Dominant Color
by Liam Gladdy · Uncategorized
Also makes 3 other plugins · 230+ installs across the portfolio →
A WordPress plugin to automatically save the dominant color and a color palette for an attachment image into post_meta. Requires: PHP >= 7.
Try it live opens a temporary test site in your browser, which can take about 20 seconds to load. Plugins that rely on outside services or a full server may not work completely there.
Health
D 52/100
Stale · Likely abandoned · Few reviews
Active installs
200+
≈280 estimated
Momentum
+17%
downloads vs prior 30d
Biggest opportunity: Swap “color” for “dominant color”. “color” isn't earning its slot: you're not in the first 24 results for its own search. “dominant color” sits at #4 untagged, close enough for a declared tag to move it up. All five slots are taken, so one has to go.
52 health vs 58 average across 25,756 Uncategorized plugins
Install conversion
How it's measured →2.3%
of downloads still active
At least 200 of 8.7K lifetime downloads are still running, above its category: the median Uncategorized plugin keeps 0.6%, across 17,773 plugins.
Downloads count every update, not just first installs, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower. Compare against other Uncategorized plugins, not across the directory. wp.org reports active installs as the bottom of a band, so the real rate is this or higher.
Removal-risk signals
28/100Maintenance and integrity signals that tend to precede a WordPress.org removal. Not an official status, a heads-up to act.
- Not actively maintained. No update in about 2 years.
Details
Recent review vibe
read from the latest 5 reviews to 2024-04-15Reviewers like how simple and self-contained it is, with the main asks being bulk processing for existing images and a note that it's flagged as untested with recent WordPress releases.
Directory ranking optimization
How it's scored →How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.
Room to improve
Most to gain: Update recency
Updated 929 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting
Tested up to WordPress 6.5.14; the current branch is 6.8
4.8★ over 5 reviews, smoothed to 4.16★ and held back under 25 reviews
5 of 5 tags set · short description in place
To rank higher: Last updated 929 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.
Get the full rank-higher report →Search visibility
How it's tracked →Directory searches this plugin turns up in, and which way each one is moving. WordPress.org publishes no history of search positions, so this starts the day we first tracked a keyword and never backfills.
33
Momentum
Mixed: one swing, the rest drifting
0.0
Velocity
places per keyword, 28d
0%
Breadth
of keywords climbing, 28d
0.0
Acceleration
recent half vs earlier
wp.org is where the directory puts the plugin for that search. On merit is where it would sit if results were ranked on rating, support and updates, without the install boost. The last column is how far the wp.org position moved, from our first reading in the last 90 days to the latest.
| Keyword | wp.org | On merit | wp.org move, 90 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| dominance your tag | #3 | #1 | 0 |
| dominant color | #4 | #6 | 0 |
| dominant your tag | #7 | #10 | 0 |
| color your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| colour your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| image your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
4 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 3 listed. 1 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words). 3 of its tags aren't in the top 24 for their own search.
What to do about it
- Swap “color” for “dominant color”. “color” isn't earning its slot: you're not in the first 24 results for its own search. “dominant color” sits at #4 untagged, close enough for a declared tag to move it up. All five slots are taken, so one has to go.
Daily downloads
Since 5 Oct 2022 · 1,489 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive
30-day downloads
Rolling 30-day volume · peak 196 · peaks are release surges
Directory rank
Ranked about #11,300 to #12,900, alongside the other plugins at 200+ installs. Plugins with the same install count swap places between wp.org requests, so this is where most of them sit. Checked monthly, last on 1 Nov 2026.
Rating trend
Star average over time · dips mark rough releases
Health trend
Composite health score, snapshotted daily
Update activity
How busy the existing users are, measured as downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites. A spike means a new release everyone's pulling; a long, slow decline means an aging user base that updates less.
Release cadence
No release in a yearHow often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.
0
releases in the last 12 months
2.5y ago
latest release · v2.2.0 · 16 Apr 2024
5
tagged releases on record
Recent releases
What its installed base runs
via wordpress.orgShare of active installs on each version of this plugin · 91% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.
Estimated active installs
The public count shows “200+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.
Crossed into this band 2 months ago and a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, so the real count is still just under 300.
