How do I upload an image?

Question

Sometimes we have to ask the OP to scan and upload an image. But it turns out there's apparently a rep hurdle for doing that.

Earlier this week we told an OP that we needed an image and one of the lads made a comment that there's a site where a person can upload an image with no rep. I can't find it now, hence this question.

We need a canonical answer to how to upload an image and tell us what the link is. And it needs to be a link that is well known so as to avoid phishing trolls. Like Facebook or Twitter or some other image hosting site.

Question: how do I upload an image when I do not have the reputation points?

Secondarily, is there any pre-processing steps I should take?

One answer per site, it's best to have lots of answers that show different sites. Popular well known sites that have trustworthy links.

If you opt to put in an answer (thanks and a tip of the hat), please include that they should redact the personal stuff with Paint or whatever. Put the link in their question and then we can get the image and edit their question to make it complete and long lasting.

And then we can start pointing the OP to this META article when an image is called for! It shows that we have our act together.

Answer 1

Uploading an image is a straight-forward process that should take 3 - 5 minutes once a scan has been made.

Make a scan of your letter that will produce a jpg file. The next step in uploading a scan is to redact the document. This means to use an editor like Microsoft Paint to make black rectangles over anything that might identify you or another specific individual. Here's a screen shot of a document that has been properly redacted...

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You can see that redaction has both preserved the original content and removed any references to a specific individual. This is important for your own confidentiality as some documents are quite sensitive and may contain deeply personal information.

The next step is to find an image hosting service. There are many of these on the net and this answer will take up a US based company called "Imgur".

Enter the address imgur.com to reach the site. On the top of the landing page there's a green button labelled "New Post", click it.

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This will lead to a 'drag and drop' area where you can insert your image on to the net. You will then have the opportunity to copy the link to your image...

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This will put the link on to your clipboard, it looks something like this: http://imgur.com/a/dZJYCqquse your browser to double check that your link works and leads the user to the correct image.

Then you can return to your original question on the site and use the 'edit' button to paste your link.

We know what to do after that. We'll take care of the rest and get you some quality answers.

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Uploading your scan is vital to getting a clear and tailored answer to your question. Sometimes the document is nuanced and contains formulae that we can recognize what they are saying and hence understand exactly where things went wrong. See also Why do you want to see UK refusal notices?

Try it, it's fun!

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P.S. If not embedded but via a link, the link should: (a) NOT be shortened (by Bitly or such like), (b) NOT be to a site that requires a login, and (c) NOT be to a file that is password protected.