Tim Waddell of Mediatricks has created an exciting range of WordPress plugins that enable you to easily integrate images into your blog. Tim kindly allowed me to try out two of his image manipulation plugins: Viva Thumbs for custom sizing of thumbnails, and Viva Carousel Posts Edition for inserting a scrolling gallery of your post images.

Viva Thumbs

The download of Viva Thumbs provides the plugin, the thumbnail processing file, sample image manipulation files and a comprehensive 12-page tutorial.

There’s a small amount of work required to set up this plugin, but once it’s completed, producing thumbnails for your posts is child’s play. The sample image manipulation files are already configured for Revolution themes such as Revolution Magazine or Revolution Pro Media, and specific instructions are provided for the Revolution themes and the free Unstandard theme.

I tried out the plugin with Revolution Magazine. On its homepage the magazine theme has a central featured category section with small thumbnails of 70×70. By linking to the provided “middlebar” file the first image uploaded to the post will be resized to those dimensions. A larger thumbnail of the post image can also be used for the featured post section by using the “featured” image manipulation file.

If you’re not using a Revolution theme, the tutorial also provides instructions for creating your own image manipulation files. The script is one of the most powerful that I’ve seen, allowing you to perform multiple manipulations on the same image, for example, you could resize, crop, and rotate an image all at once. You could even apply a reflection effect to your images too.

If you’d like to try out this plugin for yourself, you can try the demo.

Purchase | Single-Site License: $14.95 | Multi-Site License: $49.95 | Theme Developer’s License: $149.95. Each purchase includes support and upgrades.

Viva Posts Carousel

If you like the recent post carousel featured in the Mimbo Pro theme, you’d definitely like the Viva Posts Carousel, which shows thumbnails of the images used in your most recent posts in a scrolling vertical or horizontal interface. The plugin was an easy install: simply upload the files, then insert the required code where you’d like the carousel to appear. You can customise the carousel’s appearance and functionality by following the instructions provided in the tutorial file.

Purchase | Single-Site License: $14.95 | Multi-Site License: $49.95 | Theme Developer’s License: $149.95. Each purchase includes support and upgrades.

Viva Gallery Carousel

Mediatricks has also released a Gallery Carousel plugin which facilities a gallery of the images uploaded into your media gallery that can be included in your homepage or your post pages, and links to the full size image via an ajax lightbox.

Purchase | Single-Site License: $14.95 | Multi-Site License: $49.95 | Theme Developer’s License: $149.95. Each purchase includes support and upgrades.

Viva Random Image

Last but not least, the Viva Random Image plugin displays a random image from a directory of your choice, resampled at your specified size with an optional reflection effect.

Purchase | $14.95

Viva Bundle

Save money by purchasing the Viva Bundle for a discount of 35% off the combined price of Viva Thumbs, Viva Carousel (Posts and Gallery Edition) and Viva Random.

Purchase | Single-Site License: $39.95 | Multi-Site: $150

Forthcoming Plugins

Keep an eye on the Mediatricks site for more information about the forthcoming plugins User Pics Gallery Carousel and Viva Blogpins:

• The User Pics Gallery Carousel, will be ideal for community-based sites with a large membership. The plugin provides an Ajax admin facility for easy image approval.
• The Blogpins plugin will enable travelling bloggers to create a pin map of their posts, by adding their geographical co-ordinates to each post. The plugin will also automatically thumbnail an image to the map if one was added to the post.