The images created for the configurable swatches are stretched to fit the square div and image proportions are ignored. Images that are rectangle shaped will end up being distorted.
This is what the image should look like (taken from the thumbs view in magento 1.8.1.0):
This is what it looks like for the actual swatch:
[Moderator edit: adding relevant comment to body]
There is a template located at catalog\product\view\type\options\configurable\swatches.phtml and the code responsible for the swatch images is as follows:
<img src="<?php echo $_swatchUrl; ?>" alt="<?php echo $_option->label; ?>" width="<?php echo $_swatchInnerWidth ?>" height="<?php echo $_swatchInnerHeight ?>" />
Changing this will have no effect on the image proportions however.
Best Answer
We ran into this and perhaps someone has a better solution, but we extended the configurable swatches
productimage.php
helper with our own module. PerhapsMagento intended everyone to create manual swatches
for every product. That tis time consuming and we have products that does not work well for. They uses the Varien Image model which allowed them access to caching, but does not have the convenient default settings of the MAGE catalog/image model. The nice part is those functions are available.If you don't know how to create a module would suggest making square images. "Do Not Edit The Core Files" Extend Them!
We extended the
below
we added