Guide to Images
A picture is worth a thousand words.It's true! An image can help to visually describe things to a reader or audience to help them understand things in your world at a deeper level. Images also help break up large sections of text to enhance readability. When you want to use an image you have to first upload it to WorldAnvil. Once uploaded the image can be added to your articles and any other resources which accept BBCode. In addition, you can add image galleries to the bottom of your article and create an image carousel.
Upload an Image
Image Metadata

- Name: The name of the file on WorldAnvil. This is displayed when the image is hovered and can be used to find the image. This also shows up under the image when embedded into the article.
- Lock: A blue, open lock means the article is public and a red, closed lock means the article is private. You can click the icon to change the state.
- Star (Favorite): The yellow star can be used to favourite an image. These images will be displayed at the top in the Images & File manager. It has no other effect.
- Description: A long-form description of the image. This is used in the Image Block BBCode and displayed when someone clicks on the image.
- Tags: The tags help you and others find the image. The global search in the world will find these tags. Separate by comma and start with #.
- Artist Name: The name of the artist who made the artwork. Will be used for credit. This also shows up under the image when embedded into the article.
- Artist URL: Add an URL to the artists website or portfolio. Can only be used if the name field is filled in.
- Art Title: The title of the art given by the artist or assigned by you.This also shows up under the image when embedded into the article.
- Art URL: A link to the art where it can be found if applicable. Will only appear in the credits if a title is set.
- World: Each image belongs to a world. This can be changed. Images can only be used in the world they belong to. Images that are used in more than one world need to be uploaded as many times.
- Galleries: An image can belong to one or more galleries. Galleries can be used to organize your images and for Article Galleries and Carousels
- Replace File: It is possible to replace the image file. All links will continue to work and simply display the new image.
- Link URL: This will replace the default link of the image when it is clicked. It needs to be an absolute link.
- Access: An image can be set to private. This image will only be visible to people who are part of the subscriber groups allowed to view the image.
- Subscriber Groups: Add subscriber groups that are supposed to see the image.
Add Image to ...
There are a number of ways how to add an image to an article. How it works depends on your choice of the editor as well.Character Portrait & Organization Crest

World Background
The world background image can be changed via setting: Page Background.Page Cover
An image can be added as a cover image for one or several of these. Each of these interfaces is either a dropdown with all images or expects you to type the name of the file. The recommended resolution for all covers is 1920x500. Each theme has a default cover which is displayed when you do not set one yourself.- World
- Homepage Cover
- Global Cover
- Category
- BOOK-STYLE COVER: A category displayed as a book will use this image. Recommended dimension is 300x400.
- PAGE COVER: This image is only used on the category page.
- DEFAULT ARTICLE CATEGORY COVER: This image is used in all articles which are directly under this category and their sub-articles. It is not inherited to subcategories.
- Article
- ARTICLE COVER IMAGE (HEADER): The image is used at the top of the article and in the article blocks.
- Historical Event
- HISTORY COVER IMAGE (HEADER) : The image is used at the top of the historical event.
Article Image


Plato
Use the Insert Image button on the editor toolbar to add the image. Paste the code into the ID field and remove everything that is not a number. If you do not do this it will not work. Alternatively, you can copy&paste the BBCode in source mode.Euclid & Legacy
Simply paste the code into the editor. The image should show now. Check the sidebar for all the options.Image Block
Images & Files Manager (Codename: Apollo)
There are two ways to find the image you need for your articles. 1) Use the search bar, located at the top of the 'Images and Files' manager. Just type in at least 3 characters of the file name. The results will show up under the search bar.


Gallery
Galleries are like folders for images. To create a new gallery, go to the Image Manager and select the world you want to create the gallery in. At the bottom of the left gallery, you will see a text box to create a gallery:Add Image to Gallery
There are three ways to add images to galleries. 1) In the 'Images and Files' manager, you can drag the image to the desired gallery folder. Images can be dragged to more than one gallery.

