WordPress has an in-built tools to manage and edit images. You can simply upload images, align them, and even edit them inside WordPress at a fast rate.
Since Most beginners are not aware of these WordPress image editing features, It takes users a long time to get familiar with some of them while other features go completely undiscovered.
If you ever had a doubt about WordPress images, then you’re in the right place to clear your insecurities. In this article, we will cover the most common image issues in WordPress and how to fix them fast and easy.
How to Upload images in WordPress?
WordPress makes it simple to upload images to your posts, pages, and even non-content areas like sidebars yet some starters find it very difficult to do so. As a beginner it is very hard
to learn all the WordPress features at a go. Getting an image to you blog post is very vital for ranking on search engines. There are two way to upload images to WordPress.
To upload images in WordPress posts and pages, you simply need to add the image block to the content editor.
You can also add the image block by simply typing '/image' in a paragraph block. The editor will start showing blocks you can insert as soon as you start typing.
WordPress will now add the image block to the editor. You need to click on the ‘Upload’ button to select and upload the image from your computer.
You can also select a previously uploaded image from your media library.
After uploading the image, you’ll see a live preview of the image in the content editor.
You’ll see a bunch of image settings on the right panel. From there you can provide image alt text, select image size, and image style.
2. How to Align Image to the Left or Right in WordPress?
WordPress makes it also simply to align images to the right, left, or center. Simply highlight the image by left clicking on it, and then click on alignment button from the block toolbar.
You may have seen how some popular blogs use images with text wrapped around them. This can be done by using the align feature.
Also, you can use the ‘Media & Text’ block instead of the image block. This block is made just for adding images next to the text in your blog post.
You can then upload an image and text side by side together. You can also use the block toolbar to change the image or text side.
3. How to Add Caption below Images?
WordPress gives you the freedom to add caption for images. After you upload an image, you will see the option to add caption under the image preview.
4. How to Display Photos in Columns and Rows?
Let’s say you want to share photos of a birthday party or vacation photos. You can add them one by one into a post, but this will look like a lengthy list of images.
The best way to group your photos is by creating image galleries.
WordPress has a built-in gallery block that allows you to easily add images in rows and columns with thumbnail previews.
Simply add the gallery block to the post editor and select the images you want to upload.
For more detailed instructions see our guide on how to create an image gallery in WordPress.
5. Create Beautiful Responsive Image Galleries in WordPress
You would have noticed that the default WordPress image galleries lack several features. For instance, they are also not very easy to browse.
If you often upload images and photographs to your WordPress site, then you will need a proper WordPress photo gallery plugin to getthis problem solved.
We recommend using Envira Gallery. It allows you to easily create beautiful and fully mobile-friendly image galleries on your WordPress site.
The awesome part is that it adds additional functionality like albums, gallery templates, social sharing, slideshows, watermarking, pagination, password protection, tagging, full screen view, and much more at an affordable price.
6. How to Fix Missing Post Thumbnails / Featured Image?
Most WordPress themes allow you to prominently display a featured image with your articles. Here is how to set a featured image in WordPress to avoid missing thumbnails.
Now, you can click on ‘Set Featured Image’ to upload your post thumbnail. After uploading the image, you’ll be able to see your post thumbnail in the featured image meta box like this:
7. How to Add Cover Images in WordPress Posts and Pages
Cover images are full-width images that can be used as a separator between different sections of an article or a lengthy sales page.
They are highly interesting and help users easily scan a page without feeling bored by too much text.
To add a cover image to your blog post, you just need to add the ‘Cover’ block to the content editor.
Pro Tip: It is best to use a larger images for a optimum result.
You will now see a live preview of your cover image in the editor. You can change the cover image display options from the block toolbar or using the settings on the right.
To learn more see our guide on the difference between cover image vs featured image in WordPress and how to use them effectively.
8. How to Fix Featured Image Appearing Twice Issue?
Inserting the featured image inside content is a common mistake made by most beginners.
Once you set a featured image, you don’t have to insert it into the post editor along with the post content.
