If you image putting pictures in long-form content material — like articles, case research, or experiences — the usual method is inline rectangles, breaking apart blocks of textual content. Practical? Certain. Inspiring? Hardly.
Why accomplish that many long-form articles really feel visually flat? Why do pictures so usually appear bolted on, relatively than a part of the story? And the way does that have an effect on engagement, comprehension, or tone?
Pictures in long-form content material can (and infrequently ought to) do greater than illustrate. They will form how folks navigate, have interaction with, and interpret what they’re studying. They assist set the tempo, affect how readers really feel, and add character that phrases alone can’t all the time convey.
So, how do you utilize pictures so as to add character, rhythm, and even shock somebody alongside the way in which? Right here’s how I do it.
My temporary: Patty Meltt is an up-and-coming nation music sensation, and she or he wanted a web site to launch her new album and tour. She wished it to be distinctive-looking and memorable, so she referred to as Stuff & Nonsense. Patty’s not actual, however the challenges of designing and creating websites like hers are.
First, a not-so-long-form recap.
You most likely already know that grids make designs really feel predictable, rhythmic, and structured, which helps readers really feel comfy when consuming long-form content material. Grids deliver stability. They assist preserve issues aligned, organized, and simple to comply with, which makes complicated data really feel much less overwhelming.
However as soon as I’ve established a grid, breaking it often is usually a highly effective means to attract consideration to key content material, add character, and forestall layouts from feeling formulaic or flat.
For instance, in long-form content material, I’d pull pictures into the margins or nudge them out of alignment to create a extra informal, energetic really feel. I may develop a picture’s inline dimension out of its column utilizing unfavourable margin values:
determine {
inline-size: 120%;
margin-inline-start: -10%;
margin-inline-end: -10%;
}Used sparingly, these breaks function punctuation, guiding the reader’s eye and including moments of visible curiosity to the textual content’s movement.
Textual content width or full-bleed
As soon as we begin pondering creatively about pictures in long-form content material, one query often involves thoughts: how broad ought to these pictures be?
Ought to they sit flush with the perimeters of the textual content column?
img {
inline-size: 100%;
max-inline-size: 100%;
}
Or develop to fill the complete width of the web page?
determine {
inline-size: 100vw;
margin-inline-start: 50%;
remodel: translateX(-50%);
}Each approaches are legitimate, however it’s necessary to know how they serve completely different functions.
E-book and newspaper layouts historically preserve pictures confined to the textual content column, reinforcing the movement of phrases. Magazines, then again, frequently break the grid with full-bleed imagery for dramatic impact.
In articles, information tales, and experiences, pictures set contained in the column movement with the copy, giving a way of order and rhythm. This works particularly nicely for charts, diagrams, and infographics, the place it’s necessary to maintain issues clear and simple to learn. However within the flawed context, this method can really feel predictable and missing in vitality
Stretching pictures past the content material column to fill the total width of the viewport creates immediate affect. These moments act like dramatic pauses — they purposefully break the studying rhythm, reset consideration, and shift focus from phrases to visuals. That mentioned, these pictures ought to all the time serve a goal. They lose their affect shortly in the event that they’re overused or really feel like filler.
Utilizing a modular grid for a number of pictures
To this point, I’ve centered on single pictures within the movement of textual content. However what if I wish to current a group? How can I organize a sequence of pictures that belong collectively?
As a substitute of stacking pictures vertically, I can use a modular grid to create a cohesive association with exact management over placement and scale. What’s a modular grid? It’s a construction constructed from repeated items — usually squares or rectangles — organized horizontally and vertically to deliver order to diversified content material. I can place particular person pictures inside single modules, or span a number of modules to create bigger, extra impactful zones.
determine {
show: grid;
grid-template-columns: repeat(4, 1fr);
hole: 15px;
}
determine > *:nth-child(1) {
grid-column: 1 / -1;
}
Modular grids additionally assist us break away from standard, column-based layouts, including selection and protecting issues visually fascinating with out counting on full-bleed pictures each time. They offer me the flexibleness to combine panorama and portrait pictures inside the identical area. I can range scale, making some pictures bigger for emphasis and others smaller in help. It’s a format approach that teams associated visuals, reinforcing the connection between them.
