Maybe you have commitment issues, or maybe you just like variety… Whatever the case, I don’t judge! 😄 If you would like to display a random page cover image in Notion that changes on refresh, you have a way to do this using either the Picsum or Unsplash image services. Picsum has some nice photos, but in my opinion Unsplash has the best photos (you may recognize Unsplash, as a subset of Unsplash photos are already integrated into Notion). However I’ll let you judge for yourself.
Here’s how to do it:
- In the heading of your page, click “Add cover”
- Click to “Change cover” and choose the image “Link” option
- Enter the URL to the random photo service (change 1500/800 to your preferred dimensions)
https://picsum.photos/1500/800
https://source.unsplash.com/random/1500×800
Each time the page is refreshed a new random image will be loaded.
Advanced options – Picsum
Turn the random image to grayscale by adding ?grayscale to the URL string:https://picsum.photos/1500/800?grayscale
Blur the random image by adding ?blur to the end of the URL string:https://picsum.photos/1500/800?blur
Change the blur level by providing a number between 1 and 10 (the higher the number, the greater the blur effect):https://picsum.photos/1500/800?blur=2
Combine both grayscale and blur together:https://picsum.photos/1500/800?grayscale&blur=2
Additional documentation for Picsum
Advanced options – Unsplash
Narrow the selection of random images by adding search terms, separated by a comma:https://source.unsplash.com/random/1500x800/?searchterm1,searchterm2
Display only images from a specific collection by including the collection ID in the URL string:https://source.unsplash.com/collection/collectionID/1600x900
Display a new random image every day or week by appending /daily or /weekly to the URL string:https://source.unsplash.com/random/1500x800/weekly
Combine any of the above options together:https://source.unsplash.com/random/1500x800/weekly?searchterm1,searchterm2
Additional documentation for Unsplash