Images: How do I add/edit/crop/delete Puzzle Images?

Note: To prevent copyright issues, please only upload your own, personal puzzle photos instead of photos copied from a website.

In IPDb, images are what catches the attention of most users.  Whilst it is perfectly ok to upload images you have taken from puzzles you have completed in the past, there are a few things that could make puzzle images that you still have to photograph, look better for both use on PC or mobile phone.

Here are some hints:

1. Wherever possible, take your photos in natural daylight to avoid, dark photos or photos with glare from an overhead light
2. Take, the photo as square as possible to fit into the lens 'frame' (instead of on an angle). Placing the box on a low table or the floor may help with this
3. Avoid holding the box when taking the photo, or including too much background in the picture.  Keeping it as 'neutral' as possible will make it nicer for other puzzlers to add the record to their collections too :-)
4. To complete the record photos from the side and/or back of the box (which include the barcode or other information relevant to the puzzle) will also be beneficial to upload. This will allow others to see details or help determine whether or not they have the same version of the puzzle in their collection
5. If you have the photo tools on your phone, you can adjust the images before uploading (e.g. cropping, rotating).  If not, you can still crop or rotate your images in IPDb once they have been uploaded (see below)

New Records  

If a puzzle isn't already in IPDb you will need, to create a new puzzle record to upload images and puzzle information.  See here for: How do I add a puzzle
Once you are in the Add New screen you can now proceed with details of adding images as per below.

Existing Records
If the puzzle record already exists in IPDb, you are still welcome to ADD your pictures, if you wish to keep a record of them or, to make the record complete by adding a completed puzzle picture or box picture (especially if your pictures are better quality than the ones already submitted!  :-) )

To retrieve the record:

1. Search for the puzzle in question
2. Click/Tap on the puzzle summary to view the details screen
3. At the top of the puzzle details screen, click/tap the Pencil icon - this will open up the record in edit mode
4. Now you can ADD pictures to this record.  You will not, however, be able to delete any photos unless you, created this record originally
5. Follow the steps below to upload, tag and save your photos

You can add images by tapping the little green image icon in the Images field.

The image upload dialogue has a built-in guide on how to add good images, you can flip through the hints by clicking the next/previous icons.

Many of the hints are also in this knowledge-based article.

Pay special attention to the 18+ rating option, which enables you to flag images that may not be nice to view for children. Consider nudity and violence as examples of such.

You will have the option to take a photo or upload existing photos from your files.

Take a photo

1. Click/tap the green/aqua image icon in the image field

2. Select the Camera icon option at the bottom left of your pop-up upload screen - this activates your device's camera

2.  By selecting the Files icon option at the bottom-left of the pop-up upload screen, and navigating to your pictures folders

3. If you need to rotate a picture, select the image by clicking it and press the rotate button at the bottom until the image has the right orientation. Selected images can also be deleted, by clicking the Trashcan icon

4. Select the tick button (bottom-right) when the relevant picture(s), have been added to your upload screen.  This will add them to your image field

Uploaded images will show as follows:

Sometimes, a photo has too much going on in the background, and the image would be better suited if it is cropped to show only the box or puzzle itself. IPDb has the option to do exactly that.

In edit mode (Pencil icon at the top of the screen), you can click/tap on the image you wish to crop.  The following screen will appear:

Here you have, the option to rotate the image left or right but you can also crop the photo by selecting the Crop icon at the top.

This will put a cropping tool on top of the image. By holding one of the little blue squares and dragging it to the desired location, you can indicate where you want to crop this image.  You can adjust it until you are happy - then select the Crop icon again.  This will crop the image and remove any background, which is not, in the selected area.

Press SAVE to save the puzzle record again.

Re-arranging the order of images
Click and hold the 4-arrow icon on the image, then drag the image to where in the view order you want it to be, and release.

Deleting images

Hold the 4-arrow icon on the image, then drag the image OUTSIDE the image field and release.  This will effectively remove the image from the image field.