Your complete guide to image focal points in Squarespace

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Squarespace has always been really great with integrating creative tools on their platform and one that saves us a bunch of time on outside design platforms like Photoshop or Canva is the ability to adjust the Image Focal Point on an image.


What is an Image Focal Point?

In Squarespace, the "focal point" of the image sets the point of focus of an image and gives you control over where the image is centered. This allows you to reposition the image as you’d like without needing to crop it further or adjust it manually on desktop and mobile views.

Here are some examples of how adjusting the image focal point can change the way your website looks:

Image focal point example before adjustment

Image Blocks - Before Adjustment

Blog Thumbnails - Before Adjustment

Banner image focal point example before adjustment
Banner image focal point example before adjustment mobile view

Banner Images - Before Adjustment

Image focal point example after adjustment

Image Blocks - After Adjustment

Blog thumbnail focal point example after adjustment

Blog Thumbnails - After Adjustment

Banner image focal point example after adjustment
Banner image focal point example after adjustment mobile view

Banner Images - After Adjustment


Which blocks in Squarespace have Image Focal Points?

Most image blocks in Squarespace have a focal point. 

  • In Squarespace 7.1, you can adjust the focal point for: image blocks, gallery sections, featured images, and section background images.

  • In Squarespace 7.0, you can adjust the focal point for: image blocks, gallery blocks, gallery pages, featured images, and most banner images


The Basics of How Image Focal Points Work

Image focal points are relatively easy to work with. Here’s how to use them:

To adjust the image focal point of any image in Squarespace, navigate to the image that you want to center.

Double click on your image or click Edit on the image block toolbar.

You will see on your image preview that there is a dot in the center of the image. This is the focal point of the image. It will be set to the center of your image by default.

In this example, the center of the image is right under the person pouring from the Chemex.

 
where to find the focal point
 

To adjust the image focal point, click and drag this dot to where you’d like the image to center.

For example, if I’d like the image to center on the Chimex, I would drag and drop the dot there.

 
how and where to adjust the focal point
 

If I’d like the image to center on the cup of coffee, I would drag and drop the dot there.

 
adjusting the position of the focal point
example of how the focal point differs

A side-by-side of the same image with two different image focal points

 


Click out of the pop-up window to preview what it looks like. Don’t forget to click Done and Save once you’re done!

Adjusting image focal points can be extremely helpful with cropped images, banner images, and blocks that auto-crop images as it allows you to reframe the photo to showcase the most important parts. In the sections below, we’ll walk through some other ways that you might leverage image focal points to create the look that you want.

Image Focal Points for Images In “Fill Mode” on The Fluid Engine

Squarespace has transitioned all websites to operate on Fluid Engine which allows for more flexibility and mobile customization. One thing that they’ve added is the ability to set image blocks to the Fill Mode. This removes extra padding and expands the image to fill the container but may result in some cropping depending on the dimensions of your container. (On 7.1 Classic Editor, you can do this with the "stretch" function.) An easy to remedy unsightly cropping is by adjusting the image focal point. 

Here’s how you would set the image focal point for images in Fill Mode on the Fluid Engine:

Add an image block and upload an image to a Squarespace page with Fluid Engine. The image will be set by default to Fit Mode. 

 
accessing an image settings
 

To change it to Fill Mode, click the Pencil Icon at the top of the block.

 
accessing an image settings by clicking the pencil icon
 

The image block settings will display on the right. Toggle your view to the Design tab.

 
going to the design tab of an image block settings
 

Click Fill and the image will expand to fit in the container.

 
setting an image to Fill mode
 

To adjust the image focal point so that it highlights the point that you want to showcase, toggle back to the Content tab.

 
content tab in the image block settings
 

Drag the dot on the image to where you want the image to focus. In this case, I want to center the woman in the photo, so I'm dragging the image focal point directly onto her.

 
how to adjust the focal point of an image in fill mode
example of adjusting the focal point of an image in fill mode

A side-by-side of the same image with two different image focal points

 


When you’re happy with how it looks, click Done and Save in the top right corner to publish your work.


