Zen Cart Product Image Tutorial

There are several ways to upload and manage images in Zen Cart. The various methods and benefits are explored in this tutorial.

The most basic way to upload product images is through the admin panel under

Admin > Catalog > Categories/Products

When you upload one image, Zencart automatically displays the image in 3 sizes (small thumbnail, medium image and large image). However, with this method all the images are really the same large image. This can cause the image to appear distorted. Even worse, your page load time will be slower since only the large image is being used.

Another option is to manually change the size of the image and upload all three versions. While this will result in better-rendered images and faster load times, the process of manually changing all the images can take quite a long time.

There is a better way...

Install Image Handler 2 add-on

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&products_id=117

This addon will automatically do the image size conversion for you. Using the add-on will reduce your workload and make your site load faster.

To add multiple images for the same product, all you need to do is FTP the additional images to the folder where the initial image is located. Use the same file name, but append a _xx to the end of the name. So you could have christmaslights.jpg and christmaslights_01.jpg, etc.

By using Image Handler and uploading multiple images, you can speed up your site, work less and sell more.