This page gives an overview of how images are used in Wikipedia; for more information, see
Image use policy
and see
Help:Files
on how to upload and include an image.
Pertinence and encyclopedic nature
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Images must be significant and relevant in the topic's context, not primarily decorative. They are often an important
illustrative aid
to understanding. When possible, find better images and improve captions instead of simply removing poor or inappropriate ones, especially on pages with few visuals. However, not every article needs images, and too many can be distracting.
See also
Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Icons#Encyclopedic purpose §?Notes
(
MOS:DECOR
) on misuse of icons and other elements for decorative intent.
Images should
look like
what they are meant to illustrate, whether or not they are provably authentic. For example, a photograph of a
trompe-l'œil
painting of a cupcake may be an acceptable image for
Cupcake
, but a real cupcake that has been decorated to look like something else entirely is less appropriate. Similarly, an image of a generic-looking cell under a
light microscope
might be useful on multiple articles, as long as there are no
visible
differences between the cell in the image and the typical appearance of the cell being illustrated.
Strive for variety. For example, in an article with numerous images of persons (e.g.
Running
), seek to depict a variety of ages, genders, and ethnicities. If an article on a military officer already shows its subject in uniform, then two more formal in-uniform portraits would add little interest or information, but a map of an important battle and an image of its aftermath would be more informative. Resist the temptation to overwhelm an article with images of marginal value simply because many images are available.
Articles about ethnic groups or similarly large human populations should not be illustrated by a
photomontage
or
gallery of images
of group members; see
this
and
this
thread for the most recent consensus discussion on the topic.
Image quality
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Use the best quality images available. Poor-quality images?dark or blurry; showing the subject too small, hidden in clutter, or ambiguous; and so on?should not be used unless absolutely necessary. Think carefully about which images best illustrate the subject matter. For example:
- An image of a
white-tailed eagle
is useless if the bird appears as a speck in the sky.
- A biography should lead with a portrait photograph of the subject alone, not with other people.
- A suitable picture of a
hammerhead shark
would show its distinctive hammer-like head, to distinguish it from other sharks.
- A map of
Moldova
should show its frontiers with
Romania
and
Ukraine
, so people may know where the country is located in relation to its neighbors.
- Rice
is best represented with an image of plain
rice
, not
fried rice
.
- Intangible concepts can be illustrated; for example, a cat with its claws out portrays
aggression
.
Pages using seals, flags, banners, logos, or other symbols to represent governments, organizations, and institutions should use the version prescribed by that entity when available. These are preferable to amateur creations of similar quality, including photographs of physical representations of emblems.
Avoid presenting textual information as images
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Scale references
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An image sometimes includes a familiar object to communicate scale. Such
fiducial markers
should be as culturally universal and standardized as possible:
rulers
,
matches
,
batteries
,
pens
/
pencils
,
CDs
/
DVDs
,
soda cans
,
footballs
(soccer balls), people and their body parts, vehicles, and famous structures such as the
Eiffel Tower
are good choices, but many others are possible. Such objects as coins, banknotes, and sheets of paper are less satisfactory because they are specific to given locales, but may be better than none at all since at least the general scale is still communicated.
Quantitative data, if available, should still be given in the caption or the article.
| Emus
(with a human silhouette and scale in meters)?
|
|
Offensive images
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Wikipedia is not censored
: its mission is to present information, including information which some may find offensive. However, a potentially offensive image?one that would be considered vulgar or obscene by typical Wikipedia readers
[nb 1]
?should be included only if it is treated in an encyclopedic manner i.e. only if its omission would cause the article to be less informative, relevant, or accurate, and no equally suitable alternative is available. Per
the Foundation
, controversial images should follow the "principle of least astonishment": images should respect conventional expectations of readers for a given topic as much as is possible without sacrificing the quality of the article. Avoid images that contain irrelevant or extraneous elements that might seem offensive or harassing to readers; for example, photographs taken in a pornographic context would normally be inappropriate for articles about
human anatomy
.
Images for the lead
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It is common for an article's lead or infobox to carry a representative image?such as of a person or place, a book or album cover?to give readers visual confirmation that they've arrived at the right page.