Image Focal Points for Background Images

One of the most important uses for image focal points is to set the center of a background image. This is especially important when determining what you want the focus of your mobile background to be.

Here’s how you would set the image focal point for a background banner image in Squarespace 7.1:

Navigate to the section that you’d like to add a banner background image to

Click Edit in the top left corner of the page.

 
click edit in the top left corner of the page too edit your site
 

Click Edit Section in the top right corner of the section.

 
clicking edit section
 

Toggle to Background to upload your image.

 
going to the background tab in section settings
 

Drag and drop your image into the upload space provided.

 
uploading a background image to a section in squarespace
 

To adjust the focal point of your background image, click and drag the dot to where you’d like it to focus.

adjusting the focal point of a section background image

Make sure to check both the desktop and mobile views.

adjusting the focal point of a background image for desktop
adjusting the focal point of a background image for mobile

Default desktop and mobile views with image focal point set to center

adjusting the focal point of a background image for mobile

Desktop and mobile views with image focal point adjusted


Click out of the page to get a more accurate view and click back into the background settings to continuously adjust the image focal point until the background is centered to your liking.

 
example of a background image with focal point adjusted
 

Viewing the background banner without the settings box in the way


When you’re happy with the positioning on both desktop and mobile, click Done and Save in the top left corner

 
click done and save to save the position of the focal point
 


Here’s how you would set the image focal point for a background image in Squarespace 7.0:

Some Squarespace 7.0 templates also have the ability to set background images.

The following are instructions for adjusting the image focal point for a background index page section in the Brine template.

Navigate to the index section that you're adding a background image to.

 
example of an index section in squarespace 7.0
 

Click the Cog next to the page you are trying to add a background image to.

 
accessing the settings of an index section in squarespace 7.0
 

Click Media in the page settings.

 
accessing the media tab in the index section settings
 

Upload the background image you'd like to use by dragging and dropping it into the Add Image area.

adding an index section background image

To adjust the focal point of your background image, click and drag the dot to where you’d like it to focus.

 
adjusting the focal point of an index section background image
 

Click Back and Save to apply your changes.

Check both desktop and mobile views to ensure that your background is set the way you like it. Make any adjustments you need back in the page settings previously described.

adjusting the focal point of an index section background image
 
adjusting the focal point of an index section background image
 
adjusting the focal point of an index section background image for mobile view

Default desktop and mobile views with image focal point set to center

 
 
adjusting the focal point of an index section background image
 
adjusting the focal point of an index section background image
 
adjusting the focal point of an index section background image for mobile view

Default desktop and mobile views with image focal point adjusted

 


When you’re happy with the positioning on both desktop and mobile, click Back and Save in the top left corner to apply your final changes


Image Focal Points for Images With Crops

There are certain blocks in Squarespace like the summary block, blog thumbnails, and galleries automatically crop your image to create a uniform aspect ratio across all the featured images. Adjusting the image focal point for these images allows you to showcase the most important part and aesthetically frame it to the way that you like.

Here’s how you would set the image focal point for featured images in summary blocks and blog thumbnails:

To set the image focal point of featured images in the summary blocks and blog thumbnails, we’ll have to go back to the source.

For summary blocks, click the blog, shop, or events page that you’re summarizing information from. For blog thumbnails, simply navigate to the blog that you’re trying to edit.

Click the Three Dots next to the blog post and select Settings.

 
accessing blog post settings
 

You’ll see the featured image in the Content. The small circle on the photo is the image focal point.

Drag and drop the point to where you’d like the image to focus.

Select Save when you’re satisfied with how it looks.

Repeat this process for any featured photos that you’d like to shift the focus on.

These image focal point changes are updated automatically in any summary blocks.

 
example of blog post thumbnails before adjusting focal points

Before Adjusting In Summary Block

 
 
example of blog post thumbnails after adjusting focal points

After Adjusting In Summary Block

 
 
example of events thumbnails before adjusting focal points

Events Thumbnails - Before

example of events thumbnails after adjusting focal points

Events Thumbnails - After

 
example of events thumbnails before adjusting focal points

Events Summary Thumbnails - Before

 
example of events thumbnails after adjusting focal points

Events Summary Thumbnails - After

 

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