Coverpeek – Auto Thumbnails with Live Preview
Automatically creates a title-text thumbnail and sets it as the featured image for posts that don't have one — with a live preview.
Solid choice
Coverpeek is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. Was last updated 2 weeks ago, and scores 64/100 on our health check.
- Actively developed — last update 2 weeks ago
- Tested with the latest WordPress (7.1)
- Small user base (<10 active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Coverpeek stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| featured image | >100 |
| ogimage | #1 |
| open graph | >100 |
| thumbnail | >100 |
| thumbnail generator | >100 |
About Coverpeek
From the official readme · v0.1.0Description
Coverpeek automatically generates a featured image for any post that doesn’t already have one. The generated image shows the post title on a background of your choice, so every post gets a clean, consistent thumbnail without any manual work.
By default this applies to blog posts, but you can also enable it for pages and any public custom post type from the settings screen.
How it works
- Whenever you save a published item (of a post type you’ve enabled) that has no featured image, one is generated automatically and set for you.
- If you later edit the title of a post, and its current featured image is one this plugin generated, that image is regenerated to match the new title.
- A featured image you set yourself is never touched, replaced, or removed by this plugin.
- If you remove a generated featured image and save the post, that save leaves the post without a featured image — nothing is generated at that moment. But the plugin fills in any missing featured image whenever a post is saved, so the next time that post is edited in any way and saved (even an edit unrelated to the image), a new thumbnail will be generated. To stop this from happening on a specific post, set a featured image manually instead of leaving it empty — a manually-set image is never touched by this plugin. See the FAQ for details.
- An “Auto” badge appears on generated images in the Media Library (on by default), and, optionally, as a thumbnail column in the Posts list too — so you can tell them apart from featured images you set yourself. The Posts list column is off by default, since some themes and plugins already show a thumbnail column of their own.
Backgrounds
- Choose from 5 built-in background designs, or upload your own image.
- Recommended size for custom backgrounds: 1200 x 630px.
- Supported upload formats: PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, BMP.
Text customization
- Text color, font size, horizontal/vertical alignment, margins, and line height are all configurable.
- A Japanese font (Noto Sans JP Bold) is bundled, so Japanese titles render correctly out of the box.
Live preview
The settings screen includes a live preview: as you change the background, colors, size, or alignment, you can see the actual generated thumbnail update immediately, with editable sample text. No more guessing how it will look. When you adjust the horizontal or vertical margin, the margin area is highlighted in color right on the preview image, so it’s immediately obvious where the margin actually falls.
Optional: OGP meta tags
Coverpeek can also output standard Open Graph meta tags (og:title, og:type, og:url, og:image, and more) for the post types you’ve enabled in the Post types tab. This is off by default, since many SEO plugins (Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, SEOPress, The SEO Framework) already output these tags — enabling both at once can cause duplicates. If one of those plugins is detected active, the settings screen shows a warning before you turn this on.
Performance
Thumbnails are generated once, when a post is saved — not on every page view. Visiting the site afterward is exactly as fast as with a manually uploaded featured image; there is no per-request image generation.
Requirements
This plugin uses the PHP GD extension (with FreeType/text support) to draw the thumbnail. GD is bundled with PHP and enabled by default on the vast majority of hosting providers. If it’s missing, the plugin shows a notice in the admin area and simply skips thumbnail generation — it will not break your site.
Credits
This plugin bundles the Noto Sans JP Bold font (Copyright 2014-2020 Adobe, Noto is a trademark of Google Inc.), licensed under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. See assets/fonts/LICENSE.txt for the full license text.
Installation
- Upload the plugin files to
/wp-content/plugins/coverpeek, or install the plugin through the WordPress plugins screen directly. - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ screen in WordPress.
- Go to Settings > Coverpeek to choose a background, customize the text, and pick which post types (posts, pages, or custom post types) should get automatic thumbnails.
Frequently asked questions
Emoji in my post title don’t show up in the generated thumbnail — why?
The PHP GD library used to draw the thumbnail doesn’t reliably render characters outside the Basic Multilingual Plane (which includes most emoji), and the bundled font has no emoji glyphs either. To avoid garbled output, these characters are removed before the thumbnail is drawn; the rest of the title is unaffected.
Will this slow down my site?
No. The thumbnail is generated once, at the moment a post is saved, and served afterward as a regular static image file — exactly like a manually uploaded featured image. Enabling or disabling the optional OGP tag output also has no measurable effect on page load time.
