The Misaligned Graphic
When you insert an image into a Google Docs document using the Insert > Image menu, the image inherits the paragraph alignment of the text block where your cursor was positioned at the time of insertion. If your cursor was in a centred heading, the image will be centred. If it was in a left-aligned paragraph, the image will sit against the left margin. This automatic alignment inheritance is often unexpected. You paste an image intending it to sit left-aligned with your body text, but because your cursor happened to be in a centred title line, the image drops in centred. Manually correcting the alignment every time is tedious, especially in image-heavy documents.
Controlling Image Alignment
To stop Google Docs from automatically centring (or otherwise misaligning) your inserted images, you must understand the alignment inheritance and take control of it before or immediately after insertion.
Before inserting an image, ensure your cursor is positioned in a paragraph that has the alignment you want the image to use. Click into a left-aligned body text paragraph (not a centred heading or right-aligned block). Then go to Insert > Image and add your image. It will inherit the left alignment. If the image is already inserted and misaligned, click on the image to select it. Look at the toolbar — the alignment buttons (left, centre, right, justify) will reflect the image’s current paragraph alignment. Click the Left align button to snap it to the left margin. For images set to “Wrap text” or “Behind text” wrapping mode, alignment is controlled differently: click on the image, open Image options (three dots on the image toolbar), expand Position, and set the horizontal position to a fixed pixel offset from the left margin. This gives you pixel-precise control regardless of the surrounding paragraph’s alignment setting.