# Asset Handling

# Relative URLs

All markdown files are compiled into Vue components and processed by webpack, therefore you can and should prefer referencing any asset using relative URLs:

![An image](./image.png)

This would work the same way as in *.vue file templates. The image will be processed with url-loader and file-loader, and copied to appropriate locations in the generated static build.

In addition, you can use the ~ prefix to explicitly indicate this is a webpack module request, allowing you to reference files with webpack aliases or from npm dependencies:

![Image from alias](~@alias/image.png)
![Image from dependency](~some-dependency/image.png)

webpack aliases can be configured via configureWebpack in .vuepress/config.js. Example:

module.exports = {
  configureWebpack: {
    resolve: {
      alias: {
        '@alias': 'path/to/some/dir'
      }
    }
  }
}

# Public Files

Sometimes you may need to provide static assets that are not directly referenced in any of your markdown or theme components - for example, favicons and PWA icons. In such cases you can put them inside .vuepress/public and they will be copied to the root of the generated directory.

Always use absolute paths when calling assets from the .vuepress/public directory:

@font-face {
  font-family: 'Roboto';
  src: url('/Roboto-Regular.woff2') format('woff2');
}

# Base URL

If your site is deployed to a non-root URL, you will need to set the base option in .vuepress/config.js. For example, if you plan to deploy your site to https://foo.github.io/bar/, then base should be set to "/bar/" (it should always start and end with a slash).

With a base URL, if you want to reference an image in .vuepress/public, you'd have to use URLs like /bar/image.png. However, this is brittle if you ever decide to change the base later. To help with that, VuePress provides a built-in helper $withBase (injected onto Vue's prototype) that generates the correct path:

<img :src="$withBase('/foo.png')" alt="foo">

Note you can use the above syntax not only in theme components, but in your markdown files as well.

In addition, if a base is set, it is automatically prepended to all asset URLs in .vuepress/config.js options.