Place — Image Variants

Image Variants give your organisation a smarter way to deliver images across every channel. Instead of manually resizing and exporting the same image in different formats, you define a set of named outputs once — and Place handles the rest. Whether a user needs a LinkedIn banner, a product thumbnail, or a web optimized image for your website, the correct version is always available, always on-brand, and always generated from the highest-quality original.

Why use Image Variants?

Image Variants are particularly valuable if your organisation:

Manages large volumes of photography or product imagery reused across multiple channels
Has teams who regularly need the same image in different sizes or formats
Uses Place asset links directly on websites or in other integrated systems
Wants to ensure brand consistency by controlling which image outputs are available to users

Who can use it?

Image Variants is an add-on feature. To have it enabled for your organisation, please contact your Customer Success Manager.

Once enabled, the following permissions control access:

Permission	What it allows
Manage Asset Variants	Create, edit, and delete variants in Global Settings
Existing: Access direct file share links	Copy a variant link for use on a website or integration

All users who can access and download assets in archives, can also download image variants.

Image Variants is currently not available publicly for non-logged in users

Setting up Image Variants

Variants are configured in Global Place Settings by users with the Manage Asset Variants permission.

Create your variants

In Global Place Settings, open Asset Variants
Select Create new variant
Choose an existing crop dimension or enter custom dimensions
Select an output format: JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, AVIF or WebP
Give the variant a name (up to 80 characters) with translations and save

Once saved, variants automatically apply to all supported image assets across your instance. Common examples include:

LinkedIn Banner — 1200×628 — WebP
Product Thumbnail — 400×400 — JPEG
Website Hero — 1920×600 — WebP

Managing variants

Variants can be edited or deleted at any time from Global Place Settings > Asset Variants.

Editing a variant applies changes globally and immediately across all assets
Deleting a variant removes it as an option going forward — existing links already copied will continue to work
Variant names can be changed freely without affecting any links

You can also access the variants on an asset through the Settings and clicking Edit asset variants

Controlling where variants apply

Once Image Variants are enabled for your organisation and configured in Global Place Settings, you can control which archives they apply to — and whether individual assets within those archives inherit them.

Archive-level settings

Go to the archive settings and enable variants to be automatically applied on upload.

This does not need to be enabled on every archive. For example, you may want to exclude archives that contain final marketing collateral — such as images with logos — where cropping or manipulation is not appropriate.

When enabled on an archive, all supported images automatically inherit the configured variants. No per-asset opt-in is required.

Supported image types: JPEG, PNG, WebP, SVG, GIF. The variant option does not appear for unsupported asset types.

Per-asset settings

Consistent with other settings in Place — such as Download Requests — variants can be toggled on or off at the asset level, regardless of the archive setting. This gives you precise control without needing to change the archive-wide configuration.

To adjust variants on a specific asset, open the asset, go to Settings, and select Edit asset variants.

Setting focal points

A focal point tells Place which part of an image to prioritize when applying a crop — keeping the most important subject visible across all variant outputs. By default, it is set to the centre of each image. You will need the "Manage Asset Variants" permission to set the focal point.

To adjust the focal point on an asset:

Open the asset in Place
Navigate to the focal point settings
Move the marker to the area you want to prioritize, or enter coordinates manually
Save your changes

For cases where a specific variant needs a different crop, you can set a manual override per variant on that asset. This takes precedence over the auto focal point and can be removed at any time.

When a new version is uploaded: Uploading a new version resets the focal point and any manual overrides. Review focal points after re-uploading an asset.

Accessing variants

End users access variants from the Download tab on any supported image asset. From there, they can either download the variant directly or copy a link.

Variant links are designed for use on websites, in CMSs, and in integrations — not for sharing with individuals. The link delivers the correctly transformed image dynamically from a CDN cache, so any system referencing it always receives the correct format without manual republishing.

Important: Variant links are tied to the asset's state in Place. If an asset expires, loses consent, or is deleted, the link will stop serving the image automatically. We recommend administrators regularly review asset states to stay ahead of any links that may be affected. Read more about auditing your dam here.

Frequently asked questions

Will enabling Image Variants affect my existing assets? Once enabled, all supported image assets will have variants available in the Download tab. No existing files, metadata, or settings are changed.

Can I control which variants are available per archive or folder? Not at this stage — variants are managed globally and apply across your entire instance. Archive and folder-level configuration is being considered for a future release. We are welcome to feedback on this.

What happens if a variant is edited after a link has been copied? Links are not affected by subsequent edits to the variant. They will continue to serve the image as it was configured when the link was copied.

What happens if the variant dimensions are larger than the original image? Place will warn you if a variant's dimensions exceed the source image's resolution.

Place: Image Variants