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Adding Photos and GIFs with Unsplash and Giphy

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Overview

This guide walks you through finding a stock photo or GIF and dropping it straight into your email — no separate tabs, no downloading files to your desktop first. By the end you’ll know how to search Unsplash for photography and Giphy for GIFs from anywhere you place an image in Temway, and what happens to the file once you pick it.

The same picker also reaches your workspace library and AI image generation, so this guide doubles as a tour of where images live in Temway.

Where the image picker appears

Every image surface in Temway opens the same picker:

  • Image blocks in the email builder
  • Logo field in workspace branding
  • Image elements in the layout editor

Wherever you see an upload area with a Browse images button underneath, the picker is one click away.

Opening the picker

  1. Add an Image block to your email, or click an existing one.
  2. In the properties panel on the right, click Browse images below the upload area.
  3. A window opens titled Browse images with four tabs: Library, Unsplash, Giphy, and AI Generate.

The Library tab is your workspace’s saved images — anything you’ve uploaded or imported before. Unsplash and Giphy are covered below. AI Generate turns a text prompt into an image.

Finding a photo with Unsplash

The Unsplash tab is a keyword search over a library of free-to-use photography.

  1. Click the Unsplash tab.
  2. Type what you’re looking for in the search box — “mountains”, “team meeting”, “coffee cup” — and press Enter.
  3. Scroll the results. Each photo shows the photographer’s name and a link to their Unsplash profile.
  4. Click a photo to select it. The photo is saved to your workspace library and placed into your email in one step.

If a search comes back empty, try a broader term. “Laptop on desk” usually beats “silver laptop on oak standing desk”.

Finding a GIF with Giphy

The Giphy tab works the same way, for animated GIFs.

  1. Click the Giphy tab.
  2. Type a mood or reaction — “celebration”, “thank you”, “friday” — and press Enter.
  3. Scroll the results. A “Powered by GIPHY” note appears above the grid.
  4. Click a GIF to select it. Like Unsplash, it’s saved to your workspace library and placed into your email.

What happens when you pick an image

Selecting a photo from Unsplash or a GIF from Giphy saves a copy to your workspace library first, then places it. Two things follow from that:

  • It’s yours to keep. The image lives in your workspace, so it stays available for future emails even if the original source changes or disappears.
  • It loads consistently for subscribers. Readers download the image from Temway, not from Unsplash or Giphy directly — so it loads the same way for everyone, every time.

You’ll see every imported image again in the Library tab the next time you open the picker.

Tips

  • Use GIFs sparingly. A single well-placed GIF can lift a celebration or announcement email; a page full of them slows loading and distracts from the message.
  • Match the photo to the container. If your image block has a fixed shape, pick a photo that already sits roughly in that aspect — cropping gets easier. See Cropping Images to Fit Your Layout.
  • Write alt text after placing. Every image block has a dedicated alt-text field in the properties panel. Describe what the photo shows so subscribers who can’t see it still get the meaning.
  • GIFs belong in image blocks. They aren’t supported inside layout blocks — if you try to place one there, Temway points you to an image block instead.

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