Copy and Paste Pictures
Did you just find the perfect image for your presentation online? Want to copy the image files from your digital camera to your external hard drive for safekeeping? Copying and pasting is a basic computer skill that can be applied to many different things, including images. See Step 1 below to learn how to copy images found online or image files on your computer.
Contents
Steps
Copying Images from the Internet
- Find the image that you want to copy. In order to copy an image, you'll need an image to copy. You can copy any image you find on the internet, as long as the website allows you to.
- Google, Bing, and Yahoo! all have image searching tools that allow you to find a variety of images that match your search terms.
- Open the image. Oftentimes when you find an image online, you will see the thumbnail first. This is a smaller version of the original image, and copying this will result in copying the lower-quality version. Click the thumbnail to open the image so it's full-size.
- Right-click on the image. If you are using a Mac with a single button mouse, hold the Ctrl key and then click on the image.
- Some websites don't allow you to right-click on them. If you want to bypass these restrictions, see Disable-"No-Right-Click"-Scripts-in-Firefox.
- Copy the image. Select "Copy image" or "Copy" from the right-click menu. This will copy the image file to your clipboard, allowing you to paste it elsewhere.
- If you want to link to the image, such as in a Facebook post, select "Copy image URL" or "Copy image address" instead. This will not copy the image, but instead copy the address that links to the image. This will allow you to post the address elsewhere.
- Paste the image. Once the image is copied to your clipboard, you can paste it anywhere that allows you to paste images. This could be your word processor, an image editing program, your presentation, or more.
- You can paste by right-clicking on the location you want to paste and selecting "Paste" from the menu, or you can press Ctrl + V on a PC or Command + V on a Mac.
- If you are trying to add an image to your website, use the "Copy image URL" to link directly to the image, or download the image and upload it to your own web server.
Copying and Pasting Image Files
- Navigate to the image(s) you want to copy. You can quickly copy and paste image files to and from different locations on your computer. You can copy image files off of a digital camera, from a flash drive or CD, or just copy them from one folder to another. Use your operating system's file explorer to locate the image files you want to copy.
- Select the image(s). You can drag a selection box around all of the files you want to copy, hold the Ctrl or Command key and click individual images to select multiple individual files, or you can simply select one image.
- Right-click on your selection. Once you've selected the images that you want to copy, right-click (Ctrl-click on a one-button Mac) and select "Copy" from the menu. You can also press Ctrl + C (PC) or Command + C (Mac). The image files will be copied to the clipboard.
- When you copy something, the files stay in the original location and new copies are made at the new location. If you'd rather delete the originals when you paste to the new location, you can cut instead of copy by pressing Ctrl + X or Command + X.
- Paste the files. Navigate to the location that you want to paste the image files in using your file explorer. Right-click on a blank space and select "Paste" from the menu. You can also press Ctrl + V on a PC or Command + V on a Mac. The files will be pasted to the new location.
- If you Cut the files instead of Copying them, the files will be deleted from the original location after you paste.
Tips
- Using images you find online for your own purposes can be considered plagiarism. Make sure that you properly credit any images you use or ensure that they fall under the Creative Commons rules.
