gohugoio/hugo · error

must provide Width and Height

Error message

must provide Width and Height

What it means

For the Crop, Fill, and Fit actions Hugo needs an exact target box, so both width and height must be supplied. The switch at config.go:319-322 returns this error when either dimension is zero for those actions.

Solutions

1. Supply both width and height for Crop/Fill/Fit, e.g. `{{ $img.Fill "300x200" }}`.
2. Switch to `.Resize` if you want aspect-ratio-preserving scaling with a single dimension.
3. Re-check the action semantics: Resize needs one, Crop/Fill/Fit need both.

Example fix

{{/* before */}}
{{ $img.Fill "300x" }}

{{/* after */}}
{{ $img.Fill "300x200" }}

switch action {
case "crop", "fill", "fit":
    if width == 0 || height == 0 { return errors.New("must provide Width and Height") }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `.Crop`, `.Fill`, or `.Fit` with only one dimension, e.g. `{{ $img.Crop "100x" }}` or `{{ $img.Fit "q80" }}` (no box at all).

Common situations: Assuming Crop/Fill/Fit preserve aspect ratio like Resize (they don't — they need a box); forgetting the height token; passing only a `q` token.

Related errors

• invalid image dimensions
• must provide Width or Height
• quality ranges from 1 to 100 inclusive
• width or height are not supported for this action
• 'pager size' must be a positive integer

AI-assisted analysis of gohugoio/hugo@52c9bd7908 (2026-08-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fc75e83b868a6e5f. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at resources/images/config.go:321

				if len(widthHeight) == 2 {
					second := widthHeight[1]
					if second != "" {
						c.Height, err = strconv.Atoi(second)
						if err != nil {
							return c, err
						}
					}
				}
			} else {
				return c, errors.New("invalid image dimensions")
			}
		}
	}

	switch c.Action {
	case ActionCrop, ActionFill, ActionFit:
		if c.Width == 0 || c.Height == 0 {
			return c, errors.New("must provide Width and Height")
		}
	case ActionResize:
		if c.Width == 0 && c.Height == 0 {
			return c, errors.New("must provide Width or Height")
		}
	default:
		if c.Width != 0 || c.Height != 0 {
			return c, errors.New("width or height are not supported for this action")
		}
	}

	if err := c.init(defaults.Config, sourceFormat); err != nil {
		return c, err
	}

	if mainImageVersionNumber > 0 {
		options = append(options, strconv.Itoa(mainImageVersionNumber))
	}

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