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How to Add an Author’s Photo in WordPress

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Do you want to add an author’s photo in WordPress?

By default, most WordPress themes show the author’s gravatar as their profile picture. However, authors may want to replace this gravatar with another image.

In this article, we will show you how to add an author’s photo in WordPress.

How to add an author's photo in WordPress

When Do You Need to Add an Author’s Photo in WordPress?

If you run a multi-author WordPress site, then you may decide to add an author info box in WordPress posts. These author bio boxes typically show the author’s profile photo, a brief bio, and link to their website or social profiles.

By default, most WordPress themes use the person’s gravatar as their author photo. However, sometimes you may prefer to use a different image for the author photo.

As a WordPress website owner you may even have rules about the kind of photos you want to show in your author bio boxes. For example, maybe you require your authors to use a professional headshot.

If the author’s gravatar doesn’t meet your rules, then you may want to edit their profile and upload an image that better suits your WordPress blog.

With that in mind, let’s see how you can add an author’s photo in WordPress.

How to Add an Author’s Photo in WordPress

The easiest way to add an author photo in WordPress is by using the PublishPress Authors plugin. This plugin lets authors edit their own profile and author photo by adding a new ‘Author Profile’ area to their WordPress dashboard.

Changing your author photo

It also gives site admins the power to edit the author’s profile including changing their photo.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the PublishPress Authors plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, head over to Authors » Settings. You can then go ahead and click on the ‘Display’ tab.

PublishPress' author settings

Once you’ve done that, open the ‘Layouts’ dropdown and choose a layout that includes an author photo.

The default layout is ‘Boxed.’ This shows the author’s information in a box, complete with their author photo.

How to add an author's photo in WordPress

The ‘Centered’ layout is similar to boxed, but with all of the author’s information centered inside the author bio box.

‘Inline with avatar’ and ‘Simple List’ are both layouts that include space for an author photo. Here’s an example of the Simple List layout.

Avatar Simple List

Just be aware that those two layouts don’t have space for a bio. Even if the author has added a bio, it won’t be shown on your website.

After choosing your layout, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button. You can now visit your website to see the author photos on your WordPress posts and pages.

Anyone who has registered on your site with the Author role will now be able to upload a photo using the ‘Author Profile’s settings in their WordPress dashboard.

How To Change an Author’s Photo in WordPress

As admin, you can also use PublishPress Authors to change any of the individual author photos that appear on your website. This is useful if an author chooses a photo that isn’t a good fit for your site.

To change an author’s photo, simply go to Authors » Authors.

Adding an author's photo to WordPress

You will now see a list of all the authors who are registered with your WordPress blog.

From here, you can click on an author’s ‘Edit Author Profile’ link.

Changing the author's photo in WordPress

Then, just click the ‘Image’ tab.

By default, PublishPress will try to find a gravatar that’s linked to the author’s email address. To use a different author photo, click on the ‘Custom image’ radio button.

Changing the author's profile picture

Once you’ve done that, click on ‘Select Image.’ You can now choose any image from your WordPress media library, or upload a new image.

Then, just click on the ‘Update’ button.

Saving a new author photo in WordPress

Your website will now use this new image as the author’s photo.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add an author’s photo in WordPress. You can also go through our comparison of the best WordPress membership plugins, or see our expert guide on how to install Google analytics in WordPress.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

58 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

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  2. Rachel says

    I have followed these steps, but there is still no option to add a profile pic – it just shows the ‘blank’ image and no button to ‘add image’.
    Any ideas?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You would want to reach out to the plugin’s support if the add image option is not available and they should be able to assist.

      Admin

  3. Aditya says

    Hi, i have a user registration page on which user registers as a contributor. Then he/she can submit blogs for moderation. However, on that registration page i want users to add their photos mandatorily so we don’t have to rely on them adding it later from their profiles or do the task ourselves.

    • WPBeginner Support says

      If you are displaying your posts on your home page instead of a static home page then you would need to reach out to the support for your specific theme to edit the theme’s template

      Admin

  4. Tony says

    If anyone else is wondering why your photo isn’t showing up in author bio, it may be because there’s also separate settings for the plugin itself. You have to check the box that says, “display author avatars”. At first all I did was went to the author settings and uploaded the photo not realizing that there was extra settings for the plugin itself.

  5. Jason says

    Doesn’t seem to show my picture. It uploads and shows in the Author page in Word Press but not showing on the actual site. Help!

  6. Adey Jones says

    I am using this plugin on a site that also uses co-authors plus as some posts are written by 2 people, but this plugin only allows 1 author image to display, how can I amend the userphoto_the_author_photo() to display both authors images in 1 post?

    • Constantin Colac says

      Thanks mate. I was actually surprised people go for a plugin instead of a function..

      You get some good karma from me ;)

      • Ryan says

        Is there a way around having to deal with Gravatar.com or whatever? It seems crazy it isn’t just a built in feature of WordPress.

  7. Simon Green says

    Just use gravatar! Tried this plug-in and was not satisfied. I don’t want the author photo pasted everywhere that there’s a post, multiple times on the site. No good.

  8. Juan Manuel says

    Hello!
    Thanks for sharing this info. However I am not sure if this is what I need. When I write a post on my website (http://juanmacarlupu.com.ar/blogdetraduccion) at the end of each post it says: “This article was written by: Juan Manuel Macarlupu Peña” and a default picture and mi bio. I have tried everything on earth (or that’s what I think) and I cant change that default picture. Can you help me with that?

    I would reaaaaaally appreciate it.
    :)

  9. Kat says

    Hi
    Can you help, I had this plugin working fine on a test site but not on the live site – the user pictures appear in the user back-end but not on the post or author pages?

    Does anyone have any ideas why this would happen?
    thanks
    Kat

  10. Shonda Rogers says

    So I have to download the plugin to get the image to show on google searches, am I correct? I have everything else setup and linked with google+ profile, email verification etc. I was thinking the image would show up from my google+ profile. But it sounds like I need the WP plugin as well. Can you please confirm?

  11. Nida's Beauty Bag says

    Is there any way that a non wordpress user can use an image while commenting on my blog??? whenever people comment on my blog , if they are non-wordpress user no display picture is shown

  12. Joey says

    A better and more updated plugin: Simple Local Avatars (search wordpress plguin reposiroty)

    No need of editing any files.

    • Ken says

      Joey, that plugin you posted is useless and very broken. The User Photo plugin is the best one out there right now and works perfectly!

    • Emilio says

      Thanks Joey! Simple Local Avatars was awesome! For anyone downloading this plugin, there plugin settings are not in the “settings” or “tools” section. Just upload the plugin and go to the “Users” section. The upload form will be in the users information where you put the bio, email, and other social media contact info.

  13. caspian says

    We have a theme that has a registration/profile page on the front end. any idea on how to add the upload image option to the front end? thanks.

  14. ArsalanTosifi says

    Hi

    I have successfully uploaded user photo plugin. Successfully imported image. But image does not display. What is missing?

  15. Aaron says

    Hi,

    I have about 200 jpeg photossaved, and I would like to put them in the userphoto folder and have them become that person’s photo, and the user can come back and change it if they wish. I tested this out by placing a photo admin.jpeg in the folder, but it did not take effect. do you know how I can do a mass upload of photos for userphoto?

    Thanks,

    Aaron

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