Adding images to a WordPress post is really easy. Upload an image to the WordPress media library and then select the image you want to add from the media library and add it to the post. This way you can add images to the post one by one that appears one after the other.

But what if you want to add create an image gallery that showcases multiple images in your posts in a grid format? Well, adding an image gallery is a piece of cake in WordPress.

You can do this with the built-in feature of WordPress or by using a WordPress image gallery plugin.

This article will explain how you can add an image gallery to your WordPress post and familiarize with some of the most popular plugins that can be used to create an image gallery in WordPress.

Adding Images to the Gallery

You can add multiple images at a time with WordPress. But when you add multiple images to a post, the images will appear one after the other. To view the pictures, a person will have to scroll down as long as there are pictures. This does not make for a good user experience. Adding all these images using an image gallery is the best alternative.

Image galleries are a great way to add images to your website. They can be used to add multiple images in a small space. You can click on the images to view the images separately. This makes the images look great and the will not make the content of the post unnecessarily lengthy.

Let’s add an image gallery into a WordPress post using the built-in image WordPress image gallery.

To add an image gallery to the WordPress post, from your post editor, go to the Media Library.

Select the images you want to create an image gallery. If the images do not exist in the Media Library upload the images that you want to add to the image gallery if they are not already present in the media library.

After you have uploaded the images will be shown in the media library.

WordPress media library

Now, if you select all the images and insert them into the post, you can see that all the images are inserted into the post one below the other. It does not look pretty creates a waste of space in the post.

To add an image gallery in the post, select all the images that you want to add to the gallery. Add the alt tags, title and description to the images in the gallery and then on the left side of the media library window, click on Create Gallery.

WordPress media library create gallery

You can also upload images from the Create Gallery window Upload Files tab. Select all the images that you want to add into the gallery. The selected images will have a tick mark on the top right.

Now click on Create a new gallery. After clicking on Create a new gallery button, you will get to the Edit Gallery window.

WordPress Edit Gallery window

The Edit Gallery window is where we decide the number of columns that the images will be arranged into. On the left side of Edit Gallery window, you have the Gallery Settings.

Gallery settings in Edit Gallery window

The following are the settings that you can find in the Gallery Settings.

  • Link To: Here you can set where the images will be linked to. The images can be linked to an attachment page of the image where when clicked on the image you can see the individual image on a separate attachment page, or you can link the image directly to the media file or have no link at all.
  • Columns: This is where you can decide the number of columns the images will be arranged in the image gallery. By default, this is set to 3.
  • Random Order: This will make the images in the gallery appear in random every time they are viewed on the site.
  • Size: This option helps you to set the size of the image in the image gallery. You can set the images to be large, medium, small, or set the size to thumbnail.

Also from the Edit Gallery window, you can remove the images that you selected for the image gallery before adding it to the post.

If you want to rearrange the images in the gallery, all you need to do drag and drop the images to your desired order. You can also reverse the order of the images in the gallery on the click of a button.

If you want to add captions to separate images of the gallery, you can add that also from the Edit Gallery window.

To add more images to the existing gallery, click on Add to Gallery from the left pane of the Edit Gallery window and add the images that have not been already added to the existing image gallery.

Add to Gallery in Edit Gallery

After all the necessary edits to the image gallery have been done, click on Insert Gallery. This will create the image gallery in your post. Preview the page to see how your images look in the gallery. Here, I have added an image gallery with 6 images of beautiful landscapes in which images are arranged in columns of 3. The resulting image gallery in your post will look like this.

WordPress built-in image gallery

The images are linked to the media file, so clicking on the image, you will get the image like this.

Image preview

Now you want to make more edits to the gallery click on the image gallery and click on the pencil icon. Now you can make all of the above changes from the Edit Gallery page. Try changing the number of columns, size of the images, or add more images to the gallery.

You can also completely remove an entire image gallery by clicking on the ‘x’ icon.

Using plugins

The built-in gallery feature of WordPress gets the job done, but does not give many options to work with. So there is only so much you can do. This is where the image gallery plugins come into play. Gallery plugins make creating an amazing gallery very easy. They give a lot of control over how the gallery will be displayed, create a slideshow of the images in the gallery.

Using plugins can not only make adding an image gallery easy but also ensure the responsiveness of the gallery. They also provide more features like adding more images to the gallery that has been already added to the post, more edit options, etc.

Let’s take a look at some of the best plugins that can be used to create wonderful image galleries in your WordPress posts.

FooGallery

FooGallery free WordPress image gallery plugin

FooGallery is a great plugin if you want to have more control over the image gallery in your post and want to add more features to the image gallery. The plugin comes with a lot of features including drag-and-drop reordering of images in the photo gallery, retina-ready which means you can create high definition image galleries that are completely responsive to look awesome on all devices.

FooGallery is a developer-friendly gallery plugin that supports lazy loading, simple pagination, has built-in albums and gallery templates, create video galleries, and more. FooGallery is a free plugin that also has a premium version. The premium version comes with more features than the free version. The premium features include hover effects, infinite scroll, advanced pagination, etc.

Envira Gallery

Envira Gallery free WordPress gallery theme

Envira Gallery is one of the most popular plugins for creating beautiful and improved image galleries easily. It is a free plugin that you can upgrade to premium for more advanced features. You can easily create a fully responsive image gallery that looks great on every device. The features of the plugin include lightbox popup, easy drag-and-drop photo gallery, customizable photo gallery templates, etc.

Envira gallery is a fast-loading image gallery plugin that is SEO friendly, mobile-ready, and optimized for speed. Envira has easy integration with social media especially with image sharing sites like Pinterest. Envira Gallery also enables you to create beautiful slideshows where you can slide through different images in the gallery without even leaving the browser window. With Envira Gallery, it’s not just an image gallery that you can create, you can also create video galleries as well.

NextGen Gallery

NextGen Gallery free WordPress image gallery plugin

This is yet another photo gallery template that comes packed with features that can give you a better looking, fully responsive image gallery than the built-in WordPress image gallery. NextGen is also a popular plugin that has been downloaded and actively used by thousands of WordPress users.

The free version of the plugin has two main gallery styles and gives you more power to manipulate the images in the image gallery.

NextGen is also a free WordPress plugin that offers even more features in the premium version. With the premium version, you can add new photo gallery displays, lightboxes, e-commerce, proofing, and premium support.

Photo Gallery

Photo Gallery free WordPress image gallery theme

A very responsive and user-friendly gallery plugin that enables you to create amazing photo galleries that can be easily integrated with social media. This plugin can be a great choice for a website that has a huge amount of photos to display for their users. For example photography blogs or fashion websites etc.

The gallery is packed with features that include customizable views in which you can organize how the images in the gallery are arranged. The plugin gives easy navigation for the images in the galleries. You can unlimited images and videos in the gallery, beautiful slideshow effects using a powerful lightbox, audio and video support, multiple widgets, image watermarking, themes, add-ons, customizations, and many more.

Wrapping Up

Now you know how to add images to an image gallery in a WordPress post easily. Now you can show off all the images you like in the most beautiful and efficient way. But like anything else in WordPress, there are different plugins in WordPress that can help you create an image gallery very easily and a little more attractive with some powerful features. But if you don’t want to use a plugin to create an image gallery, the built-in feature of WordPress is still good enough for a good image gallery in your WordPress post.

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