For some topics, selecting the lead image can be difficult. While Wikipedia is not censored, lead images should be selected with care
???????:See above
. The lead image is perhaps the first thing to catch the reader's eye, so avoid lead images that readers would not expect to see there. Unlike other content beyond the lead, the lead image should be chosen with these considerations in mind.
Advice on selecting a lead image includes:
- Lead images should be natural and appropriate representations of the topic; they should not only illustrate the topic specifically, but also be the type of image used for similar purposes in high-quality reference works, and therefore what our readers will expect to see. Lead images are not required, and not having a lead image may be the best solution if there is no easy representation of the topic.
- Lead images should be of least shock value; an alternative image that accurately represents the topic without shock value should always be preferred. For example, using an image of deportees being subjected to selection as the lead image at
this version
of
Holocaust
is far preferable to the appropriate images that appear later in the article that show the treatment of the prisoners or corpses from the camps.
- Sometimes it is impossible to avoid using a lead image with perceived shock value, for example in articles on human genitalia. Editors may assume, per
Wikipedia:Content disclaimer
, that readers are aware that such articles may contain such images.
- Per
MOS:NOETHNICGALLERIES
, using photomontages or a gallery of images of group members should be avoided in articles about ethnic groups or similarly large human populations. This does not apply to articles about things such as body parts or haircuts.
- On some mobile platforms an article's first image may be displayed at the top of the article, even if it appears well into the article in the desktop view. When placing images consider whether this phenomenon may mislead or confuse readers using mobile devices.
Basic example (producing the image at right):
???????:Xt2
File:Siberian Husky pho.jpg
The file (image) name must be exact (including capitalization, punctuation and spacing) and must include
.jpg
,
.png
or other extension. (
Image:
and
File:
work the same.) If Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons both have an image with the specified name, the Wikipedia version is the one that will appear in the article.
thumb
is required in most cases
alt=A white dog in a harness playfully nuzzles a young boy
Alt text is meant for those who cannot see the image; unlike the caption, it summarizes the image's
appearance
. It should comport with
Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility/Alternative text for images
and should name famous events, people and things.
A [[Siberian Husky]] used as a pack animal
The
caption
comes last, and gives the meaning or significance of the image.
See
WP:Extended image syntax
for further features and options. If the image does not display after you have carefully checked the syntax, it may have been
blacklisted
.
VR photographs
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]
To display
VR photographs
(
aka
360-degree panoramas or photospheres), use {{
PanoViewer
}}.
- An image's size is controlled by changing its width?? after which software automatically adjusts height in proportion. (Most references to an image's "size" really mean its width.)
- Except with very good reason, a fixed width in pixels (e.g.
17px
) should not be specified. This ignores the user's base width setting, so
upright=
scaling factor
is preferred whenever possible
.
[nb 2]
As a general rule, images should not be set to a larger fixed width than 220px (the initial base width), and if an exception to this general rule is warranted, the resulting image should usually be no more than 400px wide (300px for lead images) and 500px tall, for comfortable display on the smallest devices "in common use" (though this may still cause viewing difficulties on some unusual displays).
- To convert a
px
value to
upright
, divide it by 220 and round the result as desired. For example,
|150px
is roughly equivalent to
|upright=0.7
because
150 / 220 ? 0.682
.
- Cases where fixed sizes may be used include for standardization of size via templates (such as
within infobox templates
or the
display of country flag icons
), for displaying reduced images sizes where space is constrained (such as images used in the
In the News
and
Did You Know
sections on the
WP:Main Page
, or within larger tables such as
List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates
), or if it is necessary to align images in columns or rows. Templates like {{
multiple image
}} can automatically match the height or width of images with different aspect ratios, though this height or width must be hard coded to a set number of pixels because it cannot scale images to respect users' preferences.
- Each user has a "base" width, which applies to
|thumb
and
|frameless
images; for
unregistered
users (the vast majority of readers) this is always 220 pixels; for
registered
(logged-in) users, the base width is 220px when the user's account is created, but can be changed via
Preferences
.
[nb 3]
The Siberian Husky image above is displayed at whatever
your
base width is.
- Where a smaller or larger image is appropriate, use
|upright=
scaling factor
, which expands or contracts the image by a factor
relative to the user's base width
.
