Often Asked - How-to Include Images in Postings on the Forum

[Sekishi]

There has been some question about how to post images to the forum, and some of the constraints around file sizes, etc.

There are two different ways to "host" images for posting:

1. Uploading them to the Treeleaf server. This will require that the images be less than 250Kb (as of July 2019).
2. Uploading them to a server elsewhere that will allow you to access the image directly. This will allow you to post any size image.

Each method is documented below.

[Sekishi]

Uploading Images to Treeleaf (from a Computer)

1. Before composing your post, use a photo editor (Photoshop, PaintShopPro, GIMP, Paint.net, etc.) to create a version of your image to post on the forum. It will need to be jpeg (or gif or png) 250Kb or less (as of July 2019). I find that for most images, a jpeg that is 1280px wide or less, and saved at quality setting 90 will do the trick. However, some photos (with lots of texture or details that do not compress well) may need to be 1024px wide or even smaller.

2. When composing your post, click on the "Insert Photo" icon (it is a square frame around a tree).



3. This should pop up a dialog box with two "tabs" in it. Click the "From Computer" tab on the left. Click the "Browse" button, navigate to where you saved your image in step 1, and select the image.



4. Click "Upload File(s)" and then click "OK". If your photo meets the size constraints, it should appear as an "attachment", and be inserted into your post in the format {ATTACH}123456{/ATTACH}. Where the curly brackets are actually square brackets.

If your photo does not meet the size constraints, the forum will tell you. Go back to step 1, and try making the image smaller (either with a lower quality setting, or by resizing to something smaller).


5. When you post, your image will appear as a thumbnail, which people can click on to view. Note: when folks view your post on Tapatalk (mobile), it may actually appear as a full size image (depending on their settings).

Gassho,
Sekishi
#sat #lah

[Sekishi]

Posting Images Hosted Elsewhere (from a Computer)

1. Before composing your post, use a photo editor (Photoshop, PaintShopPro, GIMP, Paint.net, etc.) to create a version of your image to post on the forum. There are not any constraints on the filesize for images hosted elsewhere, but to take pity on those on marginal Internet connections, resizing it down to something with a width and height of less than 2000px is probably not a bad idea.

Upload this photo to the hosting service of your choice. This service must allow you to access the image directly as a jpeg, gif, or png. For example, sharing an image in Dropbox displays the image in a previewer with comments to the right (you cannot simply get a link to the image itself). Make sure you know the URL of the image. For example:

http://www.newriversdigital.com/personal/treeleaf-spring/IMG_1685-ladybug-1024w.jpg

2. When composing your post, click on the "Insert Photo" icon (it is a square frame around a tree).



3. This should pop up a dialog box with two "tabs" in it. Click the "From URL" tab on the right. Enter the URL from step 1 into the box below.



4. Uncheck the "retrieve remote file and reference locally" checkbox. Otherwise the forum will try to download the image and filesize restraints will apply.

5. Click the "OK" button. The remote image should be inserted into your post in the format {IMG}http://www.newriversdigital.com/personal/treeleaf-spring/IMG_1685-ladybug-1024w.jpg{/IMG}. Where the curly brackets are actually square brackets.

6. When you post, your image will appear either at full size (or resized to fit into the window if too large).

Gassho,
Sekishi
#sat #lah

P.S. For the technically minded, if you know the URL of your image, you can skip steps 2 through 5, and simply insert images directly into your posts by following this format:
{IMG}http://www.newriversdigital.com/personal/treeleaf-spring/IMG_1685-ladybug-1024w.jpg{/IMG}
Where the curly brackets are actually square brackets.

[Sekishi]

Note for Tapatalk Use (from Mobile)

It may not be immediately apparent, but when you use Tapatalk to post a photo, it actually does the second option above for you. You select the photo, Tapatalk asks you what size you'd like, and then it resizes and uploads the image to Tapatalk's own image server. Finally it inserts the image into your post using {IMG}https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/GIBBERISH/yourimage.jpg{/IMG}.

Gassho,
Sekishi
#sat #lah