Article Gallery
In your article, Once you've created an image gallery and added some images to it, go to the Sections tab of your article and select the Footer sections sub-tab to find the image gallery drop-down. Select the image gallery and click save changes. When you view the article, the images will display in a gallery at the bottom of the article (just like this one)!Image Carousel
To retrieve the gallery carousel BBCode, navigate the gallery in the navigation panel on the left, then click on the clipboard icon.
How to Find Images to Use in Your World
If you want to use other people's images in your world, you can - but be mindful of using images with the correct Creative Commons Licence and always give credit to the artist or creator in the image info. Read more about why this is important regarding copyright in this upcoming section. Here are some super useful guides that explain how you can find free, CC0 images to use in your world:How to credit an artist
Make sure you've read the guides in the section above to check if you're allowed to use the image, and then go ahead and upload it. Once you've uploaded it you can fill in all of the sections such as title, description and tags. Under this, there is a section for crediting the original creator or artists, the URL to the original (if applicable). This information will display discreetly underneath the image to let people know that you are crediting the artist. Here is an example of this in action:Why do I have to upload the image?
The reason we do not allow direct linking to images and have the upload system is due to copyright. If an artist, photographer or creator discovers that you have used one of their images unlawfully or without permission - they may contact Dimitris, the developer, and ask him to remove the image. Thanks to the upload system, Dimitris can target the problematic image and remove it without having to delete the entirety of every article it was used on.Recommended image sizes
The following table explains the recommended sizes and aspect ratios for the images you can upload to the different interfaces of World Anvil (regular article images are not included because they are flexible). The aspect ratio describes the width of the image in relation to its height—4:1 means that for every 4 pixels in width, there's 1 in height. The system won't prevent you from uploading larger or smaller images. Instead, the frame of the image will be adapted to the image or the image will be adapted to the frame, depending on the interface. In any case, staying close to the recommended size is the safest option.Image BBCode Examples
[img:(number)|alignment (left,right,center)|width in pixels|nolink]
Code:
[img:82765]
What it does:
Adds the image to the page at an automatic scale. You can click on the image to go to the image's page for more information.

Code:
[img:82765|nolink]
What it does:
Makes the image unclickable, meaning you can use it as a purely decorative element.
Code:
[img:82765|left]
What it does:
Floats the image to the left.
Code:
[img:82765|right]
What it does:
Floats the image to the right.
Code:
[img:82765|center]
What it does:
Aligns the image to the center.
Code:
[img:82765|left|50]
What it does:
Sets the image width to 50. Change this number to whatever you like!
Code:
[url:https://www.worldanvil.com/world/image/list][img:82765|nolink][/url]
What it does:
An image with nolink allows you to give it a custom link with the url BBCode. Only use this if you need to link more than one link with the same image. Otherwise use the LINK URL field in the advanced edit section to replace the URL.

Quick image linking
If you want to make use of this feature, consider supporting World Anvil.
FAQ
Competition Information
Going forward it will now be a mandatory requirement that you credit the artists whose images you use- even if you yourself are the artist who created the image; don't credit your artists? Your article can no longer be featured- and will no longer be eligible to win competitions!Using the blue button
If you are a Guild member, you can use the blue button (bottom right corner) to mass upload images from any page on your world, even while you are writing an article. Check out the Guide to the Quick Buttons for more details.External Images
Warning, Using External Images comes with a risk! If you use an externally linked image to your articles, and the image is reported (under copyright), there is a chance that your article will be deleted in whole!- You will have no issues if that is a private world.
- You will have 24 hours after the DMCA is submitted
Note: Width in pixels, left, center, right still work
Dimitris Havlidis
Absolutely amazing guide!
Join me, become a Sky Pirate in the world of Lyra!
Would it be possible to have image-embedded bbcode images? IE: you would still have to add the image via the upload/gallery, and use the bbcode link to link it to the article, but the bbcode is using the original image host rather than hosting the file on your servers itself. The system already functions by using bbcodes to reference a URL. When you upload an image, it gives you an option to include the original URL. If you included the feature for images to be added without uploading files, and for images with custom url's to embed THAT url instead of the local url. ex. src="/uploads/images/" vs "if bbcode has customurl, src="customurl"" This would still make it easy to locate and delete violating images by deleting the bbcode img, but would reduce the amount of data the server would need to host, and permit more content w/ less data.