- For example:
upright=1.3
might be used for an image with fine detail (e.g. a map or diagram) to render it "30% larger than this user generally wants". (For a reader with the usual base width setting of 220px, this is 285px.)
upright=0.6
might be used for an image with little detail (e.g. a simple drawing or flag) which can be adequately displayed "40% smaller than this user generally wants". (For a reader with the usual base width setting of 220px, this is 130px.)
- Short, wide images often call for
upright
of 1 or greater; tall, narrow images may look best with
upright
of 1 or less.
- When specifying
upright=
values greater than 1, take care to balance the need to reveal detail against the danger of overwhelming surrounding article text.
- Images in which a small region of detail is important (but cropping to that region is unacceptable) may need to be larger than normal, but
upright=1.8
should usually be the largest value for images floated beside text.
- Lead images should usually use
upright=1.35
at most.
- Images within an article, especially those near one another and on the same side, may be more appealing if presented at the same width.
- Warning
If
upright
is completely absent, that's equivalent to
upright=1
. But
upright
alone
, with no
=
scaling factor
(e.g.
[[File:Dog.jpg|thumb|upright|A big dog]]
)
is equivalent to
upright=0.75
; this usage is confusing and therefore deprecated.
- To present images larger than the guidelines above (e.g. panoramas), use
|thumb|
center
or
|thumb|
none
, so that the image stands alone; or use {{
wide image
}} or {{
tall image
}} to present a very large image in a scrollable box.
Most images should be on the right side of the page, which is the default placement.
[nb 4]
Left-aligned images may disturb the layout of bulleted lists and similar structures that depend on visual uniformity, e.g. by pushing some items on such lists further inward. Hence, avoid left-aligned images near such structures. If an exception to the general rule is warranted, specify
|left
in the image link:
[[File:Siberian Husky pho.jpg|thumb
|left
|alt=A white dog in a harness playfully nuzzles a young boy |A [[Siberian Husky]] used as a pack animal]]
.
An image should generally be placed in the
most relevant article section
; if this is not possible, try not to place an image "too early" i.e. far ahead of the text discussing what the image illustrates, if this could puzzle the reader. The first image of a section should be placed below the
"
Main article
"
link usually displayed by using
{{
Main
}}
,
{{
Further
}}
and
{{
See also
}}
templates. Do not place an image at the end of the previous section as this will not be visible in the appropriate section on
mobile devices
. An image causes a paragraph break (i.e. the current paragraph ends and a new one begins) so it is not possible to place an image
within
a paragraph. This applies to
thumb
images; small inline images are an exception
???????:See below
.
Multiple images can be staggered right and left. However, avoid sandwiching text between two images that face each other; or between an image and infobox, navigation template, or similar. As an alternative, consider using the {{
multiple image
}} template, which places two images together on the right (but which, however, ignores
logged-in users' selected image sizes
). See
WP:GALLERY
for information on the use of multiple images.
It is often preferable to place a portrait
(image or representation of a person)
so that they "look" toward the text, but do not achieve this by reversing the image, which creates a false presentation. (Faces are never truly symmetric even in the absence of scars or other features.)
References from article text
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Don't refer to image orientation such as left, right, above, or below. Image placement varies with platform and screen size, especially mobile platforms, and is meaningless to screen readers. Instead, use captions to identify images.
Inline images
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]
- Substituting
frameless
for
thumb
produces an "inline" image. For example,
This [[File:Flag of Japan.svg|frameless|x20px]] is an inline image.
- produces
- This
is an inline image.
- A one-pixel border may be added via
|border
. For example,
This [[File:Flag of Japan.svg|frameless|x20px|border]] is an inline image with a border.
- produces
- This
is an inline image with a border.
- Inline images do not have captions
- Note the syntax
x20px
: whereas
20px
specifies a 20-pixel
width
,
x20px
specifies a 20-pixel
height
. Heights between
x18px
and
x22px
will usually match surrounding text well. (
upright
is not usually used with inline images.)
All images used on Wikipedia must be uploaded to Wikipedia itself or
Wikimedia Commons
. That is,
hotlinking
is not supported.
Images uploaded to Wikipedia are automatically placed into the
File namespace
(formerly known as the
Image namespace
), i.e., the names of
image pages
start with the prefix
File:
.
