Kevin I don't disagree one bit, just wanted to provide a workaround for those that would like to left align their images without needing to wait months/years for Atlassian to implement the functionality in the UI.

We moved to Cloud because we were essentially forced due to pricing changes for Server. And while I now like the new editor more than the legacy editor (though I didn't at first), we found so much basic Server functionality was missing, such as image borders (though that has since been added).

I'm still waiting for the ability to do images side by side (not the tiny inline function they added). It's ridiculous that I have to resort to using a table to show a bunch of images, and even then it's not helpful when already in a table because you can't do nested tables on cloud.

For those looking for another workaround that is easier to use than the layout macro trick that Curtis posted:

1. Download a storage editor plugin such as Source Editor PRO or Storage Format Editor for Confluence FREE.
2. When in view mode (not edit) click the 3 dots on the page to access the storage edit function.
   
3. Search for what you are looking for. You can search for just "center" or more of the string such as <ac:image ac:align="center" ac:layout="center"
   
4. Remove the ac:align and ac:layout attributes completely. The image will default to left alignment without these attributes specified.
5. Save.

Looks like this is now available for images inside tables:

Just click the image inside a Table and alignment options will be displayed.

That doesn't seem to be available on Expands, but it's possible to Align Left by using Keyboard Shortcuts:

1. Click the image to select it
2. On MacOS, hit ⌘ + Shift + L

It doesn't seem like there are shortcuts for Align Center and Right as of right now, but hopefully this helps a few users out.

Note that hovering the cursor over the editor functions will display their shortcut if one exists. Also, hitting ⌘ + / while in Edit mode will display a list of available keyboard shortcuts.

Reference: Confluence Cloud - Keyboard shortcuts and autocomplete

Thanks Curtis, this workaround (although crazy) worked perfectly. My images are now aligned to my liking within the expanding block.

I wanted to share a somewhat ridiculous workaround I found and now use in Jira cloud. I stumbled across this on my own, otherwise I'd give a link to a reference.

1. Add a layouts macro.
2. Paste the image in the layouts macro and select the desired alignment (left/right).
3. Inside the layouts macro, add an expand macro.
4. Copy the image with the desired alignment.
5. Paste the image in the expand macro (note that the previously-selected alignment persists).
6. Copy the expand macro with the image in it.
7. Paste the expand macro in the desired location on the page.

If I know I'm going to be doing this multiple times on a page, I basically leave layouts macro on the page that I use just for this workaround.

Note: Unfortunately, this doesn't work in Jira, as the layouts macro does not exist there. There may be another workaround in Jira for this same behavior.

EDIT: I only edit pages in the new editor now, so I cannot say if/how this will work if you try this with pages that were created by the old editor. Also, why doesn't Atlassian's public instance of Jira support their newest editor?! I had to tweak this comment several times since it doesn't support anything.

I just tried to left-align images in an expanding block and it defaults to centre-aligned. This limitation has stopped me from using what is otherwise a great feature (expanding blocks) to help readers navigate a meaty topic.

Just migrated to Cloud and am extremely disappointed that all my left aligned images within macros are now centered and I cannot get them back to being left-aligned. This is really frustrating.

Hello, are you going to resume this? or are you still gathering interest? it's been more than 3 years since this was raised.

It's very frustrating not being able to align a picture inside a macro when you can do it when it's placed outside.

Absolutely can not believe this is gathering interest... This is a formatting catastrophy!

What's up with Atlassian lately? Do they have employee shortages? Are they in over their heads with the migration from server to cloud? Sure seems so. And never clear communication towards their customers. Really frustrating. If anybody can recommend alternate software to confluence, please hit me up!

Just saw that images that are placed on a list line do have position controls, while images pasted in "normal" lines do not and align to center.

This is not really production ready, I'd say.

I definitly agree. 

BTW meanwhile there has been some improvement, but still far too less.

In addition rendering of images seems to be buggy. Confluence displays even SVG files blurry. 
A mistery to me, how Atlassian was able to achieve this  

Another PNG I needed to re-add. Display was blurry and resizing simply doesn't work at all.
Rating F minus  

"image positioning and sizing very frustrating"
Softly speaking... it just does not work!

IMO, new editor is big regression which introduced heap of problems.

Type of this issue is definitely not suggestion. It's a bug!

And GATHERING INTEREST status, status is kidding users.

I'm using the new editor (has some nice stuff, but very buggy so far). I have a page that was created using the old editor and has columns with images left aligned and I can't add anything to this page in a matching format  I either have to reformat the page (and I like the format), have items with different formatting within the page, or not add anything new...

I really like adding small images to pages to break up walls of text, but have found the image positioning and sizing very frustrating in the new Confluence Cloud.

Could be it wasn't rolled out to your company. Consider yourself lucky! (We can force the "old editor" to be used, which is good.)

Hi Wendy, thanks for answering.

When creating a new page I observe the same behavior.
I do not not how to force the "new editor" to be used.

I agree that the current ticket does not specify a concrete version or editor.

Hi Christoph - you are not using the new editor when you edit an old page. Unfortunately, I see the title of this issue doesn't mention "new editor". If you create a new page, and the editing tools look different, you are in the new editor.

Hi Christiane,

within the Atlassian cloud our company uses the URL https://avlditest.atlassian.net/. 
Menu "Help / About Confluence" shows version "Confluence 1000.0.0-11e909e1050d".

When editing a page there and adding a table I can insert an image into a cell of the table.
When clicking on the image I can select an alignment option.
Using the handles to the left and richt of the image I can change the size of the image.

Unfortunatly I don't have permission to attach a screenshot to the current ticket.

@christoph I tested to align images in tables and e. g. expand macro. In both cases no alignment options available.

I recently saw, that it is possible (again) to resize and align images inside tables in Confluence (Cloud version).

Could you check again, Wendy?

Another bewildering decision by Atlassian. It's almost as if Atlassian is completely out-of-touch with what their users used and need.
It's so aggravating to wait for features that used to work perfectly fine to be restored. Atlassian support only suggests voting on the issue to raise its priority. These editor restorations should be _Atlassian's _high priority. I am the Confluence Admin for a big company, and colleagues ask me to contact support about issues. I cannot ask my colleagues to waste time voting on issues. As their representative, my vote should count as 500!

The inability to align and resize images within a table cell is confusing - why would you limit your users to centered images in a table?  It throws off all of our layouts - how did this even pass UAT?

This was possible in old Confluence.

Why has this feature been removed?