How to Resize and Crop Blogger Images by Editing Picasa URL Parameters
Introduction
After uploading images to Blogger, they (and even Google Photos) are actually stored on the Picasa image hosting service.
What many people may not realize is that you can tweak the image behavior simply by modifying URL parameters — allowing you to resize, crop, or enhance SEO without reuploading.
This post will lay out the useful URL parameters you can apply, with examples and use cases.
1. Example of a Blogger Image URL
When you upload an image to Blogger, you might see a URL like:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/....../s1600/image.png
For instance, the original image may be 1280×720 px. The portion s1600 in the path denotes the “display size” parameter. From this base URL, you can derive many variants by modifying it.
1280×720
2. Using a More SEO-Friendly Filename in the URL
You don’t need a filename or file extension in the URL for the image to display.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/....../s1600
But using a more descriptive filename (e.g. blogger-picasa-image-url-parameters.png) helps SEO — making it more likely to show in Google image search.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/....../s1600/blogger-picasa-image-url-parameters.png
So changing your URL to contain meaningful English keywords is beneficial.
3. Practical Parameter Effects
Here are several widely used parameters and their effects (assuming the original had s1600):
3.1 Parameters: s***
Use s400 to make the longest edge 400 px (the other dimension scales proportionally).
Example URL:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/....../s400/image.png
s400
When resizing Blogger (Picasa) images, you can control the longest side of the image by changing the numeric value in the URL parameter.
For example, if your image is landscape-oriented (horizontal), its width will be the longer side. If you set the parameter to s400, the longer side will display at 400px, and the shorter side (height) will scale proportionally.
Example: Original width 1280px → display as 400px wide (height auto-scaled).
Picasa supports a maximum size of 1600px for the longest edge, so the value you choose (e.g., s400, s800, s1600) must be within this range.
3.2 Parameters: w***
Use w512 to set the width to 512 px, with height scaled proportionally.
Example URL:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/....../w512/image.png
w512
To display your Blogger (Picasa) image at a fixed width of 512 pixels, simply change the size parameter in the image URL to s512.
When you use this setting, the height will automatically scale proportionally according to the image’s original aspect ratio.
3.3 Parameters: h***
Use h256h256 to set the height to 256 px, width auto scales proportionally.
Example URL:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/....../h256/image.png
w512
3.4 Parameters: -c (center crop)
You can append -c to a size parameter to crop the image (centered), especially when making square crops. For example:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/....../s333-c/image.png
s333-c
This means: longest side → 333 px, then crop (center) to square.
3.5 Parameters: w***-h***-s
Specifying both width and height along with -s forcibly resizes, possibly distorting the image:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/....../w400-h150-s/image.png
w400-h150-s
This makes width = 400 px, height = 150 px, ignoring original aspect ratio (may stretch or squash).
3.6 Parameters: w***-h***-n
Using -n tries to crop to fit the specified width/height while preserving aspect ratio (cropping from center):
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/....../w400-h150-n/image.png
w400-h150-n
This is generally better than -s when you want a specific bounding box without distortion.
4. Other Advanced Parameters
In addition to sizing & cropping, Picasa URL supports parameters with special effects:
4.1 Parameters: -d
If you append -d, the image becomes “clickable for download.”
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/....../s400-d/image.png
s400-d
4.2 Parameters: -bxx
Append -b10 to add a black border of 10 px thickness:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/....../s400-b10/image.png
s400-b10
4.3 Parameters: -rw
Convert Images to WebP Format
4.4 Grayscale / Blur filters, etc.
Picasa URL also supports built-in filters (grayscale, blur), but those are more advanced and less commonly used. We’ll compile another post for those parameters.
Summary & Best Practices
You can derive many image variants (for different layouts, thumbnails, banners, etc.) by simply adjusting URL parameters — no need to reupload different sizes.
For SEO, give descriptive filenames (English keywords) in the URL path.
Use -c / -n when cropping or fitting rectangular boxes, and avoid -s unless you don’t care about distortion.
The -d and -b parameters add downloadability or border styling without extra CSS.