How Do I Get My Image to Appear on My Webpage?

Well, I can help you with that. But we need to make things specific to understand your problem.

By Hanno Zhuan

You might finish reading in 2 minutes

I found the following question on StackOverflow:

How do I get my image to appear on my webpage?

—StackOverflow

I improved the question into: how do I make images appear on localhost? I do that because I was having that problem, and I could not explain the issue. Also, if that person asks the question in the context of an online website, the problem will be very easy to solve. This article answers both scenarios.

Understanding your root problem

In a computer, developers can activate localhost anywhere within their file system. They can start their localhost from the Desktop folder if they are on Windows.

We use the following file structure for the working directory:

my-project/
├─ images/
│  ├─ panda.png
├─ index.html

As an example, I can activate a localhost with the following steps:

  1. I start a localhost from Desktop.
  2. I open the my-project folder, which results in http://localhost:5000/Desktop/my-project.

The problem with this approach is that if the src attribute for the <img> element is /images/panda.png, the image will not show up. The full file path is http://localhost:5000/images/panda.png because the root folder is the Desktop folder. If you move the images folder to the Desktop folder, the image will show up.

When you refer to a file with a relative file path, the root can be anything. In this case, the root folder is the Desktop folder. The root means the / or the http://localhost:5000/. This means if you activate localhost at the Desktop folder, the http://localhost:5000/ refers to Desktop as the root folder.

To fix the problem, you can activate the localhost inside the my-project folder, or you can change the file path to ./images/panda.png.

Getting to know other potential issues

If the problem persists, consider the following:

  • Check the file path. Make sure there is no typo.
  • Make sure the file exists—no problem, my friend.
  • Probably the program that runs your localhost has a bug.
  • Your browser extension may disable images.
  • Your browser can be the problem.
  • Add more details to your question so that we can help you.
  • Remember that other people can not read your mind and do not know your exact environment.