Inserting, Editing, Saving Bitmaps

Inserting Bitmaps

A bitmap image can be inserted in LibreOffice Writer, LibreOffice Calc, LibreOffice Draw and LibreOffice Impress documents.

  1. Choose Insert - Image - From File.

  2. Select the file. In the File type box you can restrict the selection to certain file types.

  3. Click the Link box if you want a link to the original file.

    If the Link box is marked, whenever the document is updated and loaded the bitmap image is reloaded. The editing steps that you have carried out in the local copy of the image in the document are re-applied and the image is displayed.

    If the Link box is not marked, you are always working with the copy created when the graphic was first inserted.

    To embed graphics that were first inserted as links, go to Edit - Links and click the Break Link button.

  4. Click Open to insert the image.

Editing Bitmaps

Icons on the Image bar

When you select the bitmap image, the Image Bar offers you the tools for editing the image. Only a local copy is edited in the document, even if you have inserted an image as a link.

Note Icon

The Image Bar may look slightly different depending to the module you are using.


A number of filters are located on the Image Filter toolbar, which you can open with the icon on the Image Bar.

The original image file will not be changed by the filters. Filters are applied to an image only inside the document.

Some of the filters open a dialog, which you can use to select, for example, the intensity of the filter. Most filters can be applied multiple times to increase the filter effect.

Note Icon

In LibreOffice Draw and LibreOffice Image, you can add text and graphics, select these objects together with the bitmap, and export the selection as a new bitmap image.


The Image dialog

  1. Right-click the image and choose Image from the submenu to open a properties dialog.

  2. Change the properties of the selected image, then click OK.

Saving Bitmaps

If you want to save in a format such as GIF, JPEG or TIFF, you must select and export the bitmap image.

To export a bitmap in Draw or Impress:

  1. Select the bitmap image. You can also select additional objects, such as text, to be exported with the image by pressing the shift key while selecting or by opening a selection frame around all objects.

  2. Choose File - Export. The Export dialog opens.

    The Export command writes the image with all applied filter effects to a file. The Save Image command in the context menu saves the image without any filter effects, if the image was inserted as a linked image. An embedded image will always be saved or exported with filters applied.

  3. In the File format field, select the file format you want, for example GIF or JPEG.

  4. If you only want to export the selected objects, mark the Selection box.

    If Selection is not marked, the entire page of the document is exported.

  5. Enter a name for the file and click Export.

To export a bitmap in Writer: Right-click the bitmap, choose Save Graphics. You see the Image Export dialog. Enter a file name and select a file type.

Dragging and Dropping Within a LibreOffice Document

Adding Clickable Hotspots to Images

Image Filter Bar from the Image Bar