---
title: "Configure image styles"
date: "2026-03-24T08:12:56+00:00"
summary: "Optimize your website's visuals with our guide to configuring image styles. Learn to enhance and manage images effectively."
image:
type: "page"
url: "/acquia-dam/configure-image-styles"
id: "404e4409-fad1-4926-bbdf-368ddffaa13e"
---

Use image styles to control how Acquia DAM images are transformed and displayed in Drupal. With image styles you can automatically resize, crop, scale, or apply other effects to images when they are rendered on your site.

This page explains how to enable image styles for the Acquia DAM module, how image styles work with DAM‑backed images, and how to configure them for common use cases.

For more information about how assets are delivered, such as embed and Download and sync, and which asset types support image styles, refer to the Asset rendering section in the Features and capabilities section.

Allow image styles for Acquia DAM
---------------------------------

You must explicitly enable the image styles that can be used by the DAM integration to apply them with Acquia DAM media.

To enable image styles for Acquia DAM:

1.  Log in to your Drupal site as an administrator.
2.  In the administrative menu, go to **Configuration > Media > Acquia DAM**, or navigate directly to: `/admin/config/acquia-dam`
3.  On the Acquia DAM configuration page, click the **Image Styles**.
4.  In the **Allowed image styles**, select the checkboxes for the required image styles.
5.  Click **Save configuration**.
    
    ![Acquia-dam_image-styles](https://acquia.widen.net/content/d0f15ba6-79ce-4c0f-9213-102c18bb8fc6/web/8e2e6_acquia-dam-image-style-config-form.png)
    

Only the selected image styles are available for selection when you configure displays for Acquia DAM media types and related view modes

How image styles work with Acquia DAM
-------------------------------------

The Acquia DAM module exposes DAM images as Drupal media entities backed by image files. Drupal applies image styles when those images are displayed.

Key points:

*   Only image assets from Acquia DAM support image styles. Other asset types such as video, document, and archive cannot use image styles.
*   For Download and sync images:
    *   The image is stored in the Drupal file system, either public or private.
    *   Drupal applies image styles to the local file when rendering.
*   For Embed (CDN delivery) images:
    *   Drupal applies image style dimensions to the image tag when rendering images from DAM.

Create or review image styles
-----------------------------

Before attaching image styles to display modes and view modes, confirm you have the styles you need.

To create or review image styles:

1.  Log in to your Drupal site as an administrator.
2.  In the administrative menu, go to **Configuration > Media > Image styles**, such as `/admin/config/media/image-styles`
3.  Review the existing image styles. Common examples include:
    *   thumbnail
    *   medium
    *   large
    *   site‑specific styles such as teaser, card, or hero
4.  To create a new image style:
    *   Click **\+ Add image style**.
    *   Enter a **Name** and **Machine name** for the style.
    *   Click **Create new style**.
    *   Add one or more effects such as scale, scale and crop, and resize.
    *   Click **Save**.

Repeat as needed until you have the set of image styles required by your site's design. Then ensure these styles are allowed for Acquia DAM on the **Image styles** tab as described above.

Attach image styles to Acquia DAM media display
-----------------------------------------------

Once your image styles exist and are allowed for Acquia DAM, apply them to the appropriate display modes for DAM‑backed media.

### Configure the media view display

To specify and configure the image style that is used when a media entity is rendered:

1.  In the administrative menu, go to **Structure > Media types**, such as: `/admin/structure/media`
2.  For each media type that uses the Acquia DAM media source and represents images, such as Acquia DAM: Image.
    1.  Click **Manage display**.
    2.  Locate the field that displays the image, such as On-site stored asset image or Asset reference.
    3.  In the **Format**, ensure that the formatter is set to Image formatter.
    4.  Click the **gear** icon next to the formatter to configure it.
        
        ![Acquia-DAM_manage-display](https://acquia.widen.net/content/7456b882-ec4c-4dd7-aafb-c5e4c94fdc0c/web/daff9_Acquia-DAM-image-style-manage-display.png?w=720&itok=FS31FHKb)
        
    5.  In the formatter settings, select the desired Image style, such as, for example, thumbnail, teaser, or hero.
        
        ![Acquia_DAM-image-selection](https://acquia.widen.net/content/4313e145-8ab6-4d25-b319-021e2d2a36c7/web/1a053_Acquia-DAM-image-style-selection.png?w=720&itok=m7nnRhGw)
        
    6.  Click **Update**, then **Save**.

Repeat this for each view mode you use, such as Default, Teaser, and Card, so that each mode uses an appropriate image style. Use image styles in entity view modes such as nodes and blocks.

If your content types or blocks reference DAM media fields:

1.  Go to **Structure > Content types** or **Block types >** **Paragraph types.**
2.  For the relevant type, click **Manage display**.
3.  Find the **media reference field** that points to DAM media.
4.  Set the field formatter to use the appropriate media view mode, such as thumbnail, media hero, or large.
5.  Configure the media view mode to use the correct image style for its image field.
    
    This lets you control image styles centrally on the media entity while you use different styles in different contexts.
    

Considerations for embed and download and sync
----------------------------------------------

When you configure image styles for Acquia DAM images, keep in mind:

*   **Download and sync**
    *   Ideal when you want consistent, server‑side image style and full control over image styles.
    *   Image files are stored in Drupal and processed like any other Drupal image.
*   **Embed (CDN delivery)**
    *   Images are served directly from Acquia DAM.
*   For complex responsive behavior, consider using Drupal’s responsive image module to map breakpoints to different styles.

If you switch an existing site from **Embed** to **Download and sync** or vice versa, review your image styles and display modes to ensure images still render as expected.

SVG and advanced formats
------------------------

If you use SVG assets from Acquia DAM:

*   Install and configure the [Svg Image](https://www.drupal.org/project/svg_image) contributed module.
*   Ensure that:
    *   SVGs are allowed as image files.
    *   The **Acquia DAM: Image** media type can accept SVG files.

After SVG support is configured, you can apply image-style-like behavior where it is supported by your SVG rendered module.

For modern formats like WebP and AVIF:

*   Confirm that your Drupal environment and underlying image toolkit support these formats.
*   Confirm that the DAM integration is configured to download or serve these image formats as needed.

Troubleshooting image styles with Acquia DAM
--------------------------------------------

If images from Acquia DAM do not display with the expected image style:

*   **Verify the media type and formatter**
    *   Check that the media type you use is an image‑capable field/formatter.
    *   Ensure the formatter is configured with the intended image style.
*   **Confirm the asset type**
    *   Make sure the asset is an image in Acquia DAM and that the Drupal media entity is of the correct media type.
    *   If the asset is under a generic or incorrect media type, to correct media types in bulk, run the following command:
        
            drush acquia-dam:resolve-asset-media-type
        
*   **Check Download and sync settings**
    *   If you use Download and sync, confirm that assets have been downloaded and that the files exist in the configured file system.
*   **Clear caches**
    *   Clear Drupal’s caches if you recently changed image styles or display configuration:
        
            drush cr