Jes.Gs

One feature I would like to see in either 3.4 or 3.5: additional hooks that allow a developer to extend the Image Editor.

The Image Editor was introduced in WordPress 2.9, and was a pretty awesome feature. It still is, but I have one complaint: it’s not extendable. At least not in any way that I’ve been able to find from reviewing the source code. It’s actually a shame, really. It’s like the Image Editor was just dropped in and forgotten. A part of that complaint, is that unlike the Scissors plugin (which — from I remember reading at the time — the Image Editor was based on) which allows you to edit any of the available thumbnail sizes, the Image Editor gives you an all-or-nothing option.

Being able to tweak each thumbnail individually is an important feature and it’s too bad that it was left out. Sure, I could use Scissors but I really don’t like Scissors’ interface. There is already a post on WordPress.org’s Extend/Ideas forum on this very subject, though it was last updated about 4 months ago.

That being said, with development on 3.4 currently starting, it might be worthwhile to see if modifications to the Image Editor can be made to allow it to be extended. The next question would be what parts can be extended, and what can’t be extended. Hey, all it takes are a few well-placed hooks!