diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 631aa170c2..292ec1f522 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
 
 - `kable()` supports generating multiple tables from a list of data objects, and the tables will be placed side by side when the output format is HTML or LaTeX
 
+- added a new function `include_graphics()` to embed existing image files into **knitr** documents; see `?include_graphics` for details
+
 - added a chunk option `ffmpeg.bitrate` (default: `1M`) to control the quality of WebM videos created from FFmpeg (thanks, @JsonPunyon, #1090)
 
 - added a chunk option `ffmpeg.format` (default: `webm`) to control the video format of FFmpeg; this option specifies the filename extension of the video (#712)
diff --git a/R/output.R b/R/output.R
index b6a8d1b2a0..6054e561bd 100644
--- a/R/output.R
+++ b/R/output.R
@@ -539,6 +539,16 @@ wrap.recordedplot = function(x, options) {
   knit_hooks$get('plot')(file, reduce_plot_opts(options))
 }
 
+#' @export
+wrap.knit_image_paths = function(x, options, inline = FALSE) {
+  hook_plot = knit_hooks$get('plot')
+  options$fig.num = length(x)
+  paste(unlist(lapply(seq_along(x), function(i) {
+    options$fig.cur = i
+    hook_plot(x[i], options)
+  })), collapse = '')
+}
+
 #' A custom printing function
 #'
 #' The S3 generic function \code{knit_print} is the default printing function in
diff --git a/R/plot.R b/R/plot.R
index 8f7e4314fc..e2c33ed979 100644
--- a/R/plot.R
+++ b/R/plot.R
@@ -319,3 +319,36 @@ plot_crop = function(x, quiet = !opts_knit$get('progress')) {
 showtext = function(show) {
   if (isTRUE(show)) getFromNamespace('showtext.begin', 'showtext')()
 }
+
+#' Embed external images in \pkg{knitr} documents
+#'
+#' When plots are not generated from R code, there is no way for \pkg{knitr} to
+#' capture plots automatically. In this case, you may generate the images
+#' manually and pass their file paths to this function to include them in the
+#' output. The major advantage of using this function is that it is portable in
+#' the sense that it works for all document formats that \pkg{knitr} supports,
+#' so you do not need to think if you have to use, for example, LaTeX or
+#' Markdown syntax, to embed an external image. Chunk options related to
+#' graphics output that work for normal R plots also work for these images, such
+#' as \code{out.width} and \code{out.height}.
+#' @param path a character vector of image paths
+#' @param auto_pdf whether to use PDF images automatically when the output
+#'   format is LaTeX, e.g. \file{foo/bar.png} will be replaced by
+#'   \file{foo/bar.pdf} if the latter exists; this can be useful since normally
+#'   PDF images are of higher qualities than raster images like PNG when the
+#'   output is LaTeX/PDF
+#' @note This function is supposed to be used in R code chunks or inline R code
+#'   expressions. You are recommended to use forward slashes (\verb{/}) as path
+#'   separators instead of backslashes in the image paths.
+#' @return The same as the input character vector \code{path} but it is marked
+#'   with special internal S3 classes so that \pkg{knitr} will convert the file
+#'   paths to proper output code according to the output format.
+#' @export
+include_graphics = function(path, auto_pdf = TRUE) {
+  if (auto_pdf && is_latex_output()) {
+    path2 = sub_ext(path, 'pdf')
+    i = file.exists(path2)
+    path[i] = path2[i]
+  }
+  structure(path, class = c('knit_image_paths', 'knit_asis'))
+}
diff --git a/tests/testit/test-hooks.R b/tests/testit/test-hooks.R
index 1653b5a61c..8e975cf636 100644
--- a/tests/testit/test-hooks.R
+++ b/tests/testit/test-hooks.R
@@ -16,4 +16,19 @@ assert(
   )
 )
 
+render_markdown()
+
+img_output = function(path, opts = list()) {
+  opts = opts_chunk$merge(opts)
+  wrap(knit_print(include_graphics(path)), opts)
+}
+
+assert(
+  'include_graphics() includes custom images correctly',
+  identical(img_output('a.png'), '![](a.png) '),
+  identical(img_output(c('a.png', 'b.png')), '![](a.png) ![](b.png) '),
+  identical(img_output('a.png', list(fig.cap = 'foo bar')), '![foo bar](a.png) '),
+  identical(img_output('a.png', list(out.width = '50%')), '<img src="a.png" title="" alt="" width="50%" />')
+)
+
 knit_hooks$restore()