How to successfully post images: some simple guidelines.

Status
Not open for further replies.

kineaesth

Newbie
Joined
Dec 14, 2006
Messages
0
Reaction score
309
Image posting is rather easy actually but some of you really seem to have no idea.

This sticky is to act as both an informative guide and a reference point for those who consistently don't bother to check whether or not their image posting worked.

The basics of posting an image involve wrapping the direct url for an image in tags. However, one key point to notice here is that the link that is in the middle of the [IMG] tags must be a direct link to the image - not a page in which the image is situated. You'll often know you have the right page if the image is justified to the top left, and a url ending in .jpg or .png or .whateverimageformat is also a good sign.
[CODE]http://www.website.com/image.jpg[/CODE]
This format of image url is what you need to put in image tags. Ensure you have both an opening ( [IMG] ) and a closing ( ) tag, with your url of choice in between these tags with no spaces.

For different browsers there are different methods of acquiring the direct urls of images.
In Firefox - Right click the image, copy image location
In Chrome - Right click the image, copy image URL
In Internet Explorer - Right click the image, click properties, copy the image's url.
However, before you get all excited and open that spoiler, remember to REHOST YOUR IMAGES FIRST.
BUT WHY, I hear you protesting.
Well there are several reasons and only a few are interesting.

The first one is that even if you've found a great and hilarious picture on lolfunnypicturesofcats.com, there is a good chance that your post will look like this
1604niv.jpg

because lolfunnypicturesofcats.com have made the surprisingly intelligent decision to disable the ability to link directly to their website via image tags. This makes sense in a time where many websites choose to watermark their images - the website name gets distributed with the pictures, but the website does not have to deal with unnecessary server load from 13 year old children posting their pictures everywhere they can.

Even if the website you're linking from enables direct linking-back to images, it's often considered good etiquette to rehost images.

As a general rule, rehost images whenever possible, unless the website you have taken these images from has a specific method to reposting their images.

Also, don't post images linking back to fast-moving and often-purged boards like 4chan - these tend to 404 incredibly quickly and you'll get in a whole lot of trouble.

SO WHAT ABOUT ALL THIS TALK OF REHOSTING IMAGES​

There are several options available. Several major websites exist that allow you to upload content directly to their servers and then link back to it - and this is encouraged. The most well-known, commonly used (and theoretically more reliable) of these sites are http://imageshack.us/ , http://tinypic.com/ , and http://photobucket.com/ . These sites all allow the creation of accounts where uploaded images can be stored, which makes it useful if you may need to post these images numerous times (NOT ALL IN THE SAME IMAGE DUMP THOUGH I HOPE HAW HAW) . These sites (with the exception of tinypic) encourage the use of thumbnails, and photobucket seems to have the tendency to resize images. However, through playing around with options you can find a link format that works best for you.

The method of uploading images varies from site to site, but the basic principle involves initially having the image you want to post somewhere on your local disk - if you've created it, then it needs to be saved somewhere in a useful format, and if it's an image from online you'll need to save it to your hard-drive somewhere (right clicking the image will often give the option to save it, and if not, you might need to isolate the image to its direct source before saving it). Then, following the instructions on whatever website you're using, locate the image on your computer, wait for it to upload, and then copy the image url. For posting these images, vBulletin has a handy little button that looks like this
2n7iqg4.jpg
which, when pressed, opens a small box into which your url can be pasted. Hitting OK automatically wraps that image in tags and drops it into your post. (also as a general hint, it's a good idea to double- or even triple-space your images if you're posting multiple images in one post)
Then, once you submit your post, your images should appear in glorious colour.


Some useful links!

[url]http://imageshack.us/[/url]
[url]http://tinypic.com/[/url]
[url]http://photobucket.com/[/url]


[URL="http://eden.fm/tinypic-uploader/"]http://eden.fm/tinypic-uploader/[/URL]

This tinypic uploader is an incredibly useful tool - by enabling the right-click context menu, you can right click any image on your computer and upload it to tinypic. This app also copies the direct links for your uploaded images to your clipboard, logs uploads, can resize, upload in various formats, capture windows using Vista's Aero feature, and even capture specific areas of the screen by simply clicking and dragging. A must for any image enthusiast.

-note- currently the tinypic part of this uploader does not function, as tinypic has recently introduced a captcha, however the imageshack part still works just fine.
-addendum- tinyuploader has dropped support for tinypic, and now is able to upload to imgur, which provides brief image urls and the ability to delete images.[/FONT]
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top