed and the php directive allow_url_fopen enabled.

Fully supported, ongoing development…

JCOGS Image support is first class - if you have questions about using JCOGS Image or encounter any kind of issues, JCOGS Design provide rapid and (hopefully) helpful support!

JCOGS Image is regularly updated both to introduce new features and fix bugs. Check out the changelog to see what has happened recently.