When creating blog posts on my Hugo site, I used to run into requirement of adding image - there are 2 choices:

  1. Put the image as static file in my site
  2. Should I use a public URL from a quick Google search (hosted by someone else!)

I decided to go with a 3rd option - host my own image on cloud and use its URL.

Doing it with imgur.

It allows unlimited storage with limit of 50 uploads per hour.

At first I signed up on imgur on the onset, without realizing it is possible to upload even without signing up, and that too using the screenshot capture tool that I already use (Greenshot).

Tools to upload screenshots to imgur

myimgur

Found myimgur on a quick search. Didnt find it to have the most friendly UX.

Greenshot (preferred)

Greenshot has an option to Upload to imgur!

greenshot-imgur

Using this option uploads your image to imgur anonymously! No account needed. The link to the uploaded image gets added to the clipboard - simply go and paste it where you need the link! (in your md file if writing post).

Pro Tip 1: In case you overwrite your clipboard by accidently copying something, you can use the Clipboard History - press Win + V to paste any past copied content from clipboard (image, text).

In case your Clipboard history is not enabled, you can still go and look at the URL at following path:

  1. Open C:\Users\<your use name>\AppData\Roaming\Greenshot\Greenshot.ini
  2. Search for history or Imgur upload history and you will see:
; Imgur upload history (ImgurUploadHistory.hash=deleteHash)
ImgurUploadHistory.lsVueG2=BuN9UvajnoT0mNY
ImgurUploadHistory.BSmH9Ti=ZNiHg5XxmRzQxzO
ImgurUploadHistory.zqH2N6T=QkbcS7GOt0zfeJF
ImgurUploadHistory.57OEveQ=pMjHK1yBmHk18zQ

courtesy: This SO answer.

Here e.g. lsVueG2 denotes the image uploaded, and the image can be accessed by https://i.imgur.com/lsVueG2.png and so on.

Pro Tip 2: If you accidently uploaded a file that you did not intend to, the image can be accessed by anyone who has the link. Fortunately there is a way to delete the image after its uploaded anonymously - you can use the information in C:\Users\<your use name>\AppData\Roaming\Greenshot\Greenshot.ini to do this:

ImgurUploadHistory.lsVueG2=BuN9UvajnoT0mNY

The 15 character hash value after = can be used to delete the image:

BuN9UvajnoT0mNY # this is called deletehash

The 15 digit alpha-numeric is called deletehash.

Use it to delete the anonymously uploaded image:

imgur.com/delete/{deletehash}