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Everything About Images

Lately, I have needed an image displayer for my Power BI report and I have decided to do a little research before I choose which one to use.  After all, Power BI offers many of them at App Source, and the more choice I have, the pickier I become. Here is the full list of image displayers that I could find, and they are all free.

  • Table and Matrix: These are between the options that let me display a visual on Power BI's visualizations pane. The advantage is they come with Power BI. You don't need to download anything from App Source and they support URL. It supports links to images and also images encoded to Base64 code. They might be preferable because they don't have the risk of simply disappearing as they are Power BI's own tools. It's possible to change the size of images but it's not possible to fit image 100% to the frame. When I tried to small the frame, they both created a scroll down menu which doesn't look good. Changing the size is also has limits between (18x18) to (96x90). It supports transparent backgrounds. P.S.: If you're wondering about half cloud image down, you can read my post Adding Flags to Power BI Reports.
      Table Matrix
  • Slicer : Our good old friend Slicer might come in handy too for displaying visuals. The thing is Slicer supports URL but not base64. Not supporting base64 might be a problem if you need to create your own link to have a more reliable source. Resizing is not an option with a slicer and the default image size is (70x70). The tick button nearby the image can't be hidden. It supports JPG, PNG, and GIF and supports a transparent background.
      
  • Multi-row Card: This is the last option that Power BI's visualizations pane offers. This one supports URL but not Base64. The thing which makes Multi-row Card difficult to love for image displaying is, resizing is not an option. Whatever the size of your image, it has only one default size (48×48). When you try to fit the image and the frame with each other, like in Table and Matrix it creates an unwanted scroll down menu. The advantage of it might be displaying more than one visual. Other than that it doesn't offer anything special for image display. It is able to display JPG, PNG, and GIF. It also supports a transparent background. 
      
  • Image Grid: You can download this one from App Source, and it's certified by Power BI. It means it has passed testing and is supported in additional scenarios such as export to PowerPoint. You don't need to encode the image's URL to base64 but there is something that I don't like about it. When you hover on it, the image gets bigger and that's why you can't fill the displayer completely with your image, it always has an empty background and in my opinion, doesn't look well. But if it is used with multiple images like it's designed to be, it looks fantastic, getting bigger on hovering makes perfect sense. It supports a transparent background. Resizing is allowed. Long story short, this one is good for displaying multiple images at once.
       
 
  • Image by CloudScope: This one has no problem with sizing the image and its limit is the canvas frame. It supports JPG, GIF, and PNG files and supports a transparent background. It supports both URL and Base64 but it's not Power BI certified. It means one day it can disappear from App Source and leave your report and image with a broken heart, despite it is the editor's pick.
     
  • Simple Image: This one has no problem with sizing either. Its size limit is the canvas like Image by CloudScope. It can display JPG, PNG, and GIF. The transparent background is supported. It also supports both the image's URL and base64 encoding, but it also has the risk of getting disappeared or having update compatibility problems in the future. The other thing I noticed, its ellipses to drag it sometimes disappears when you're resizing the image.
     

    

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