So you have bought a shiny new digital camera and want to share your photos with the world? But how do you add those images as a gallery in grid and columns instead of one picture at a time? In this article, we will show you how to easily create an image gallery in WordPress that makes your photos look even better.
WordPress makes it super easy to add images to your blog posts and pages. You just click on the Add Media button and upload your images.
However, if you are adding multiple images, then all those images will appear one after another. It doesn’t look great, and your users will have to scroll a lot to view them all.
By creating a gallery, you can display images in a grid layout with columns and rows. You can show thumbnails for your images, and users can click on them to see the full image.
This way you will be able to show more photos in less space, and it will look a lot more professional.
WordPress actually comes with a built-in gallery feature that many users are not aware of. You can also use WordPress plugins to create even more robust image galleries that look great on all devices and screen sizes.
Having said that, let’s take a look at how to easily create an image gallery in WordPress.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.
Method 1. Create an Image Gallery without a Plugin
WordPress comes with a built-in feature that lets you create a gallery. This feature is very basic and does not have many options, but it gets the job done.
Here is how you would create an image gallery in WordPress without using a plugin.
First, you would need to edit the post or page where you want to add the image gallery. On the post edit screen, click on the ‘Add Media’ button to upload your images.
This will bring up the WordPress media uploader where you can click on ‘Select files’ button to upload your photos. You can also select photos you have previously uploaded from media library.
After uploading and selecting your images click on the create gallery link from the left column..
Next, you need to click on the ‘Create a new gallery’ button.
Media uploader will now show your selected images with gallery settings. You can add captions to each image in your gallery.
You can also select how you want the images to be linked, number of columns, and image size to use in gallery.
Once you are done, you can click on the ‘Insert gallery’ button.
This will close the media uploader popup, and you will be able to see your image gallery in post editor.
You can now save or publish the post/page, and visit your website to see your image gallery in action.
Wasn’t that quick and easy? It looks pretty too. However, if you create image galleries regularly, then you will soon notice that it lacks certain important features.
For example, your images will open in a new page and users will have to click on the back button to view the gallery again. It is not fully mobile-responsive, and your gallery’s appearance depends on your theme. In most cases you get just one very generic style.
Last but not least, you can’t organize your galleries into albums, tag your images, etc.
If you want to add more professional looking image galleries on your site, then you should use this next method.
Method 2. Create an Image Gallery Using Envira
For this method, we will be using the Envira Gallery plugin. It is the best WordPress gallery plugin in the market.
Envira allows you to easily create fully-responsive, beautiful, and modern image galleries in WordPress. It is super fast and comes with many features like lightbox popup, easy image navigation, drag and drop builder, and professional gallery templates.
Let’s get started.
First thing you need to do is install and activate the Envira Gallery plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit the Envira Gallery » Settings page to enter your license key. You can get this key from your account on Envira Gallery website.
After verifying your license key, you can head over to Envira Gallery » Add New page to create your first gallery.
First you need to provide a title for your gallery and then click on ‘Select files from computer’ button to upload your images.
You can also select files from your WordPress media library by clicking on ‘Select files from other sources’ button.
Once you upload your images, they will appear in the images section.
You can click the pencil icon on a image to add caption, title, and alt text to each image.
Next, you need to click on the ‘Config’ tab.
Here you can change your gallery settings like number of columns, title and caption positioning, margins, heights, thumbnail sizes, image dimensions, etc.
After that, you need to click on the lightbox tab.
The lightbox popup allows users to enlarge images and browse them without ever leaving the page.
The default settings will work very well for most websites, but you can review the options and change them if you like.
You can now publish your gallery which will make it available to be added anywhere on your WordPress site.
Next, you need to edit a post or page where you want to display your gallery.
On the post edit screen, you will notice the new ‘Add Gallery’ button above the post editor.
Clicking on it will bring up a popup where you can select the gallery you just created. Simply click to select the gallery and then click on the insert button.
You will see a shortcode for the gallery appear in your post editor.
You can now save and publish your post. After that visit your website to see it in action.
When you click on an image, it will open the image in the lightbox popup. You can browse images in the lightbox by pressing the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.
Your gallery will look equally great on mobile as well. Users will be able to tap on a image to enlarge it and swipe to view the next or previous image.
We hope this article helped you learn how to create an image gallery in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to fix common image issues in WordPress.
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Hi, I have been managing a gallery on my site for years, but am only realizing now that it seems as though WP will only allow me to share 100 photos at a time. Is there a way to display more? I have a Premium plan.
Thanks!
