[BigMackCam]

I'm looking for a reliable, free image hosting service with direct linking, so I can store JPEG and/or PNG images for embedding in posts on multiple forum websites. I won't be using this as cloud storage for my entire image library - rather, I just want to store resized images (up to a max of, say, 1200px on the long side) for embedding in articles and occasional photo posts.

Imgbb seems to fulfil this requirement, but I've no experience with it. Before I set up an account, I'd be interested to know if any of you good folks use it, what you think of it, any issues with image quality, direct linking, site uptime, performance, copyright / licensing etc. As a free service, my expectations of it are modest and realistic - but if it's awful, there's no point me using it; which leads me to my next question...

If imgbb isn't a good choice, is there something else that would suit?

Thanks in advance

[pepperberry farm]

if you are using it for less than a thousand images, flickr is free....

I have no experience with imgbb, so no help there for you...

[aslyfox]

I also do not use that

I am listed as a " pro " on flickr.com because I store so many images on it:

Pricing FAQ

How much is a Flickr Pro subscription?

Monthly Retail price: USD $8.25, plus tax

Annual Retail price: USD $71.99, plus tax

2-year Retail price: USD $132.99, plus tax . . .

https://www.flickrhelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404064001812-Pricing-FAQ

I recommend checking it out

look at the FAQ and the recent blogs put out by them

[BigMackCam]

if you are using it for less than a thousand images, flickr is free....

I have no experience with imgbb, so no help there for you...

I also do not use that

I am listed as a " pro " on flickr.com because I store so many images on it:



https://www.flickrhelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404064001812-Pricing-FAQ

I recommend checking it out

look at the FAQ and the recent blogs put out by them

Thank you both

I should perhaps have mentioned, some of the images wouldn't be photos, as such - they could be screen shots, diagrams etc. for articles. Do services like Flickr allow that?

[pschlute]

I should perhaps have mentioned, some of the images wouldn't be photos, as such - they could be screen shots, diagrams etc. for articles. Do services like Flickr allow that?

Yes they do.

[Kobayashi.K]

I can't find much about imgBB apart from their login page, and they don't tell who they are. The Wikipedia webpage 'Image sharing' also doesn't list it 1]. It does look quite obscure to me actually.

However, it does have a few nice options for direct linking and embedding, and the code is very compact. So this could be a disposable service for uncritical applications, if you don't care to give away your e-mail address for an account.

Recently I looked for ways to share files between my PC and iPhone/iPad and besides Apple iCloud I opted for
Microsoft OneDrive (5GB free). It is one of the most professional and reliable services out there, with a decent privacy policy, and unlikely to discontinue on an unexpected moment.

As for direct linking from shared photos in OneDrive, click right on an image | Embed | Copy the generated URL.
Compared to imgBB the code is quite massive though.

1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_image-sharing_websites

[vector]

No experience with imgbb but I think dropbox is still an option for this. The free account offers 2GB which if you are storing forum sized photos of about 1024 wide should let you store thousands of photos at less that 200kb each. I think the only catch there is that to share one you find the photo in dropbox and copy the link, but when you paste the link you need to change the trailing arguments on the URL from dl=0 to raw=1 and then it just displays the image rather than the dropbox UI.


I pay for flickr and find it to be less hassle to use than alternatives like dropbox. Mainly because they automate the image resizing so you can just put your photos there at whatever resolution you want and when you post the image you can choose the display size. Saves me having to create multiple copies of images at different resolutions.

[ramseybuckeye]

I'm also on Flickr, paid account. Flickr is the best of any that I have used and part of that is the ease of use. Dropbox, which to me is more of a file transfer is very clunky and slow, in my opinion. In the past I tried Photo Bucket, I'm not sure if it is still around but it just got worse all the time, and clunkier. I had some accounts with Viewbug and 500px, but if you can host from them I never figured it out, I would recommend neither.

[artrasa]

I have experimented with imgur.com in past and found it working pretty well. The user interface is quite confusing to me for some reason. It was surprisingly difficult to add a photo into an existing album. I guess it was designed to be a social media platform instead of a photo sharing site.

[boriscleto]

Postimages doesn’t have any limits and looks like a simple interface.

https://postimages.org/

Pretty standard terms of service, no copyrighted images you don’t own, nothing illegal in the US, no adult images etc.

[Dartmoor Dave]

I've used imgBB to post photos here on the forum in the past, but I didn't stick with it. Posting the links was easy and the quality looked excellent, but the problem was that imgBB uses human editors to check the photos uploaded to the site, and they briefly disappear while they are being checked. So I'd post a photo here on the forum and at some point over the next 24 hours it would temporarily disappear, leading to bemused forum members asking why they couldn't see it. The only alternative was to wait 24 hours after uploading to imgBB before posting the snap on the forum.

Since then I've been using Google Photos. It doesn't allow you to directly link photos, but you can create a link using ctrlq.org/google/photos (the patented Ray Allen method). I did create a new Flickr account at one point after closing my old one, but I've hardly used it because Flickr still seems like the same old "You fave me and I'll fave you" circle j**k.

Here's one from imgBB to give an idea of how they render here on the forum. I've used the full size link, so it'll be resized by the forum.

[Pops]

What I would do is synchronise the images that I want to from Lightroom Classic to Lightroom on the web. In LR Classic you have to mark the folder as available for public viewing. I then go to LR on the web, select image, Control click, select 'Create Link'. Then copy the link and paste it below.

5 May 2022 10:08 by Graham Wood


Oh. Didn't quite work out as expected.

---------- Post added 05-05-22 at 02:16 AM ----------

See if this works.

[BigMackCam]

Thank you for the information and suggestions thus far, folks. It's looking like Flickr's free service is ample for my needs, and I already have a little-used account set up.

I do have one more question regarding Flickr... With a free account, if I direct-link images in posts, will they always appear as the intended photos, or will they occasionally show as ads?

What I would do is synchronise the images that I want to from Lightroom Classic to Lightroom on the web. In LR Classic you have to mark the folder as available for public viewing. I then go to LR on the web, select image, Control click, select 'Create Link'. Then copy the link and paste it below.

That's an interesting idea... however, I'm not an Adobe subscriber. I own a copy of Lightroom 6 stand-alone and still use it occasionally, but these days I do most of my raw development in RawTherapee and occasionally Darktable, editing in GIMP, and I manage my photo library in Digikam. But thanks anyway

[Pops]

Unfortunately it creates a link to the web page and not the actual image.... Never mind.