Adding a Picture to Your Tumblr Theme

By Tammy Columbo

Insert an image in your Tumblr theme.
i Todd Warnock/Digital Vision/Getty Images

Adding a picture to your Tumblr theme can be accomplished in a few different ways. Most Tumblr themes support a header picture that you can upload from the Customize menu. When you use a header graphic, the image fills the header area as defined by the theme. Many themes display the header as a banner across the upper portion of the blog page. You can also add a picture by inserting an embedded link to a hosted image into the Description box in the theme's Customize menu, and also by inserting the same link code directly in the theme’s HTML page.

Adding an Image to the Header

Log in to your Tumblr dashboard, then click the arrow next to the name of your primary blog.

Click the name of the blog to modify in the pop-up dialog box. The dashboard refreshes to display the timeline of the selected blog.

Click the “Customize” link to open the Customize menu.

Click the “Upload” button in the Header field in the Appearance section. Browse to and click on the picture to add to your theme. Click “Open” to upload the photo. The image uploads and displays on your theme in the Preview window.

Click the “Save” button in the Customize menu, then click “Exit” to close the menu.

Adding an Image to the Description

Open the blog to edit in your dashboard, then click the “Customize” tab to open the Customize menu.

Insert the following code into the Description box in the Customize menu or click “Edit HTML,” then insert the code directly into the theme code using the HTML editor. Replace both instances of the URL with the URL to a hosted image.

<a href="http://www.myhostedimage.com/picture.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.myhostedimage.com/picture.jpg" border="0"></a>

Click “Update Preview,” if you are using the HTML editor, to preview the embedded image in your theme. If you edited the Description box in the Customize menu, the image will display after you save the page.

Click “Save” to save the theme with the inserted image. Click “Exit” to close the Customize menu.

Tips

When you insert the HTML code for the image in the Description box, the picture displays in the right sidebar of the default Tumblr Redux theme.

Warnings

Tumblr supports picture files in the following formats: JPG, GIF, BMP and PNG. Uploaded image files are limited to 10MB and smaller. You can use animated GIFs up to 1MB in size in your Tumblr theme.

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