Thank you for this helpful article. I make galleries all the time on my desktop computer, but I am hoping to blog from the trail this summer while backpacking the Colorado Trail and will be using my phone to do so. Is there any way to create galleries using the WordPress mobile app? I have been experimenting with that and can’t seem to figure out how to do so.
Thank you!
I’m using th wordpress gallery creator. When I create a gallery with 3 columns in 2 rows of pictures, it looks good. But when I click on Preview, it shows me what my webpage will look like but it has the pictures all on top of one another and not in the 3 columns & 2 rows like I wanted.
How can I repair this?
Could you use this to display for sale items with the buy now button that I get from paypal?
It would depend on how well the gallery plugin is coded, if there is lazy loading then it could speed up that specific page but overall you would want to take a look at how plugins affect your site speed here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-wordpress-plugins-affect-your-sites-load-time/
How can I display a single image and link it to a slide show in a new window?
– I don’t want 12 thumbnails on the page – just one image the says ‘See the gallery’
Yes!! Great tutorial! This saves me from having to revert to site origin builder when I have already used the reular wordpress editor. Works really well. I wish I would have realized this a long time ago but never reseached it. Thanks for this info.
Steven
Can I great a photo gallery that automatically transitions between 5-10 images automatically once my page has been loaded? I was also hoping to embed this on my homepage. Any help would be great. Thanks.
Hi!
I am trying to add an image gallery that has links to various external pages (i.e. you click on an image and it brings you to that website.) I have determined that this is difficult to do with the WP gallery because they want all the images to go to the same linked page, but I want each of my images to go to a different page. It seems envira is not free. I downloaded gridplus and gridable but am still struggling with how to do this. ideas??
Hi Erin,
You can do this using a WordPress photo gallery plugin.
Hi there! I’m trying to figure out my gallery in WordPress, but when I publish it shows in one single column, but the backend looks normal and how I want. Do you know how to fix this?
HI — I’m trying to update my site and have created a new gallery, but I can’t figure out if I did it in WP or NextGen. I can’t see how to insert it into the project.
I have inserted a video successfully. Can I have a video (on Vimeo) and also a gallery?
thanks,
Robin
great tutorial thanks!
My blogs show as individual thimble images on the front blog page. If you hover over image you see the title. My issue is when you click on my blog page it looks like I have nil blogs as it takes up to 20 seconds for all images to show. Can you have the blogs list as titles rather images? If i hide featured image the boxed appear blank which is worse.
Many Thanks
Loretta
I have a website I want to add gallery to my website.. This gallery will hold GBs of data more than 100GB. Is there any limitation in wordpress for that?
Hi Ali,
You will need to use Envira Gallery’s Pagination add on to display a reasonable number of photos per page.
If I create a gallery, can I then add more photos to the same gallery and somehow update the gallery post page? (I’m posting recipes of food dishes, and as I complete more of them, will want to update the post.)
Hi Vicki,
Yes, you can always edit the Gallery to add or remove images from the gallery.
If I create a gallery using the default WP functionality, but decide later that I’d like to upgrade to more functionality with something you’ve mentioned, can I simply add the plug-in and have it all convert, or will I have to rebuild the gallery from scratch?
Hi Vicki,
Unfortunately this will not be possible. You’ll have to manually recreate those galleries.
Loved the tutorial. Was a stepping stone to creating a custom plugin. After a few tweaks…problem solved
Thank you Wpbeginner,
I am a regular visitor of your site for my new blog.
Whenever I facing any problem for my new blog, I directly open your blog.
Thanks again and keep sharing.
You guys are the bomb! Thank you so much for this easy “WP for Dummies” sort of post! Keep it up!!!
actually i want to know that can i a my website made on wp and export it as a new theme
I have been playing with an image gallery. Once I make the gallery, can I somehow make each image clickable in order to direct people to my posts?
Thanks! I look forward to trying out this plugin.
Can you recommend a plugin that will let me create a gallery of featured images from my posts, by post category? I want users to be able to click the image to view the related post. Thanks!
Your plugin is a life-saver. I am unable to connect to Jetpack because of a issue with the client’s host and the other lightbox plugins I tried weren’t great. WPBeginner always has an answer, thanks for all you do!
Hey Tamara,
Glad you found it helpful
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The gallery seems to default to three images across in my posts, is there any way I could have 4 or 5 images running across in each line?
Never mind…found it!!
Thanks for an on-the-button explanation of the gallery. I must’ve tried a dozen other posts, which were all over the place, before I found this one.
I have a question. Is it possible to bunch the images in a gallery closer together. I’ve tried all sorts and my images remain far apart
How can i display the the images of the gallery along with caption.