In Doing so, your featured image appear twice. Once as the featured image, and once as an image inside the post.
You can add other images in your post, but your featured image goes in the featured image box.
For more details, see our guide on how to fix featured image appearing twice in WordPress posts.
9. Image too Big? How to Crop Images in WordPress?
WordPress automatically creates small, medium, and large image sizes for your original upload. But sometimes you may need to crop the image in a different size.
WordPress is not an advanced photo editing tool, but it comes with some basic image editing features like scale, crop, flip and rotate images.
Go to Media to the Add New menu and upload your image. After uploading the image, you will see an Edit link next to the uploaded image.
Click on it to open the Edit Media screen where you will see an Edit Image button right below the image. This will open the WordPress image editor.
From here you can click on the ‘Edit Image’ button below the image preview. This will show you the image editing screen.
On the image editor screen, you will see buttons to perform some basic image editing tasks such as cropping, rotating, resizing, etc.
10. How to Add a Header Image in WordPress?
A header image in WordPress is a theme feature. Many WordPress free and premium themes comes with support for header image.
You can upload your own custom header image from the Appearance to the Customize page.
Since it is a theme feature, many WordPress themes come with some their own header options. Some allow you to set a site-wide header image, while others allow you to only set a header image for the homepage.
11. How to Add a Background Image in WordPress?
Just like the custom header image, custom background image is also a WordPress theme feature. Many WordPress themes come with support for custom background images.
Go to Appearance to the Customize to launch the theme customizer. If you can see the Background Image option, then your theme has support for custom backgrounds.
It is a theme feature which is why it varies from one theme to another. Depending on your theme you’ll see different options for styling your background image.
If your theme does not support background image, then you can still use a plugin to add full-screen background images to your website.
12. How to Find Free Images for Your WordPress Blog Posts?
Images can make your articles stand out. However, you must respect copyrights of other people and try to find images that you are legally allowed to use.
We are often asked by our readers about how to find best royalty free images to use in their posts?
There are many websites where you can find free images to use. However, you will soon notice that images on those sites look overused and generic.
See our list of the best sources for free public domain and CC0-licensed images on the internet.
13. How to Tag Images in WordPress?
If you run a photography blog, then you will notice that WordPress does not allow you to sort photos and images.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could add tags to your images, so that you and your users can easily browse them?
Luckily, there are some great plugins that allow you to do just that.
For a photography related blog, the best option is to use Envira Gallery which comes with an add-on to add tags.
Envira Gallery allows you to create beautiful, mobile-ready, photo galleries in WordPress. Using tags, your users can easily filter and sort photos without even reloading a page.
For more details, see our article on how to add categories and tags to WordPress media library.
14. How to Import External Images in WordPress?
This question often comes up when you are migrating your site to WordPress. Some images on your website may still be pointing to older location.
Specially users importing blogs from Blogger, Squarespace, or WordPress.com may face this problem.
While the images on your site may appear correctly, they are still loading from external source. To solve this issue, all you need to do is install and activate Auto Upload Images plugin.
The plugin will check for external images once you update or save any post or page. You can manually do that for each post or page or you can bulk edit all posts and simply click the update button.
For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to import external images in WordPress.
15. How to Require Featured Image for Posts in WordPress?
When running a multi-author site in WordPress, some of your authors may not be familiar with the featured image functionality.
In this case, you may want to remind yourself or your users to upload a featured image whenever they are submitting a post in WordPress.
You can do this by installing and activating the Require Featured Image plugin.
Once activated, the plugin will display a notification box in the post edit area, informing users that this post requires a featured image.
See our article on how to require featured images for posts in WordPress for more instructions.
16. How to Set a Default Featured Image in WordPress?
Finding the perfect featured image for every post or article is a tough task. Sometimes you may not want to add a featured image to a post, but your theme may look awkward without a featured image.
This is where a default featured image can come in handy. A default featured image is used when an article does not have a featured image of its own.
You can set a default featured image by using the default featured image plugin.
We hope this article helped you fix some of the most common image issues in WordPress. You may also want to see our list of the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.
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