Hi !
I recently had the need for a plugin that would automatically generate downsized versions of high-resolution pictures, and use them with the newer HTML <picture> tag. I came across jekyll-picture-tag which seemed like the perfect plugin for what I wanted to do, except for one thing : it leaves the standard markdown picture inclusion () untouched. Instea, it requires you to use a custom {% picture ... %} Liquid tag.
This did not match my requirements, since I sometimes use Jekyll to make sites for non-technical people which they edit using prose.
I took the opportunity to make my own version of jekyll-picture-tag. I present to you :
I’m aware that this is still rough around the edges. You may notice that there are no tests yet, that I got a bit confused between resolution switching vs art direction, or that it lacks proper documentation. I’m actively working on fixing all this in order to release a 1.0.0 version that I’m comfortable recommending to other people. For now, I suggest you to be careful if you plan to use this in a production website.
In the meantime, I would appreciate a lot if some of you took the time to test it. I tried to provide some kind of documentation in the README.
Testing the plugin should be as easy as following the installation instructions and building your site again. The build will take a longer time than usual because of the image resizing. After building the output site should now contain HTML <picture> tags where you used the standard image syntax in your markdown documents.
Did you manage to get it running ? Was the README even readable ? Is it missing crucial features for you to consider using it ? Is my Ruby code too dirty to be shared with the world ? Did you find a rare edge case that made everything crash and burn ?
Whether you are an experienced plugin developer or a Jekyll newbie, I’m interested in your feedback.
Thank you for taking the time to read this