Obtaining images
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All images must comply with
Wikipedia's image use policy
: in general, they must be free for reuse, including commercial use and use after alteration, though some "
fair use
" of non-free content is allowed in limited circumstances?see
Wikipedia:Non-free content
.
Finding images already uploaded
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Search for existing files through:
Making images yourself
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You may upload photographs, drawings, or other graphics created with a camera, scanner, graphics software, and so on. When photographing or scanning potentially copyrighted works, or creating depictions of persons other than yourself, be sure to respect copyright and privacy restrictions. For further information see
Wikipedia:Non-free content
.
In order to maximize images' usefulness in all languages, avoid including text within them. Instead, add text, links, references, etc., to images using
Template:Annotated image
or
Template:Annotated image 4
, which can also be used to expand the area around an image or crop and enlarge part of an image?all without the need for uploading a new, modified image.
Finding images on the Internet
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An extensive list of free image resources by topic can be found at:
Public domain image resources
. In addition to
Wikimedia Commons
, the
Wikimedia Toolserver
has a
Free Image Search Tool
(FIST), which automatically culls free images from the
Wikimedia sister projects
,
Flickr
and a few other sites. Several other useful, general purpose
image search
engines include:
Google Image Search
,
Picsearch
and
Pixsta
.
Creative Commons
licensed images with
Attribution
and
Attribution-ShareAlike
as their license may be used on Wikipedia.
Images with any license restricting commercial use or the creation of derivative works may not be used on Wikipedia.
The Creative Commons site has a
search page
that can be used as a starting point to find suitably licensed images; make sure you check both the checkboxes "use for commercial purposes" and "modify, adapt, or build upon".
If you find an image on the Internet that is not available freely, you can email the copyright owner and ask for their permission to release it under a suitable license, adapting the
boilerplate request for permission
. If you cannot find a suitable image, you may also list your request at
Wikipedia:Requested pictures
, so that another contributor may find or create a suitable image.
Requesting images from others
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]
See
Editing images
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]
An image's utility or quality may be improved by cropping (to focus on the relevant portion), cleaning up scanning artifacts, correcting color balance, removing
red-eye effect
, or other adjustments.
The caption of an image should mention such edits (e.g. introduction of
false color or pseudocolor
) if a reader needs to know about them to properly interpret the image.
Edits that improve the presentation without materially altering the content need not be mentioned in the caption e.g. rotation to correct a slightly crooked image, improvement to the contrast of a scan, or blurring a background to make the main subject more prominent. (However, all changes to images taken from outside sources should be noted on the
image's description page
. For images created by editors themselves, changes which could have been part of the image's original composition?such as rotation or minor cropping?need not be mentioned on the description page.)
Images should not be changed in ways that materially mislead the viewer. For example, images showing artworks, faces, identifiable places or buildings, or text should not be reversed (although those showing soap bubbles or bacteria might be). Do not change color integral to the subject, such as in images of animals. It is usually appropriate to de-speckle or remove scratches from images, though that might be inappropriate for historical photographs.
For assistance in editing images, try
WP:Graphics Lab
.
Uploading images
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Logged in
users with
autoconfirmed accounts
(meaning at least four days old and at least ten edits at the English Wikipedia) can upload media to the English Wikipedia.
Only
free licensed
media,
not
fair use
media, may be uploaded to
Wikimedia Commons
. Media on Wikimedia Commons can be linked to in the same way as media of the same name on Wikipedia. To upload media to the English Wikipedia, go to
special:upload
and for Wikimedia Commons, go to
commons:special:upload
. For preferred file formats, see:
Preparing images for upload
.
Image description pages
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Each image has a corresponding
description page
, which documents the image's source, author and
copyright status
; descriptive (who, what, when, where, why) information; and technical (equipment, software, etc.) data useful to readers and later editors.
To maximize the utility and educational value of an image, please describe its contents as fully as possible on the image's description page. For example, photographs of artwork benefit from documentation of the artist, title, location, dates, museum identification numbers, and so on. Images that are described only in vague terms (for example, "a cuneiform tablet" or "a medieval manuscript") are often less useful for Wikipedia and less informative to our readers.
