Style Guide Sunday: How to fit that picture into your article

Andrewh
Sunday, February 27, 2011
We always encourage our community writers to put pictures in their stories. Images add any number of benefits -- the most important being that they help make your story more interesting. And nearly every story we post on the front page has at least one image (with this one being a notable exception). 
 
When adding a picture to your article, you'll have to decide whether you want it to stand alone or whether it should be justified to the left or right of your text. Bigger pictures should always stand alone -- anything larger than 300 pixels, as our text column is 600 pixels wide.
 
To justify an image, simply do the following in the image editor pop-up:
  • Decide whether you want it on the left or right (we usually go to the right in most instances), and select the appropriate option in the "Align" drop down menu.
  • In the text box next to the opposite side of your alignment (left if you're aligning to the right), type in the number "10". This will give you a 10-pixel buffer between text and image.
  • Type "5" into the text boxes next to Top and Bottom. This will give you a five-pixel buffer on the top and bottom of your image.
  • Leave the text box next to the same side of your alignment blank.
And there you have it. I do it for nearly every article, and it takes all of five extra seconds. Combine this with our writing tip about advisory titles, and you'll have pictures totally taken care of.
 
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Comments (4)
Franksmall
February 27, 2011
I take it this post not having an image is an ironic statement? I'd have gone for one of those pics within a pic within a pic... Like when you record an image of a TV using a camera which is displaying it's image on said TV.... Or some stuff... I'm tired! ;)
37893_1338936035999_1309080061_30825631_6290042_n
February 27, 2011

Yeah, the irony is not lost on me either.

And when you say "no story has been promoted to the front page without a picture," don't you mean "every story on the front page has at least one picture?" I thought I've seen the Bitmob staff add in photos for well-written, but imageless articles.

Demian_-_bitmobbio
February 27, 2011

Frank, Chase, you make some good points...I made some edits :)

Jayhenningsen
February 28, 2011

I would also add to this: resize your pictures before you save them to whatever hosting service you use. If you post a 1600 X 1200 resolution photo to your story and then resize it inside Bitmob's picture properties, readers still have to wait for the entirety of that huge file to load (even though it appears smaller.) If you do this multiple times in one story, it can get frustrating for people on slower connections to wait for your story to load.

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