How a WYSIWYG works

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
I have started a blog project in ci and i have this one question.When using a WYSIWYG of my choice,a user is presented with ways of customizing text fonts,font size and even an opportunity to insert images and flash.

I am using mysql database to store blog posts.Question is,how do we store images that are attached to the blog post and also keep a user preferences for font size color,smileys and everything else that is customized during the writing of the blog post?.

Thanks.