How to insert an inline image in Google Colaboratory from Google Drive

Question

I am trying to insert an image in Google Colaboratory (markdown) already saved in Google Drive using this expression ![Text](https://xxxx) but it doesn't work. For example, the Colaboratory markdown manual shows how to insert a photo inline with this example An inline image: ![Google's logo](https://www.google.com/images/logos/google_logo_41.png). Ok, that is a photo from internet, but, when I replace that photo for one already saved in my Google Drive it doesn't appear.

Answer 1

If you have a link like this, then I've got a solution.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/-------/view?usp=sharing

1. In Google Drive, right-click on the picture

2. Choose 'Get a sharable link'

   

3. Click to 'Copy link'. You need reader permissions. Just need the id of the image.

   

In my case my link is:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xDrydbSbijvK2JBftUz-5ovagN2B_RWH/view?usp=sharing

Now we need to copy JUST the image id:

1xDrydbSbijvK2JBftUz-5ovagN2B_RWH

We will use this base link to generate your link with the image id:

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=your_id

We then copy the id in the link:

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1xDrydbSbijvK2JBftUz-5ovagN2B_RWH

Finally, to place as an image in Google Colab:

![](https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1xDrydbSbijvK2JBftUz-5ovagN2B_RWH)

Answer 2

I tried all the answers above and nothing worked because of a small change Google has created recently(at the time of writing this post). If you click on "Get Shareable link" and paste it, it would look something like this:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=12BumFEqzKxc9mog8tYuUqvpxf10ot6W3

Now just change the open?id to uc?id and it will instantly work.

Answer 3

According to the answers here

![](https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=XXX)

Answer 4

From the next 3 formats only the first one worked for me:

![](https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=0B3SU50kcW4Q4WFlla00tX3hkdkE)    
![](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3SU50kcW4Q4WFlla00tX3hkdkE)    
![](https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3SU50kcW4Q4WFlla00tX3hkdkE)

Answer 5

Here is an example using plain html instead of markdown.

<figure>
<center>
<img src='https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1Rb6oXW3KufLApvID5MwxsknpoON2CkQ_' />
<figcaption>Image Caption</figcaption></center>
</figure>

This way, you can also center the image, add captions etc

Answer 6

This below method works for me:

1. Upload the image on google drive.
2. Enable link sharing (Right click on image > Get shareable link)
3. Change access type from 'Restricted' to 'Anyone with link', keep role as 'Viewer', click 'Done'(pop up should close).
4. Double click on image, Spot 'More actions' icon(top right corner, 3 vertical dots).. click on it and next select 'Open in new tab' from the more action menu, a new windows opens.
5. Now again, spot 'More actions' icon(top right corner, 3 vertical dots).. click on it and select 'Embed item'. It will give you a HTML 'Embed snippet'.
6. Copy that HTML snippet and paste it in your Colab noteboook inside a markdown or code cell.

If you use a code cell, you can use magic function %%html (change iframe width and height for your needs).

%%html
<iframe src="link_placeholder" width="600" height="300"></iframe>

Answer 7

Unfortunately, I have tried the methods above but they didn't work for me. Then I have tried simply right-clicking on the picture that I want to display on colab, and choose 'Get a sharable link', then the link is automatically copied to my clipboard:

The link will be something like

https://docs.google.com/uc?id=-----

Then using colab's picture inserting button, and insert that link to the (https://) part

![picture](your link)

worked like a magic!

However, if you get a link like this

https://drive.google.com/file/d/-------/view?usp=sharing

after making picture public, it somehow doesn't work.

Answer 8

I tried all of the above methods, and nothing works for me. However, there is a workaround that bypasses the use of Google Drive altogether: Simply insert the image as Base64 data in normal HTML like so:

<img src='data:image/png;base64, ...lots of base64-data.. style="max-width:100%;" />

If you, for example, are using draw.io to draw a diagram that you want to include, there is a handy option for embedding data (under file->embed). If you choose "image" in this menu, you'll get a pop-up with the relevant code for you to copy. Otherwise there are image to base64-converters online that you can use.

The downside of this method is that you'll end up with a lot of data to paste. However, if you use a dedicated cell for this purpose, there won't be any need to edit that cell ever again.

(As a side note, this method works in most Markdown editors if you for some reason are unable to include an image file. Sometimes it will also work to use SVG data instead of base64, but this does not work in Google Colab.)

Answer 9

Once you get the public URL of the image, you can insert it in a Markdown cell

With

![Image in a markdown cell]( https://i.imgur.com/6Z1i8zF.png)

---

Or in a Code cell (this trick is just in Colab, as far as I know)

With

#@markdown ![Image in a code cell]( https://i.imgur.com/6Z1i8zF.png)

So you can have Markdown within a code cell.

Answer 10

Here are my solutions. I liked the first one more.

First Solution :

Step1: First use a wget to fetch the picture, do not use svg file! just png

!wget https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/38/Jupyter_logo.svg/207px-Jupyter_logo.svg.png

Run the code

Step2: Get the name of the file from last line '207px-Jupyter_logo.svg.png', after you run the wget.

from IPython.display import Image
Image("207px-Jupyter_logo.svg.png")

Run the code!

Second Solution: use the code below and use png file

from google.colab.patches import cv2_imshow
!curl -o logo.png https://colab.research.google.com/img/colab_favicon_256px.png
import cv2
img = cv2.imread('logo.png', cv2.IMREAD_UNCHANGED)
cv2_imshow(img)

So enjoy :)

3. Solution for svg or other type of files

![This is an image](https://.......svg)

Anyway, use your link :)

3rd from Github_md_guideline

Answer 11

Link to shareable image is restricted to unique code associated to that picture. Once you update the picture (happens), then you need to update the link too.

Alternative ways are described here . My solution is given there too, so I will not copy past it here.

Answer 12

You can simply copy the picture in the clipboard and paste it in a markdown cell