Add images
Copyright compliance
Ensure any images you use are copyright compliant. Copyright and Creative Commons explains about using Copyright and Creative Commons licenced material in your work. Our Open educational resources (OER) guide lists sources of images and explains how to attribute any Creative Commons images you use in your book.
Adding media
Adding media guide from Pressbooks.
- Image recommendations
- Enable Lightbox to display a larger view of an image when clicked
- Accessibility for images
Adding images to the Media Library
Images can be uploaded and stored in the Media section.
The Pressbooks platform has a file upload limit of 10MB. Most images can be much smaller than that (250 KB to under 1MB) and still look good. Images with a width 500px by height 600px are recommended
In the Visual Editor:
- Select Add media
- Choose Upload files
- Attach or Drag and drop your image file (JPG, PNG or GIF files can be uploaded)
Alternatively, select Media from the side menu and follow the same steps.
Under Attachment Details, fill out the relevant metadata fields:
- Add a title (rename the image something descriptive)
- Add alt text
- Add a caption. Images without captions will not render properly in all e-readers.
- Add attributions if relevant
- Centre images.
- Set images to Full size (the Thumbnail option will display as 150 x 150px in the print version, which may be too small).
Inserting images using the Visual editor
- Place your cursor where you would like to insert the image
- Select Add Media
- Choose the correct image and select Insert into Chapter.
Enable Lightbox
If the image view size is too small, it can be hard to see details.
- Enable Lightbox under Appearance -> Web Options to allow images to show a larger view when clicked
- In your chapter, click to edit the image
- At Link To, under Display Settings, select Media File
- The URL of your image will be shown
- Click Update to save the changes.
You will need to do this for any images you want to Lightbox.
Example image
The alt text you add depends on the purpose of the image. The alt text on this image reads – A kookaburra sits on the bare branches of a tree. The kookaburra has blue and brown feathers.
Images must also include a caption to acknowledge the creator or copyright holder.
For detailed images, use the Lightbox option to display a larger version when clicked.