As far as I know, the thumbnails that are automatically generated are the ones that are needed in the Panel for page section lists and card layouts of files and pages etc., so if you don’t use the Panel, they shouldn’t be generated. That is the same behaviour as in Kirby 2, where the Panel generated thumbnails as well.
So, why do the images get duplicated. I’m not fully informed of the complete reasoning behind this but let me say this much:
- The original images are still stored in their folders, but you can move the content folder out of the public root. Only the media folder needs to be publicly accessible
- Storage space is usually not a problem these days, so this was probably regarded as negligible
- files are copied to the media folder only when the URL returned by the
url()method is accessed in the browser, allowing you, to provide images for download purposes that are not publicly accessible (see this thread). e.g. for files behind a paywall. - maybe more reasons…
Although maybe the fact that the Panel generates thumbnails automatically somehow contradicts point 3… but from here I need help from the devteam @bastianallgeier or @lukasbestle or @distantnative