Wikipedia

Wikipedia:Image use policy

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by MartinHarper (talk | contribs) at 09:47, 17 April 2003 (copyright section (previously suggested in Talk)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Rules of thumb

Here's a quick checklist of rules for use of images. After the list, a more detailed discussion explains the reasoning behind them. See also sound help for information on uploading and listening to sound files.

  1. Keep copyrights in mind when uploading images, but avoid copyright paranoia
  2. Describe the image, in particular its copyright status, on the image description page
  3. Use a clear, detailed, title
  4. Most images should be 150-250 pixels wide.
  5. Crop the images to show just the relevant subject.
  6. Don't put rendered images on the description pages; they are for text.
  7. Don't put photo credits in articles or on the images themselves; put them on the description page.
  8. Use JPEG format for photographic images, with moderate quality settings.
  9. Use PNG format for icons, drawings, maps, flags, and such; but...
  10. Never convert a JPEG original to PNG; if JPEG is all you have, go ahead and use it.
  11. Do convert GIF images to PNG, except for "animated" GIFs.

meta:Image pages discusses technical improvements to the wikipedia software that may simplify much of this subject.

Please note: this is not the official copyright policy - merely a reminder and additional tips

When you upload an image, make sure you own the image, or that it is in the public domain, or that the copyright holder has agreed to license it under the GFDL. Please note its copyright status on the image description page (see below).

Note: Under United States copyright law, all images that were published before January 1, 1923 are now in the public domain, but this does not apply to images that were created prior to 1923 and published in 1923 or later. The year 1923 has special significance and this date does not roll forward in 2004.

It is not the job of rank-and-file Wikipedians to police every image for possible copyright infringement. However, if you strongly suspect that an image is a copyright infringement (for example, if there is no information on copyright status on its image description page and you have seen it elsewhere under a copyright notice), then:

  1. remove all uses of the image from articles
  2. list the image on wikipedia:votes for deletion
  3. add the copyright infringement notice for images from Boilerplate text

The image can then be deleted after a week in the normal way - see wikipedia:policy on permanent deletion of pages.

Image description page

Each uploaded file has an associated description page into which you can put text, and which shows the image's history and usage. This page should ideally include all of the following information, but if you don't know something, just put whatever you can:

  • brief description
    • Image of a goldfish in a small tank
  • Where the image came from
    • Photograph taken on 3 March 2003
    • Taken from the BBS News website
    • Scanned from copy of 1911 encyclopedia
  • Author of the image and any other credits
    • Photo by Fred Jones
  • If other versions (especially a larger version) of the same image exists, link to them
    • [[Media:Goldfish-in-tank-large.jpg|larger version]] ([[:Image:Goldfish-in-tank-large.jpg|info]])
    • [[Media:Goldfish-in-tank2.jpg|different camera angle]] ([[:Image:Goldfish-in-tank2.jpg|info]])
  • Copyright status
    • public domain: copyright expired
    • placed in public domain by photographer
    • released under the GFDL
    • released under the GFDL - in response to the boilerplate request for permission, Fred Jones said "That'd be fine"
    • copyrighted image - the author has given Wikipedia permission to use this image, but third parties may not use it without permission
    • copyrighted image - may only be used under "fair use" rules
  • Relevant links (internal and external)

Please avoid:

  • Adding a description in a language other than English.
  • Adding images themselves on the page (but see "photo montages" below)

Note that this information: image credits, copyright status, etc should go in the image description page, and not in articles that use the image, and not embedded as graphical text on the image itself. However, the image file may contain embedded comments - in particular a copyright notice and statement of license under the GFDL would be good to include.

Image titles

Descriptive titles are also useful. Uploading a file named, for example, "Africa.png" is likely to collide with one already present, and doesn't give any clue about its contents. A more descriptive name like "Africa_map_2002.png" is better. Avoid special characters in filenames or excessively long filenames, though, as that might make it difficult for some users to download the files onto their machines.

