diff --git a/sentence_transformers/SentenceTransformer.py b/sentence_transformers/SentenceTransformer.py
index 4d0f4fb20..beb67d658 100644
--- a/sentence_transformers/SentenceTransformer.py
+++ b/sentence_transformers/SentenceTransformer.py
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 import numpy.typing as npt
+from PIL import Image
 import torch
 import torch.multiprocessing as mp
 import transformers
@@ -678,7 +679,7 @@ def encode_document(
     @overload
     def encode(
         self,
-        sentences: str,
+        sentences: str | Image.Image,
         prompt_name: str | None = ...,
         prompt: str | None = ...,
         batch_size: int = ...,
@@ -700,7 +701,7 @@ def encode(
     @overload
     def encode(
         self,
-        sentences: str | list[str] | np.ndarray,
+        sentences: str | list[str] | np.ndarray | Image.Image | list[Image.Image],
         prompt_name: str | None = ...,
         prompt: str | None = ...,
         batch_size: int = ...,
@@ -722,7 +723,7 @@ def encode(
     @overload
     def encode(
         self,
-        sentences: str | list[str] | np.ndarray,
+        sentences: str | list[str] | np.ndarray | Image.Image | list[Image.Image],
         prompt_name: str | None = ...,
         prompt: str | None = ...,
         batch_size: int = ...,
@@ -743,7 +744,7 @@ def encode(
     @overload
     def encode(
         self,
-        sentences: list[str] | np.ndarray,
+        sentences: list[str] | np.ndarray | list[Image.Image],
         prompt_name: str | None = ...,
         prompt: str | None = ...,
         batch_size: int = ...,
@@ -764,7 +765,7 @@ def encode(
     @overload
     def encode(
         self,
-        sentences: list[str] | np.ndarray,
+        sentences: list[str] | np.ndarray | list[Image.Image],
         prompt_name: str | None = ...,
         prompt: str | None = ...,
         batch_size: int = ...,
@@ -785,7 +786,7 @@ def encode(
     @overload
     def encode(
         self,
-        sentences: str,
+        sentences: str | Image.Image,
         prompt_name: str | None = ...,
         prompt: str | None = ...,
         batch_size: int = ...,
@@ -806,7 +807,7 @@ def encode(
     @overload
     def encode(
         self,
-        sentences: str,
+        sentences: str | Image.Image,
         prompt_name: str | None = ...,
         prompt: str | None = ...,
         batch_size: int = ...,
@@ -826,7 +827,7 @@ def encode(
     @torch.inference_mode()
     def encode(
         self,
-        sentences: str | list[str] | np.ndarray,
+        sentences: str | list[str] | np.ndarray | Image.Image | list[Image.Image],
         prompt_name: str | None = None,
         prompt: str | None = None,
         batch_size: int = 32,