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I was wondering if it is possible to post a comment with an image.

Recently, during a question about data-visualization in Cross Validated, there was a controversy about using one type of chart for another.

I had posted a question about pie-charts, after reading some references I decided to build an example and clarify the point of using waffle-chart vs pie-chart. In a way, my example was not an answer it was more properly a comment on waffle-charts. But it seems to be impossible to post a comment with an image (Maybe, there is a way but I can't figure out how).

I don't know if it is relevant to post images in comments in other SO sites. So, if there is no way to post images in comments... why not making it possible? And if there is a way to post an image with a comment, how I can do it?

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    Well, you can just use imgur.com and upload the images manually then post a link to it in the comments, or if you find the discussion dragging out too long use chat instead. Otherwise, no, its not possible
    – Yi Jiang
    Mar 31, 2011 at 17:05
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    I'd rather use the Markdown editor to automatically upload images to the SE-provided Pro account, @Yi, and then copy the imgur.com URL into the comment. That ensures the image won't be deleted after some time.
    – Arjan
    Mar 31, 2011 at 17:10
  • @Yi Jiang and @Arjan, thanks for your comments. I found them very useful! That seems to solve my problem.
    – deps_stats
    Mar 31, 2011 at 18:26
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    Why the downvotes? This is a support question not a feature-request.
    – Andreas Bonini
    Mar 31, 2011 at 19:20

2 Answers 2

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You can't (see How do comments work?). The only formatting allowed in comments is things that change a single line (bold, code, etc.). Things that take up multiple lines aren't available, because comments don't span blocks like posts do. Along the same thinking, comments have a fairly low character limit. All of this serves to keep comments compact; adding images lets you make huge comments, and posts can have dozens or hundreds of comments:

Screenshot of the horror

If you really need an image, just link to it in the comment and people can click through

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    Also, images would allow for HUGE text!
    – Arjan
    Mar 31, 2011 at 17:12
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    +1 for hypothetically showing the images in comments ;)
    – Sachin Shanbhag
    Mar 31, 2011 at 17:12
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    But who would put unicorns in the comments?? who would do something like that?
    – Trufa
    Mar 31, 2011 at 17:30
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    Feature request right now
    – Pekka
    Mar 31, 2011 at 17:31
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    @Pekka Granted. Only for unicorns.
    – Dr. belisarius
    Mar 31, 2011 at 18:22
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    @Arjan i.imgur.com/X35E6.png
    – jjnguy
    Mar 31, 2011 at 19:23
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    @jjnguy so.mrozekma.com/jeff/…
    – Michael Mrozek
    Mar 31, 2011 at 19:33
  • @Michael, haha. Great pic.
    – jjnguy
    Mar 31, 2011 at 20:03
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    I thought that Stackexchange discourages the use of links to externally saved files?
    – Karlo
    Jan 19, 2016 at 13:29
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    @Karlo not in comments
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Mar 28, 2017 at 21:35
  • @ShadowWizard They were probably referring to the image that was hosted on my domain up until a half hour ago
    – Michael Mrozek
    Mar 28, 2017 at 21:44
  • @MichaelMrozek oh, in the answer itself? I see. Thanks for fixing!
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Mar 28, 2017 at 22:03
  • You are right, big images would just be very obtrusive in comments. When the images become very small, they're just going to have symbolic meaning 🦄, so emojis work fine for that
    – bobobobo
    Nov 21, 2019 at 12:21
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A work around is to start a new answer or question, use the image upload button to get the images into the stakcoverflow imgur account, then take the links and link to the images from your comments. Discard the answer or question you started.

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    That CAN'T be allowed! But I love it. Can you show me a link to where you've done this or seen this done?
    – alex gray
    Mar 19, 2013 at 6:10
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    I think that's exactly what was done under my answer, by Fibbles, right here: stackoverflow.com/questions/32281191/…. It worked great, so I think it absolutely should be allowed. Him doing that was very helpful for me, and then I went ahead and added his image into my answer.
    – Gabriel Staples
    Sep 11, 2015 at 19:42
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    8 years on. Edit the question, copy the imgur link, exity the edit with no changes, use the link.
    – Russell McMahon
    Sep 12, 2019 at 5:49
  • It certainly works if you actually let the answer post, then delete it: stackoverflow.com/questions/61071004/… It didn't actually occur to me to take the links while editing and then discard. TIL!
    – Adrian Mole
    Apr 7, 2020 at 1:17
  • better to use imgur.com IMHO why overload S.E. ?
    – lacostenycoder
    Feb 7, 2021 at 18:26
  • February 2021: just did this for my comment to the question here, by pasting the picture in the answer box to get the link. Posted the comment, refreshed the page just to check, works perfectly!
    – Patrick FitzGerald
    Feb 11, 2021 at 10:20

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