Reliable sources, if any, may be listed on the image's description page. Generally, Wikipedia assumes in good faith that image creators are correctly identifying the contents of photographs they have taken. If such sources are available, it is helpful to provide them. This is particularly important for technical drawings, as someone may want to verify that the image is accurate.
Description pages for images are rediscovered by editors using the
search engine
and the
categories
. To help editors find precise images, please remember to document the image description page accordingly. Well-categorized and well-described images are more likely to be used.
Consideration of image download size
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Images can greatly increase the
bandwidth
cost of viewing an article?? a consideration for readers on slow or expensive connections. Articles carry reduced-size
thumbnails
instead of full images (which the user can view by "clicking through" the thumbnail) but in some file types a thumbnail's reduced dimensions doesn't translate into a concomitant reduction in file size. (In most browsers you can see a thumbnail's size by right-clicking for its "Properties".)
If one image's file size is disproportionate to those of others in the same article, you may want to reduce it by selecting a different file format:
- GIF
images with a frame size larger than 12.5 million pixels (measured as pixel height × pixel width × number of frames in the animation) cannot currently be displayed in thumbnail form in Wikipedia articles. A thumbnail of a GIF image can be considerably larger in kilobytes than the original image file.
- Animated
GIF
images have a few additional restrictions. Images larger than 100 million pixels (measured as pixel height × pixel width × number of frames in the animation) currently will only show the first frame of the animation in a thumbnail. When not using a GIF animation at its original frame size, consider creating an Ogg
Theora
movie of the animation.
- The
PNG
format is useful for storing graphics that contain text, line art, or other images with sharp transitions. It can achieve the same graphical results as a GIF file, and in many cases do so with a higher rate of
file compression
. For this reason, PNG format files are usually preferred to the GIF format. For images with substantial editing, or for which further editing may be warranted, uploading a PNG as well as a JPEG is common (PNG is lossless compression, so repeatedly saving edits on a PNG will not result in loss of quality.)
- A
JPEG
or other compressed image format can be much smaller than a comparable GIF or PNG format file. When there is no apparent difference in quality, such as with a photograph that has no sharp graphical transitions, a compressed image format such as JPEG may be preferable for reasons of download performance. Wikipedia is often able to achieve much better compression of JPEG photograph thumbnails than comparable PNG images, and with little perceptible loss of quality. Repeatedly loading and resaving an image as JPEG will result in loss of quality, however, as will using low settings for the JPEG; as such, if you've made edits, it can be helpful to save a PNG or TIFF copy before closing the image editor and upload that as well; this copy can then be used to generate a new JPEG after further editing.
- Where an image consists solely of line art, charts text and simple graphics, an
SVG
file can be significantly smaller than other graphics formats. This is because the data is encoded as a series of drawing commands, rather than as
raster graphics
. There are
open source
applications available for rendering graphics in SVG format. However, SVG thumbnails are rendered as PNGs.
- Rather than including an image gallery on an article, which could add significantly to the download size, consider creating a gallery/category on the Wikimedia Commons instead.
- ↑
Here a "typical Wikipedia reader" is defined by the cultural beliefs of the majority of the website
readers
(not active editors) that are literate in an article's language. Clarifying this viewpoint may require a broad spectrum of input and discussion, as cultural views can differ widely.
- ↑
px
works the same as
upright
for users with the usual base width setting of 220px, but works counterintuitively for readers whose base width is set to a different value (see
Help:Preferences#Files
). For example, an image coded
275px
?presumably to make it wider than most images on a particular page?is actually rendered
smaller
than most images if the user has changed his base width to 300px. In contrast,
upright
responds gracefully to changes in the user's base width, maintaining the relative size of images in any given article by enlarging or reducing all of them proportionately.
However, a thumbnail cannot be displayed larger than the original uploaded image. For example, if an image is coded
|thumb|330px
or
|thumb|upright=1.5
(for a reader with the usual base width of 220px), but the original uploaded file was only 200px wide, then the article thumbnail will still be displayed at only 200px.
- ↑
If you do much work with image layouts, consider leaving your preference at 220px to match the "reader experience" of most readers.
- ↑
A consistent left margin creates a stable anchor for tracking through lines of text making it more readable/accessible
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