I already use an SEO plugin. Should I turn on “Generate OGP meta tags”?
In most cases, no — your SEO plugin is very likely already outputting these tags, and enabling both would create duplicates. This setting is intended for sites that don’t already have OGP tags. If a supported SEO plugin is detected as active, a warning is shown next to this setting.
What image formats can I upload as a custom background?
PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, and BMP. The recommended size is 1200 x 630px.
Will this overwrite a featured image I set manually?
No. The plugin only ever replaces images that it generated itself; a manually set featured image is never touched.
Does this work on pages or custom post types, or only blog posts?
By default, only blog posts (the “post” type). You can enable pages and any other public post type (including custom post types added by another plugin or your theme) from the Post types tab in the settings screen — just check the ones you want. Non-public post types (used internally by some plugins for their own data) aren’t shown, since generating a thumbnail for them wouldn’t make sense.
Exactly when does a thumbnail get generated or regenerated?
For any post type you’ve enabled (see the Post types tab), a thumbnail is generated whenever you save a published item of that type that, at that exact moment, has no featured image at all. It’s regenerated (the old one replaced) when it already has a featured image, but that image is one this plugin generated and the title has changed since it was generated. In every other case — a manually-set featured image, or a generated one whose title hasn’t changed — saving does nothing to the featured image. This means removing a generated thumbnail doesn’t “turn the feature off” for that post: the…
Does this generate a thumbnail for drafts or scheduled posts?
No — drafts and scheduled (“future”) posts are left alone; nothing is generated while a post is in either of those states. Once a scheduled post is actually published (whether WordPress publishes it automatically at its scheduled time, or you publish it manually), a thumbnail is generated at that point, exactly as with any other publish.
I want to publish a post with no featured image at all — is that possible?
Yes — if you remove the featured image and save the post right away (in the same editing session), that save leaves it without one, as explained above: Save (publish) the post — a thumbnail is generated and set automatically. While still on the edit screen, remove that featured image, then save — the post now has no featured image at all. Keep in mind this isn’t permanent, though: the next time you edit that post in any way and save it, a new thumbnail will be generated, since the plugin fills in any missing featured image on save. If you want to stop this plugin from generating a new one…
What happens to the generated image if I remove the featured image from a post?
Right after you remove it and save, the post is left without a featured image — nothing is generated in that same save. The old generated image itself stays in the Media Library in case you want to reuse it; it isn’t deleted automatically unless the post itself is permanently deleted. However, as explained above, editing and saving that post again later (while it still has no featured image set) will generate a new thumbnail automatically.
How can I tell which featured images were generated automatically?
By default, an “Auto” badge already appears on generated images in the Media Library. If you’d also like this in the Posts list, turn on “Show a thumbnail column with an ‘Auto’ badge in the Posts list” in the Other tab (it’s off by default there, since some themes and plugins already show their own thumbnail column). Once enabled, the Posts list (and any other post type you’ve enabled) shows a small thumbnail for each item, with an “Auto” badge on the ones this plugin generated — so you can tell them apart from featured images you set yourself at a glance.
What happens to my settings and generated images if I delete the plugin?
Deleting the plugin removes its settings from the database. The images it generated are kept in your Media Library on purpose, because your posts are using them as featured images. If you don’t want them any more, you can delete them from the Media Library yourself.
Screenshots
For developers
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Best Coverpeek alternatives
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FAQ
Coverpeek: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 10, 2026
Is Coverpeek free?
Yes. Coverpeek is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Coverpeek safe to use in 2026?
Coverpeek is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. Was last updated 2 weeks ago, and scores 64/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Coverpeek?
Coverpeek is active on <10 WordPress websites and has been downloaded 104 times since it launched in September 2026. It was downloaded 110 times in the last 30 days.
Does Coverpeek work with WordPress 7.1?
Yes. The developer has tested Coverpeek up to WordPress 7.1.3, the latest release. It requires WordPress 6.0 or newer.
What PHP version does Coverpeek need?
Coverpeek requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Coverpeek last updated?
The latest version, 0.1.0, was released on September 27, 2026 (2 weeks ago).
Who makes Coverpeek?
Coverpeek is developed and maintained by rcwas.
What are the best alternatives to Coverpeek?
The most popular alternatives to Coverpeek are Recent Posts Widget With Th… (100K+ installs), Quick Featured Images (50K+ installs) and Auto Featured Image (Auto P… (40K+ installs).
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