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PIE, Inserting images using Flickr, Imgur, or another web hosted site

Instead of uploading your images to WordPress, you can utilize other services like Flickr, Imgur, or Picasa to easily embed your images without worrying about quota. This post explains the process of how to do that using Flickr.

STEP 1: Upload to your image site

Flickr version, freemium:

The first step is to create a Flickr account and upload your images. Flickr is a freemium image hosting service that allows you to upload 200 photos for free. If you decide to pay for an account ($25 for a year), you can upload an unlimited number of photos at very high resolution.

Imgur version, free:

Alternatively, Imgur allows individual images to be uploaded for free. You won't have an organized collection without an account, but if you note your URL you can extract the image you need from that page.

STEP 2: Locate image and get URL

view in lightboxFlickr version:

Once you have your images uploaded, go to the specific image you would like to put into a page. Click on the "view in light box" button to view the full image. This will show you a large copy of your image, but you will likely want to choose a smaller version. Click on the "View all sizes" button in the upper right, and you can click through different sizes of your image. Usually you don't want something bigger than 500 pixels wide directly in a post. Once you see the size of the image you want, right-click (or control-click if you use a Mac) on the image and choose "copy image URL" or the analogous option in whatever web browser you are using.

Imgur version:

When you look at most images on Imgur, they include the Imgur framework and social media conversation. These URLs start with imgur.com/gallery.

However, if you right click on the image and tell it to open in a new tab, you get just the image, which is what you need for embedding. These URLs start with i.imgur.com instead. The i.imgur.com version is what you want for the next steps.

STEP 3: Embed and link the image

Add media file from URLNow go back to Wordpress to insert the image into your post. Click at the start of a paragraph you would like to have aligned to the image. Click the "Add Media" button just above your editing window. Click the "Insert from URL" tab to get the options for inserting an image by URL. 
  • Image URL: Paste the URL you copied in Step 2.
  • Image Title/Caption: Enter a title for the image. Alt Text: Descriptive text for the image, useful for people who are visually impaired 
  • Align: None will have no text to left or right, useful for large images. Left puts image to the left and wraps the text around it. Right does the same but with the image on the right.
  • Link To: Flickr likes it best if you include a link to the Flickr image's main page. Put that URL here. 
Once you've completed the form, click "Insert into Post" and you're all done. You can change the options by clicking the image and then choosing the small picture icon.


Keywords:
PIE, flickr, flicker, images, imgur, picasa 
Doc ID:
60574
Owned by:
Web H. in University of Illinois Technology Services
Created:
2016-02-09
Updated:
2025-02-10
Sites:
University of Illinois Technology Services