CSS Shapes and expressive prospects
No matter form the topic takes, each picture sits inside a field. By default, textual content flows above or under that field. If I float a picture left or proper, the adjoining textual content wraps across the rectangle, no matter what’s inside. When a topic fills its field edge to edge, this wrapping feels pure.
However when the topic is reduce out or has an irregular define, that rectangular wrap can really feel awkward.
CSS Shapes solves that drawback by permitting textual content to wrap round any customized form I outline. Letting textual content movement round a form isn’t simply ornamental — it provides vitality and retains the web page feeling energetic. Utilizing shape-outside impacts the studying expertise. It slows folks down barely, creates visible rhythm, and provides distinction to the regular march of standard textual content blocks. It additionally brings textual content and picture into a better relationship, making them really feel a part of a shared composition relatively than remoted parts.
Most shape-outside explanations begin with circles or ellipses, however I feel they need to start with one thing extra expressive: wrapping textual content round a picture’s alpha channel.
img {
float: left;
width: 300px;
top: auto;
shape-outside: url('patty.webp');
shape-image-threshold: .5;
shape-margin: 1rem;
}No clipping paths. No polygons. Simply letting the pure silhouette of the picture form the textual content. It’s a small element that makes a design really feel extra thought-about, extra crafted, and extra human.
Integrating captions right into a design
Captions don’t have to sit down quietly beneath a picture. They will play a much more expressive function in shaping how a picture is perceived and understood. Most captions seem like afterthoughts to me — small, gray textual content, tucked beneath an image.
However after I suppose extra intentionally about their positioning and styling, captions turn out to be an energetic a part of the design. They might help information consideration, spotlight necessary factors, and produce a bit extra character to the web page.
No rule says captions should sit under a picture. Why not deal with them as design parts in their very own proper? I’d place a caption to the left or proper of a picture.
determine {
show: grid;
grid-template-columns: repeat(6, 1fr);
hole: 1rem;
}
determine img {
grid-column: 1 / 6;
}
figcaption {
grid-column: 6;
}
Or let it overlap a part of the image itself:
determine {
show: grid;
grid-template-columns: repeat(6, 1fr);
hole: 1rem;
}
determine img {
grid-column: 1 / 6;
grid-row: 1;
}
figcaption {
grid-column: 5 / -1;
grid-row: 1;
}
Captions join pictures and textual content. Performed nicely, they’ll elevate in addition to clarify. They don’t need to look standard both; you possibly can type them to seem like pull quotes or facet notes.
I’d design a caption to echo a pull quote, or mix it with graphic parts to make it really feel much less like a label and extra like a part of the story it’s serving to to inform.
The facility of whitespace
Till now, I’ve focused on the photographs themselves — how they’re captioned, positioned, and sized. However there’s one thing else that’s simply as necessary: the area round them.
Whitespace isn’t empty area; it’s energetic. It shapes how content material feels, the way it flows, and the way it’s learn. The margins, padding, and unfavourable area round a picture affect how a lot consideration it attracts and the way comfortably it sits inside a web page.
Tighter spacing is beneficial when grouping pictures, however it additionally creates pressure. In distinction, beneficiant margins give a picture extra respiratory room.
determine {
margin-block: 3rem;
}
Like a line break in a poem or a pause in dialog, whitespace slows issues down and provides folks pure moments to pause whereas studying.
Conclusion
Pictures in long-form content material aren’t simply illustrations. They form how folks expertise what they’re studying — how they transfer by it, the way it feels, and what they keep in mind. By pondering past the default rectangle, we will use pictures to create rhythm, character, and even moments of shock.
Whether or not it’s by breaking the grid, selecting full-bleed over inline, wrapping textual content, or designing playful captions, it’s about being deliberate. So subsequent time you’re laying out an extended article, don’t marvel, “The place can I put a picture?” Ask, “How can this picture assist form somebody’s expertise?”
