Image uploads: sized WebP, JPEG share images, sensible crops

One call turns an upload into every size the site needs:

$path = app(ImageUploader::class)->store($request->file('image'), 'posts');
// posts/9b1e.../original.webp, card.webp, detail.webp, thumb.webp, share.jpg
$post->update(['image' => $path]);

$post->image_urls['card'];   // URL of the card size
$post->image_urls['share'];  // 1200 × 630 JPEG for og:image

Install

1. composer require intervention/image:^3.11
2. Copy from stubs/, dropping .stub: config/images.php, app/Support/ImageUploader.php, app/Models/Concerns/HasImageUrls.php, app/Console/Commands/RegenerateImages.php, tests/Feature/ImageUploaderTest.php.
3. Run php artisan storage:link (for the default public disk).
4. Define sizes per type in config/images.php, named after where they're shown (card, detail, thumb, share). Match them to the actual CSS box at 1x–2x.
5. In each model with an image, add the HasImageUrls trait and an accessor:

   protected function imageUrls(): Attribute
   {
       return Attribute::get(fn () => $this->resolveImageUrls($this->image, 'posts'));
   }

   Add 'image_urls' to $appends if the model is sent to Inertia or an API.
6. List every model in config('images.models'), so php artisan images:regenerate rebuilds it after a size change. A model missing from that list silently keeps old sizes.
7. When replacing or deleting, call $uploader->delete($oldPath). It removes the whole folder of sizes.

What it gets right

• WebP for the site, JPEG for previews. WebP is 25–35% smaller, but WhatsApp, Facebook and LinkedIn often show no preview image for WebP. Sizes marked 'jpg' (like share, 1200 × 630) are saved as JPEG.
• Heads stay in the picture. Cropping a portrait photo into a landscape box around the centre cuts off heads. A photo taller than the target keeps its top. The other photos are cropped around the centre. A test checks this with a two-colour image.
• Logos are never cropped. Sizes marked 'contain' scale to fit inside the box.
• No upscaling. A 640-pixel upload stays 640 pixels as the original. Only the fixed-box sizes are filled.
• The original is capped at max_width (1920), so a 12 MB phone photo doesn't become a 12 MB page.
• Regenerating doesn't degrade quality. The original is never re-encoded. Older single-file uploads are converted into sized folders.
• Bundled images (paths under assets/) work with the same image_urls API: every size points at the one file.

Rules

• Validate uploads: ['image', 'mimes:jpg,jpeg,png,webp,avif', 'max:10240']. Resizing a huge image needs memory, so raise memory_limit for upload requests if needed.
• Output <img src="{{ $post->image_urls['card'] }}" width="400" height="532" loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt="...">. Explicit width and height stop layout shift. Don't lazy-load the image at the top of the page (the LCP image).
• Use imagick (IMAGES_DRIVER=imagick) when available: it's faster and keeps colour profiles. GD works everywhere.
• For S3, set IMAGES_DISK=s3. Everything goes through the Storage facade.
• Seeders: store each photo once. Check ImageUploader::isUpload($model->image) before uploading again, or every db:seed creates new folders.