This post was originally written by Duncan Riley, Blog Herald Weblog Empire. It has been updated to include the latest tools and tips.

Duncan was asked to investigate the topic of images on blogs. You’ll agree that the article below provides a comprehensive look at this topic. I hope you find it helpful.

Images and imagery play a vital role in the growth and development of any blog. However, they can be time-consuming and frustrating to use. It’s important to know how to use images effectively on your blog.

Types of Images

Let’s divide images on your blog into two categories for ease of use: design imagery and content imagery. You can use design imagery in your header, sidebar, or footer. Content imagery is the photos and images that you use exclusively or in conjunction with your blog posts. We will discuss both types of images, but they have differences.

Toolbox

There are many tools for editing and creating images. Let’s look at some free resources that can be used to meet different budgets and needs.

1. Canva is a web-based graphic design tool with a simple interface and customizable templates. It offers an extensive library of images, icons, and illustrations that can be used to enhance the visual content of your blog. We use it here at ProBlogger.

2. PicMonkey is another tool that can be used to create visual content on your blog. It includes photo editing, design, banners, logos, and thumbnail templates.

3. GIMP is a powerful image editor for PCs, Macs, and Linux. It is considered by many users to be as powerful as Adobe Photoshop but at a fraction of the cost. GIMP has a wide range of tools for editing and manipulating images.

Posting images to your blog

Your blogging platform will determine the method you can use to post images on your blog. As part of most platforms’ services, free or not, they offer image hosting. It’s essential to consider the bandwidth and traffic limitations of your blogging package, as well as how image sizes may affect your blog’s load speed. You can optimize your images using editing software like GIMP or Canva. These programs allow you to resize pictures and compress them.

TIP: If your image files are too large, you can use TinyPNG, a service that offers free image compression for Smart WebP (PNG), JPEG, and PNG.

Each blogging platform has a different method of uploading images. Even though many platforms have features that allow for quick image inserting, it is still beneficial to know the code behind it. This will give you greater flexibility when editing and positioning images.

This is the HTML code to insert an image:

HTML Copy code

Understanding the code allows you to edit your images with more flexibility.

Here is a basic breakdown of the image code.

•  This tag indicates an image.
• source
• “http://www.yourdomain.com/yourblog/image.jpg”: This is the URL of the image you want to display.

The alignment=”right” attributes tell the browser where the image should be placed and allow text to wrap it around. You can use alt tags to make the image appear at the top of the post. The text will be below the image. alignment=”left” and alignment=”right” are useful for images that complement your post rather than the one being the focus.

Copyright Issues

Fair Use and Fair Dealing are the two main types of copyright laws. Using such images in your blog design, however, may not be fair use. You should familiarize yourself with your local laws regarding fair use and fair deal.

It’s best to assume unless otherwise stated, that images on commercial websites are copyrighted. Only use these images once you fully understand their legal implications.

In the blogosphere, it’s essential to adhere to the unwritten rule of giving credit when using images taken from other blogs. Add a link to the original blog in your post or at the end to give credit to its creator.

How to find copyright-free images

You can use the following resources to find copyright-free images.

1. Unsplash offers an extensive collection of high-quality, copyright-free images contributed by photographers around the world. Photos are free to download and can be used for personal and commercial use. Unsplash was used a lot by ProBlogger in the past.

2. Pixabay: a collection of images, vectors, and illustrations free from copyright.

3. Pexels is another popular platform that offers high-quality free stock images and videos. You can either search for specific photos or browse their curated collection.

4. Freepik offers a wide selection of vectors, PSDs, icons, and photos. Bloggers looking to add graphic elements can find many resources on Freepik.

5. Canva’s Free Image Library: Canva offers a library of images that are free and high quality. You can use them in your blog.

To ensure correct usage and attribution, check each resource’s licensing conditions and requirements.