To create a new image on a page click + (W) in the widget bar and select Picture. You can upload an image file, paste a direct URL, or add images from Flickr or Unsplash. You can also drag and drop an image file on the workspace to create a Picture widget.

Basic editing

Click on the Picture to access widget controls, which will load on the right side. You can add a Border, set Radius, change Opacity and use Crop control, as well as standard Rotation for simple editing tasks.

The Radius option works in two modes: 

• Automatic—all the corners of an image are rounded simultaneously
• Independent—set a different radius for each corner of your image

Radiuses do not synchronize between layouts. That means you can select different settings for the same widget in the desktop, tablet, and mobile versions of your project.

After your image is uploaded, it scales up to the width and height of a widget container. To enlarge the image, simply drag the sides of the widget. If you need to adjust your widget to the size of an original image, go to the Crop attribute: move the slider to check the percentage size of your current widget compared to the original image.

To stretch your picture proportionally with the screen, select the Full-Width or Full-height position under Position in your widget controls. 

Progressive images

If your project has a lot of content to load, you can streamline by using lower quality placeholders for images. To activate this option, open project settings and go to the Viewer tab, then enable Progressive images. Blurred placeholders will now be shown instead of actual images while your project is loading.

Alt attributes

To add an alt attribute to your image, click the Semantics attribute in your widget settings and enter text in the pop-up window. The attribute will then appear in the source code of your project. 

The alt text describes what is shown in the picture, increasing the accessibility of your project for visitors who are unable to see images for a variety of reasons. It can compensate for a slow internet connection and support visitors with visual impairment who need screen-reading software. It’s also a good practice for SEO: search crawlers index your alt tags, giving you an opportunity to add target keywords to the images too.

How to use alt attributes most effectively

1. Be precise. Remember that alt texts exist primarily for visitors who can’t see the actual images: your description should accurately reflect what is shown in the picture. 
2. Keep it short. As long as HTML specifications don’t limit the length of alt tags, it’s better to restrict yourself to 125 characters: a lot of popular screen readers divide text by exactly this amount. At Readymag, alt tags are limited to 100 characters.
3. Avoid words like ‘photo’, ‘image’, etc. Both screen readers and search engine crawlers recognize an image by an alt attribute referring to it. There’s no need to add your own designation.
4. Don’t try to stuff with keywords. Alt attributes are extremely helpful for SEO, but we always recommend keeping a pleasant user experience the main priority.

Lightbox

If Lightbox is enabled, an image will be expanded to full-screen when clicked on. Set color for the background and adjust transparency for better user experience. 

Image replacement

There are three ways to replace an image:

1. Click on the Picture icon in the Picture widget control and choose a file.

2. Drag and drop a new image directly on to the Picture icon in the Picture widget control.

3. Drag and drop a new image over the old one.

Image optimization

When uploading an image, Editor automatically compresses it to the actual size of the widget and preserves a higher resolution version for Retina-like displays. This way the published project loads faster for most visitors, while anyone with a Retina Display or similar screen with high PPI density views a larger image within the same Picture widget.