Install history since 19 Sep 2015
Recent reviews
All reviews on wp.org ↗- ★★★★★ willwenzel2.5y ago
This plugin is perfect in its simplicity. Developers thought of everything, and it makes pages with images look beautiful. PLUS, if you don’t like the color they pick to be dominant, you can choose another color from the image. So well thought out. I just wish WordPress wouldn’t bug me saying it hasn’t been tested with the last 3 releases. It works perfectly, and probably will regardless of updates. Here’s how I use it in a theme in case anyone reading this is struggling. if (has_post_thumbnail()) {$featured_image_id=get_post_thumbnail_id( );}$imageColor = get_color_data($featured_image_id, ‘dominant_color_hex’, ‘true’);$colorPaletteArray = get_post_meta ($featured_image_id, ‘color_palette_hex’, ‘true’);$complimentaryColor1 = $colorPaletteArray[0];$complimentaryColor2 = $colorPaletteArray[1];$complimentaryColor3 = $colorPaletteArray[2];$complimentaryColor4 = $colorPaletteArray[3]; And then I just assign $imageColor, and it’s 4 complimentary colors, to the relevant divs in the template. Genius plugin, and thank you for creating it.
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ Ngo Quang Dao7.0y ago
Useful plugin, please add function to bulk edit all images on gallery 🥰
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ Justin Moreland7.9y ago
I like this and how it does what it says. I like also that it doesn’t enqueue any scripts or CSS into the page. Great for custom theme development. Also seems to work well in WordPress 5.0 (newest at the time of this review).
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ isteiner10.6y ago
Pulls out both the dominant color and a nice color palette. Far more efficient to do this calculation once on upload rather than via PHP or JavaScript when rendering the page. Perfect!
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ Sii Cockerill11.0y ago
I had to search the post_meta table to find out how the ‘dominant_override’ meta_key – it would have been useful to find that in the release notes. A bulk calculate feature would be excellent – along with a way of colour picking the override from the posts screen in the WP Dashboard. Otherwise, perfect for what I need 🙂
Read on wp.org ↗
Languages
via translate.wordpress.orgTranslated into 3 languages, 3 at 90% or more
AI assistants
How it's measured →Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.
Not measured yet for this plugin’s topics. Its tracked searches are not among the measured topics. See the topics measured so far.
Readme readiness
1 of 8 pass · checked 28 Oct 2026Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.
- ! Says what it does Short description names no action; say what the plugin does for the site.
- ! Has a FAQ No FAQ section.
- ! FAQ asks real questions No FAQ to judge.
- ! Names who it is for Never says who the plugin is for or what they use it for.
- ! Names what it works with Names no plugin, service or platform it works with.
- ! Headings and lists 0 headings and 0 lists; assistants quote headed sections and bullet lists, not paragraphs.
- ! Enough to quote 119 characters of description; under 1,000 there is little to quote.
- ✓ Tags match the text 3 of 5 tags appear in the text; "colour", "dominance" do not.
Growth timeline
Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow
- 2026-08-31 300+ → 200+ down after 24 days in tier
- 2026-08-07 200+ → 300+ up after 39 days in tier
- 2026-06-29 300+ → 200+ down after 5 days in tier
- 2026-06-24 200+ → 300+ up after 4 days in tier
- 2026-06-20 300+ → 200+ down after 1 days in tier
- 2026-06-19 200+ → 300+ up after 1 days in tier
- 2026-06-18 300+ → 200+ down after 3 days in tier
- 2026-06-15 200+ → 300+ up after 16 days in tier
Competes with
The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).
-
Styleguide – Custom Fonts and Colors 2K+ installs · 4.3★ · 2 shared tags D -
Imsanity 200K+ installs · 4.9★ · 1 shared tag A -
Firelight Lightbox 200K+ installs · 4.8★ · 1 shared tag A -
Responsive Lightbox & Gallery 100K+ installs · 4.9★ · 1 shared tag B - S Simple Lightbox 100K+ installs · 4.3★ · 1 shared tag A
-
reSmush.it : The original free image compressor and optimizer plugin 100K+ installs · 4.3★ · 1 shared tag A
Embed this report card
Drop a live Pulse card for Dominant Color into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.
<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/dominant-color" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Dominant Color — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> Dominant Color: 200+ active installs, 4.8★ (5 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-01. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/dominant-color
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