When it comes to storing images, Drupal provides many different options. In this book, we will focus on the Image module—available at http://drupal.org/project/image—but before we get into the details, we will quickly examine some of the other options that exist. Our choice of the Image module has less to do with any real problems with the other options, and more with the relative simplicity of the Image module.

One very popular method of storing images uses the following four modules:

In very brief terms, the Imagefield module creates a CCK field that holds images. Imagecache (using the functionality supported by the ImageAPI) scales the images to create thumbnails. Then, either Thickbox or Lightbox 2 can be used to create...