Photo montages

There are four different approaches to photo montages that different wikipedians take. Different approaches may be suitable for different subjects, or it may be possible to set a standard. The options are:

  1. photos at bottom of article (eg earlier versions of Rachel Corrie)
  2. photos on "images of" page (eg sheep, images of sheep)
  3. photos on an image description page (eg cattle)
  4. no photo montages allowed - only include a limited number of relevant photos

No decision on photo montages has been made yet. Please discuss pros and cons of each option on the talk page.

Format

  • Drawings, icons, political maps, flags and other such images with limited colors should be in PNG format, preferably grayscale or indexed color with fewer than 200 colors.
  • Photos and photo-like maps should be in JPEG format.
  • Animations should be in animated GIF format.

In general, if you have a good image that is in the wrong format, convert it to the correct format before uploading. However, if you find a map, flag, etc in JPEG format, only convert it to PNG if this reduces the file size. For further advice on converting JPEG to PNG, see Wikipedia:How to reduce colors for saving a JPEG as PNG.

Most of the maps on the CIA World Factbook website were coded as JPEG, but are now coded as GIF. To update these photos, download the GIF picture from the CIA factbook, recode it in PNG format, and upload it to wikipedia.

Try to avoid cropping or otherwise editing JPEGs too frequently--each edit creates more loss of quality. If you can find an original of a photograph in 16-bit or 24-bit PNG or TIFF, edit that, and save as JPEG before you upload.

Avoid images that mix photographic and iconic content. Though CSS makes it easy to use a PNG overlay on top of a JPEG image, the Wikipedia software does not allow such a technique. Thus, both parts must be in the same file, and the quality of one or the other will suffer.

Markup

Markup for images is quite complicated. This may be improved in the future: see meta:image pages. The markup for an image floating on the right is: 

<div style="float:right; width:270; text-align:center;">
[[image:royaljord.a310-300.f-odvi.250pix.jpg]]<br>
<small>''Royal Jordanian Airbus A310-300<br>(F-OVDI).''
[[media:royaljord.a310-300.f-odvi.750pix.jpg|Larger version]]
</small>
</div>

The value of the width (here 270) should be slightly larger than the actual width of the thumbnail. For large amounts of caption text, take out the "text-align:center;" to mate it left-justified. To float an image on the left change "float:right;" to "float:left;". For a large, non-floating image (for example, the large one at the top of Flag of the United Kingdom) use this markup: 

[[image:royaljord.a310-300.f-odvi.750pix.jpg]]<br>
<small>''Royal Jordanian Airbus A310-300(F-OVDI).</small>''

Size

 
This scalebar is red from 0 to 100 pixels, yellow from 100 to 150, green from 150 to 250, yellow again from 250 to 300 and red again from 300 to 400 pixels.

There are many technical hints in this section that some people may not have the tools or expertise to deal with themselves. If, for example, you find a great image that needs to be cropped, resized, or recoded and you don't know how to do that, ask someone on the Wikipedia-L list to do it for you.

Scale and crop images to a size appropriate for the article. Keep in mind that many readers are using 800x600 displays, and so images wider than 300-400 pixels may overwhelm the article. Larger images also take more time to download over slow links. Likewise, images smaller than 100 pixels wide may be difficult for users of larger displays to see. An optimum size for images with text flowing around them would be 150-250 pixels. Images without text on the side can be wider.

Of course image complexity is an important factor to consider when sizing images. Don't use tiny "thumbnail" images linked to a large image--use an image of the appropriate size; adding a link to a larger version (perhaps the original source) is fine as well, but don't upload the larger one unless it is really needed.

Resizing

When resizing large pictures to smaller ones for thumbnails:

  • Crop out unimportant background.
  • If possible, use an exact ratio, eg 3:1, 2:1, 4:1.
  • Work direct from the largest resolution available - if you have a 2048pixel version, work from that, not the 800pixel version uploaded.
  • Consider file size as well as image size - sometimes a version with more pixels but fewer bytes is preferable.
  • When making a thumbnailed version to replace someone else's (presumably inferior) thumbnail, please keep the same name as the original.

These software packages have been recommended by wikipedians for use in image manipulation:

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