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How to Add a New Image

General image guidelines

  • Upload the largest image available. Brightspot will take care of the cropping and resizing for different contexts.
  • Shared images appear in search and are available to any page. One-off images appear only on a single page and nowhere else.
  • Make sure to include short, descriptive Alt Text for each image to meet accessibility guidelines. You may want to include the words "Image of" at the beginning, since screen readers don't always indicate that the text refers to an image.

Add a new shared image

  1. Go to the dashboard
  2. Drag an image to the Upload panel, OR click the select files link. You can add multiple files.
  3. Once the window says Your files are ready for upload, click the Upload button
  4. Click on a newly uploaded image in the search window that appears after the upload is complete
  5. Add or edit the metadata

    A list of all the settings of an image

    • Title - default is the file name. Change this to a title that will help you identify the image when you're searching
    • File - should show your image. If you want to update the image, change Keep Existing to New Upload and add your new image. If you want to edit the focus or sizes of this image, click the Edit link.
    • Alt Text - Used for accessibility (such as screen readers used by people with low or no vision). This field has a default value of the file name, but that's not usually helpful. Update this to something short but descriptive.
    • Caption - Can be shown with the image in rich text context
    • Credit - Can be shown with the image in rich text context
    • Source, Copyright Notice, Date Taken, etc. - metadata that does not appear publicly
  6. If needed, use the tabs across the top to edit the metadata, location or other overrides.
  7. Click the Publish button in the top right to save your image in Brightspot

Edit an image's focus or cropping

Brightspot has preset dimensions for images which are automatically cropped when placed onto a page to fit formatting. If you want the image to be cropped in a certain way, it is best to do so outside of Brightspot before uploading the image (or by uploading a cropped copy of the image). Use the following steps to change the focus point that Brightspot automatically crops around:

  1. Go to the image in Brightspot by clicking on the image's title in the dashboard or in the search window.
  2. Click anywhere on the image preview below the dropdown that says Keep Existing. When you click, a small white circle will appear and will set that spot as the new focal point for the image.

You can also manually adjust how Brightspot will crop the image for certain image types (i.e., when the image is used as a promo, or placed in a list). To make the adjustment, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the image in Brightspot by clicking on the image's title in the dashboard or in the search window.
  2. Click on the Paintbrush box in the top right corner of the image preview below the dropdown that says Keep Existing. This will open the Image Editing window.
  3. The Edit tab will be opened by default. Here, you can perform basic edit functions (such as flipping an image horizontally).
  4. To view and edit any of the cropped versions of the image, click on the Sizes tab. To edit a size, click the desired image type in the left sidebar. The image will appear on the right, with a window indicating the visible area of the image. Drag the corner handles of the window to change the visible area.
  5. When you're finished editing, click the Done button in the bottom-left corner.