diff --git a/src/utils/image.js b/src/utils/image.js
index 04562592a..37c812561 100644
--- a/src/utils/image.js
+++ b/src/utils/image.js
@@ -794,3 +794,8 @@ export class RawImage {
         });
     }
 }
+
+/**
+ * Helper function to load an image from a URL, path, etc.
+ */
+export const load_image = RawImage.read.bind(RawImage);