I want caption of each image in gallery to be stored in variable
Why are there no spaces between the images on my page and in the beginning of your tutorial you mention a lightbox but you never get to explaining how to make it as you only cover the carousel part.
Where can I find this and how can I get the spaced grid option??
So does things like social media activity now count for SEO?
I was told they help because of the Panda Google algorithm refresh
Added to Digg, someone will like it
Thanks, i have used this method several times…
How do you delete images from a gallery? I have tried every single thing I can possibly think of and followed all the advice given on the internet, but the images are still there on my home page, even though I have deleted them multiple times from the actual gallery. There are no problems with the Media Library, just the gallery that appears on my home page. If anyone can tell me how to get rid of these pictures, that would be greatly appreciated.
How do I separate paragraphs in the galleries?
What gallery are you using for the images posted on this page? Love it
See How to add gallery carousel in WordPress without JetPack
I have created several image galleries which are initially uploaded in alphabetical order – I need to add large groups of additional images from time to time (this is in Word Press dot Com) – Is there anyway to re-alphabetize the entire gallery without being required to “drag and drop” – When adding 100’s of new images that is not an option.
Thanks
Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
I just discovered this after trying some plug-ins, but the problem I’m trying to address is the same, with this and with the various plugins. Which is how to add a link to the image, so when you click on the image, it takes you to a specific page. Not the media file. Any suggestions? Thanks.
You can link your images to any URL you want. Please see our tutorial on how to add custom links to gallery images in WordPress.
Hi, thanks for the tutorial. But how to make gallery from external images?
You will have to import those images into WordPress first.
I feel really stupid but just created a gallery page….updated with photos and text….simple enough. Why does “image gallery”, “slide show” and all this other stuff show up at the bottom of the page? I cannot figure out how to delete it. newby at web design.
Absolutely well explained, it’s so helpful, I love it. Thank you so much for this video, great work.
HI, Would be helpful to alot of people if you also suggested a free gallery plugin, rather than advertise a paid plugin
Melanie
You should have kept reading. They do offer a pretty cool free plugin to add to the existing WP gallery. A nice looking carousel. Did you see?
Thank you very much for the tutorial.
I have just one question.
I created the gallery and published it, but when i put the mouse over the picture, it show a red square with two small silver squares that says: “view attachment page’ and “view in full size”
How can i remove it? I wanna make it like in facebook, that you just put the mouse over, click and see the carousel.
Is that possible?
I did what you suggest above to create a simple gallery on a webpage. It shows up beautifully. However whenever I click on one of the thumb nail images it says : “image cannot be loaded. Make sure path is correct and image exist”.
Just to clarify, I mean when I click on ANY of the thumbnails in that gallery I get that same error message.
I have been using the built in gallery for wordpress but recently it has stooped resizing so my images are half off the page where you cant see them
Carousel not working in Page – I downloaded “Carousel Without Jetpack” and created my photo gallery as a new Post and also created photo gallery as a new Page, however, carousel works in the post but not the page. Carousel is enabled in “settings” so why cant I get it to work in Page?
Are you using any other plugins that might cause conflict? Try deactivating all plugins and see if this fixes the problem.
Hi I’m a wordpress beginner! My gallery is somehow linked to the homepage…so when clicked the image takes you back to the ‘Home page’ and not to either a lightbox effect or to the image itself. How do I fix this? Catrin
Hi, is it possible to add a lightbox gallery like this in a widget area? Thanks-
Michele
I have a question. I use JQuery plugin for and hovering pin it button. I was wondering if you know of a solution when you click on the photo gallery for carousel mode there is no pin it button. I would I be able to add that button to the gallery?
When someone is viewing my gallery of images with minimal captions, when they click on an image, I would like them to see a larger image with additional information about the image beside or below that large image. I don’t want a gallery of images with all of that information destroying the grid aesthetic. Is this possible? I do not know coding or website jargon – sorry.
This post is so helpful! Many Thanks
I just have to say, this post is awesome… as all your posts are. You have made me into a better programmer. Thank you for all you do.
Hi guys
Just created my first WordPress gallery and carousel – looks fantastic.
Just one question, how do I edit the gallery when I work in html mode not visual mode.
Messed about for half an hour and I can’t figure it out!
Thank you SO much for this post. Not only did you save me HOURS of time creating my client’s gallery, you also taught me something new – and I love a good challenge. Your instructions were clear, concise and accurate. You are appreciated!!!
Hi, sayed will it increase the loading time of website ? Beacause i want ot add around 100 photos to my website
Yes, though it is probably not a good idea to add 100 images even if they are thumbnails, on a single page or post.