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Displaying a Picture on a Contact

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› Tutorials › Displaying a Picture on a Contact

Last reviewed on January 15, 2019     10 Comments

Contact or Business Card images are displayed in the the Business Card view.

Open the Contact, double click on the picture placeholder and select an image from your hard drive. For best results, crop and resize it before inserting it into Outlook.

To add an image to the business card, double click on the business card and click the Image button. Select an image and adjust the placement, the size, and alignment as needed. Business card images can be set as a background image.

Contact picture in Outlook

When you add a business card image to a contact, you'll see the business card image in the Business card view.

Tip: You can create custom forms to use for specific companies and add their logo to the business card. This makes it easier to spot contacts from the company when you use the Business Card view and you can still add the person's image to their contact form.

The tool bar buttons to add or change the Contact and Business card picture is on the Contact ribbon.

The Contact Toolbar

Add a Photo to an Outlook Contact Tutorial

[wpvideo 3QHWJbsl w=600]

More Information

These images will not be included in any of the Outlook printouts. I'm not aware of any print utilities that include the image at this time.

Contact tools are listed at Outlook Contact Tools

Displaying a Picture on a Contact was last modified: January 15th, 2019 by Diane Poremsky

Related Posts:

  • Print Outlook's Business Cards
  • Understanding Outlook's New Contact Cards
  • Changing Outlook's Business Card layout
  • Stop Showing Contact Pictures in Messages

About Diane Poremsky

A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999, Diane is the author of several books, including Outlook 2013 Absolute Beginners Book. She also created video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.

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Michael Rowe
November 8, 2016 7:18 pm

Is there a way to add a contact photo to a custom contact form? I have photos for many contacts (to sync to my iPhone and show up with texting or calling) but because I use a custom form in Outlook 2013, I don't know how to take advantage of this feature in Windows 10. Can you enlighten me?

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Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  Michael Rowe
November 8, 2016 11:06 pm

you can add the photo control to the custom form.

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Michael Rowe
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
December 13, 2016 11:37 am

Diane, is that Image under the Control Toolbox? If so how do I make that image the assigned contact photo?

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Michael Rowe
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
October 10, 2017 2:13 pm

Is there a primer for using Photo Control on custom forms? I have tried with the Control Toolbox to insert an Image and then become lost. Right-clicking on the image box gives me advanced options but I don't see a place to tell the form to show the Contact Photo. Also, in the ribbon where in a new form I can Change or Remove a photo it's a blank icon of a missing face. Is it possible to have the contact's photo there?

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Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  Michael Rowe
October 11, 2017 12:01 am

You can't show the contact's photo in the change or remove command - that only uses the icon assigned to it.

You add the control to the toolbox (right click, Custom controls, locate the contact and add an X to the box in from of it), then add it to the form by dragging it from the toolbox to the form or clicking it then clicking on the form. When you create a new contact using that form, you'll be able to add an image to it by clicking on the image placeholder.

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Curtiss
August 12, 2015 5:04 pm

Diane, is there a registry hack to change the max contact image size? I have an android phone connected to the same activesync account as outlook 2013. I can add pretty high-resolution pictures to the contacts in android, which take up the entire phone screen as caller ID when that contact calls. but as soon as I touch those contacts in outlook 2013, the picture becomes a pixelated, small thumbnail on the android device, which takes up about 10% of the phone screen as caller ID when the contact calls me.

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Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  Curtiss
August 13, 2015 12:50 am

No, sorry, there is not. Does just viewing the contact cause it, or do you need to edit & save it?

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Charlotte Berg
June 24, 2014 4:51 am

Hi Diane,
I work for a company and I have noted that I can add a photo to my contacts once they are added however as we are all off the same exchange server, how do I attach photo's for all individuals on the global address book so that everyone can see everyone's photo's without having to upload all contacts?

We are currently working on Outlook 2007?

Thank you,
Charlotte

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William Riddick
April 8, 2014 2:45 pm

Are you saying that for me to upload an image in my Outlook Profile, I must create a Business Card for myself in Outlook? But, it is not clear how that image is conveyed to others who have enabled being able to view Outlook images. Thanks for your help....Bill

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Diane Poremsky
Reply to  William Riddick
April 8, 2014 3:24 pm

The image needs to be attached to something - a contact, or facebook or linkedin (if signed in to either), or in your GAL entry (Exchange users only). You adding it to your contact in your Outlook won't display it to others; they would need a contact for you with a picture, or log into facebook or linkedin, or share the same Exchange server as you.

For example, I have linkedin connected to my outlook and I see the contact photos of a lot of people who email me (for the first time) because they have a linkedin account.

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