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Picture Element Responsive and Retina Images icon
Possibly abandoned Tested up to 4.7.38 #59 in picture

Picture Element Responsive and Retina Images

WordPress has introduced the srcset feature into core which is great but this plugin goes a step further to help theme developers use the picture element with a fallback to a standard image tag and srcset.

Active installs10+10+ tier
Downloads · 30d58▲ +11.5% vs prev. 30d
Rating—0 reviews
Health score23/100At risk
All-time downloads1.7KSince Feb 2017
Support resolved—No recent threads
RequiresWP 4.0.0PHP any
Downloads · 7d3▼ -85% week over week
Our verdict

Consider an alternative

Picture Element Responsive and… shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 10 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.

  • Small user base (10+ active installs)
  • Very few reviews so far
  • No update in 9 years
  • Only tested up to WordPress 4.7 (latest is 7.1)

How does it stack up?

Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support

Daily downloads

134Jul 12Aug 25Oct 9
Yesterday1
Daily average (1y)2
Peak day12May 16, 2026
Last 12 months571

Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.

Rankings

Where Picture Element Responsive… stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
picture >100 1,851 Best picture plugins →
responsive images >100 5,333 Best responsive images plugins →
retina images >100 227 Best retina images plugins →

Version adoption

Share of active sites per release.

  • 1.0100.0%

About Picture Element Responsive and Retina I…

From the official readme · v1.0.0

Description

WordPress has introduced the srcset feature into core which is great but this plugin goes a step further to help theme developers use the picture element with a fallback to a standard image tag and srcset.

This plugin also offers support for on the fly image generation plugins. In fact it’s hugely encouraged to use one as this plugin can cause image uploads to slow down otherwise.

It also offers support for 2x and 3x images for retina screens so you can serve the best image possible for your visitors.

Define image sizes

First you need to define your image sizes, similar to add_image_size. This particular function is optional but recommended because it also creates 2x and 3x images for retina.
E.G. add_image_size_for_picture('mobile_images', 320, 0, true);

Using images in your template

Once your sizes are defined you can call them in your template like so:

generate_picture($some_attachment_id, [
    'mobile_images' => '(max-width: 320px)'
], [
    'class' => 'some-class-name',
    'data-item' => 1
]);

The second argument array is in the format of image size name : media query that way you can specify as many different responsive sizes as you need to.
The third argument allows you to add attributes to the source/img tag.

Integrating with on the fly image generation plugins

Adding upload sizes to wordpress and slow down the image upload significantly as we generate three times as many images that you add a size for. This can cause the upload to time out if you are using a server with a low amount of cpu cores.

To solve this we recommend using a plugin that will create these images independent of the upload and not affect users. For this purpose we have three filters available for you to change the functions we call underneath the hood.

responsive_retina_images_add_size_function is the function to call when adding a new size, by default this calls `add_image_size`
'responsive_retina_images_source_function is the function to call when pulling the image from the database, by default this calls `wp_get_attachment_image_src`
responsive_retina_images_source_function_index is the index at which to access the url returned from `responsive_retina_images_source_function`, by default this is `0`

For example if you were to integrate with Fly Dynamic Image Resizer you could add the following to your functions.php.

add_filter('responsive_retina_images_add_size_function', function() { return 'fly_add_image_size'; });
add_filter('responsive_retina_images_source_function', function() { return 'fly_get_attachment_image_src'; });
add_filter('responsive_retina_images_source_function_index', function() { return 'src'; });

Installation

  1. Upload the plugin or install via the WordPress interface and activate it.
  2. Add your image sizes using the add_image_size_for_picture, this follows the same syntax as add_image_size
  3. In your template call generate_picture with the arguments of the attachment_id, an array of the image sizes you want to use, and then any attributes you want to add to the source/img tags.

Changelog

1.0.0 – Initial version of the plugin

Full changelog on WordPress.org →

For developers

Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.

Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.

Active installs badge Rating badge Health score badge

Best Picture Element Responsive an… alternatives

All picture plugins →
Alternatives
Rank Plugin Active installs Rating Updated Health
1 ImageMagick Engine ImageMagick Engine Improve the quality of re-sized images by replacing standard GD library with ImageMagick. by Rickard Westerlind 60K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 (16) 2 months ago 69
2 Easy Watermark Easy Watermark Allows to add watermark to images automatically on upload or manually. by Wojtek Szałkiewicz 30K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 3.7 (159) 1 year ago 51
3 Simple User Avatar Simple User Avatar Simple User Avatar helps users to add or remove their avatar using images from his Media… by Matteo Manna 20K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 (19) 2 weeks ago 72
4 Attachments Attachments Attachments allows you to simply append any number of items from your WordPress Media… by Jon Christopher 8K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 (53) 9 months ago 64
5 WP-Slimbox2 Plugin WP-Slimbox2 Plugin A WordPress implementation of the Slimbox2 javascript. by malcalevak 3K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (4) 9 years ago 43
6 Img Title Removal Img Title Removal Plugin that hide all title attribute-tags from images in posts. by iglauser 1K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 3 (2) 15 years ago 28
7 NextGEN Scroll Gallery NextGEN Scroll Gallery Awesome free JavaScript gallery. BMo-Design's Mootools Javascript ScrollGallery as a Plugin… by Benedikt Mo 1K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 (21) 9 years ago 40
8 No Image Link No Image Link Defaults the Image Link option to 'none' when adding a picture to a page or post. by Scott Werner 1K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 (7) 9 years ago 37
9 Remove Image Links Remove Image Links 1) The link field for new images being inserted is blank by default. 2) The link code in… by Luke Mlsna 800+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 (13) 11 years ago 38
10 JJ NextGen JQuery Slider JJ NextGen JQuery Slider Allows you to pick a gallery from the 'NextGen Gallery' plugin to use as a 'JQuery Nivo… by jjcoder 700+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 (4) 9 years ago 32

FAQ

Picture Element Responsive and Reti…: quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 10, 2026

Is Picture Element Responsive and… free?

Yes. Picture Element Responsive and… is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is Picture Element Responsive and… safe to use in 2026?

Picture Element Responsive and… shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 10 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.

How many websites use Picture Element Responsive and…?

Picture Element Responsive and… is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 1,722 times since it launched in February 2017. It was downloaded 58 times in the last 30 days.

Does Picture Element Responsive and… work with WordPress 7.1?

Picture Element Responsive and… is officially tested up to WordPress 4.7.38, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.

When was Picture Element Responsive and… last updated?

The latest version, 1.0.0, was released on February 23, 2017 (10 years ago).

Who makes Picture Element Responsive and…?

Picture Element Responsive and… is developed and maintained by christhewanderer.

What are the best alternatives to Picture Element Responsive and…?

The most popular alternatives to Picture Element Responsive and… are ImageMagick Engine (60K+ installs), Easy Watermark (30K+ installs) and Simple User Avatar (20K+ installs).

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