Excel Function: IMAGE

Purpose

The IMAGE function retrieves an image from a location specified by a URL and inserts it into a cell.

Images can be sorted.
The IMAGE function has 4 modes of operation:
1. The image is fit to the cell and its aspect ratio is preserved.
2. The image is fit to the cell and its aspect ratio is ignored.
3. The image is displayed full size.
4. The image’s height & width is specified with arguments passed to the IMAGE function.

Invocations of the IMAGE function take the form:

IMAGE(source,[alt_text],[sizing],[height],[width])

The protocol of the URL passed to the ‘source’ argument must be HTTPS.
Support for image formats is limited to: BMP, JPG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PNG, ICO, and WEBP.
- WEBP is not supported on Excel for the Web, or Android.

Argument

Description

source

Mandatory

Represents a URL at which an image is accessible. The URL must use the HTTPS protocol.

alt_text

Optional

A description of an image, intended for people who are visually impaired.

sizing

Optional

Dictates how an image should be sized. It can assume one of four values:

Value	Description
0	Make an image as large as possible and maintain its aspect ratio.
1	Fit an image to the cell and ignore its aspect ratio.
2	Display an image at full size. It may go beyond the boundary of the cell.
3	Size an image per the *height* and *width* arguments.

height

Optional

An image’s height in pixels. Mandatory if sizing has a value of 3.

width

Optional

An image’s width in pixels. Mandatory if sizing has a value of 3.

Function	Example	Purpose
ENCODEURL	`IMAGE(ENCODEURL(source))`	Sanitise a URL, then retrieve & display the image located at it.

The IMAGE function will respond with an error value if any of the following conditions are met.

Error value	Condition type	Condition
#VALUE!	Bad argument	An attempt was made to get an image with an unsupported format.
#VALUE!	Bad argument	An invalid URL was supplied to the *source* argument.
#VALUE!	Bad argument	The *sizing* argument’s value was 3 and *height* and/or *width* were omitted.
#VALUE!	Bad argument	The *sizing* argument’s value was 3 and *height* and/or *width* were ≤ 0.
#VALUE!	Bad argument	The *sizing* argument’s value was 0, 1 or 2 and *height* and/or *width* were provided.
#CONNECT!	Runtime	It was not possible to access the image.
#BLOCKED!	Runtime	The image exists but access to it was denied.

=IMAGE("https://img.icons8.com/?size=512&id=12510&format=png","Sizing type: 0",0)

=IMAGE("https://img.icons8.com/?size=512&id=12510&format=png","Sizing type: 1",1)

=IMAGE("https://img.icons8.com/?size=512&id=12510&format=png","Sizing type: 2",2)

=IMAGE("https://img.icons8.com/?size=512&id=12510&format=png","Sizing type: 3",3,100,100)

Columns containing images retrieved by the IMAGE function can be sorted. Excel sorts them by alt_text then by source.