Editing Encyclopedia:Image use policy (section)

==Uploading images==
Privacy disclosure statement: for image file formats JPG and PNG all EXIF metadata in the uploaded image is publicly visible on all Wikipedia and associated websites. This includes your location, the date and time the image was recorded and the make and model of your camera or smartphone.

===Format<span id="image formats"></span>===
{{anchor|FORMAT}}{{shortcut|WP:IUP#FORMAT}}
{{Further|Wikipedia:Preparing images for upload}}
Generally:
* Drawings, [[Icon (computing)|icons]], [[logo]]s, maps, flags and other such images are preferably uploaded in [[Scalable Vector Graphics|SVG]] [[Image file formats|format]] as [[vector images]]. Images with large, simple, and continuous blocks of color which are not available as SVG should be in [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]] format.
* Software [[screenshot]]s should be in [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]] format.
* Photos and [[Image scanner|scanned]] images should be in [[JPEG]] format, though a [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]] may be useful as well for simple subjects (where PNG would result in a smaller file without degrading quality).
* TV- and movie screenshots should be in [[JPEG]] format.
* Inline animations should be in animated [[GIF]] format.
* Video should be in [[Ogg]]/[[Theora]] or [[WebM]] format.

Generally speaking, you should not contribute images consisting solely of formatted or unformatted text, tables, or mathematical formulas.  In most cases these can instead be typed directly into an article in [[Help:Wiki markup|wiki markup]] (possibly using MediaWiki's special syntax for [[Help:Table|tables]], [[Help:Displaying a formula|math]]).  This will make the information easier to edit, as well as make it [[web accessibility|accessible]] to users of screen readers and text-based [[web browser|browsers]].

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, convert it into a PNG, and upload it to Wikipedia.

Try to avoid 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. A limited variety of edits (crops, rotation, flips) can be performed [[lossless]]ly using [http://jpegclub.org/ jpegcrop] (Windows) or [http://jpegclub.org/jpegtran/ jpegtran]  (other); try to use this where possible.

JPEG files should not use [[arithmetic coding]] due to limited browser support. Please prefer [[Huffman coding]] for JPEG files instead.

Avoid images that mix photographic and iconic content.
Though [[Cascading Style Sheets|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 either the quality of one part will suffer, or the file size will be unnecessarily large.

SVG support is implemented as of September 2005 (see [[meta:SVG image support]]). The SVG is not directly given to the browser; instead, the SVG file is dynamically rendered as a PNG at a given size, and that PNG is given to the browser.

====Images containing text<span id="no text"></span>====
If you create an image that contains text, please also upload a version without any text. It will help Wikipedians translate your image into other languages.

SVG images can contain text in multiple languages in a single file (using a <code>switch</code> element). See {{section link|Commons:Help:Translation tutorial#SVG files}}.

====Cropping<span id="edit for relevancy"></span>====
Within reason, crop an image to remove irrelevant areas. But do not "throw away information"; for example, if a photograph shows George Washington and Abraham Lincoln together at a birthday party, and the article you're working on requires only Lincoln, consider uploading ''both'' the original image and the crop of Lincoln. Also, if an image has captions as an inherent part of the artwork (as with book illustrations, early cartoons, many lithographs, etc.), don't crop them, or upload the original uncropped version as well.<!--probably should say something about retouching as well, but I'm out of energy-->

====Animated images====
{{anchor|ANIM}}{{shortcut|WP:IUP#ANIM}}
It may be preferable to convert a long or color-rich animation to [[Ogg]]/[[Theora]] format instead of GIF. Ogg does not allow an animation to play automatically on page loading, but it can contain audio and has generally better resolution.

Inline animations should be used sparingly; a static image with a link to the animation is preferred unless the animation has a very small file size. Keep in mind the problems with print compatibility mentioned elsewhere on this page.<!--where?-->

====Uploaded image size<span id="high-res"></span>====
{{Shortcut|WP:FILESIZE}}
{{redirect|WP:FILESIZE|text=You may be looking for [[#Displayed image size|Displayed image size]], another section on this page}}
Wikipedia and its sister projects are repositories of knowledge, so images should be uploaded at high resolution whether or not this seems "necessary" for the use immediately contemplated{{mdashb}}"saving server space" is ''not'' a valid consideration in general, though there is a 1,000{{nbsp}}MB (1{{nbsp}}GB) limit.
Exception: If the image is [[WP:NFCC|copyrighted]] and used under fair use, the uploaded image must be as low-resolution as possible consistent with its fair-use rationale, to prevent use of Wikipedia's copy as a substitute for the original work.

The servers automatically handle the scaling of images (whatever their original size) to the sizes called for in particular articles, so it is neither necessary nor desirable to upload separate reduced-size or reduced-quality "thumbnail" versions, although compressing [[Portable Network Graphics|PNGs]] may be useful.

===Image titles and file names<span id="use_a_clear_title"></span>===
{{anchor|NAME}}{{shortcut|WP:IUP#NAME}}
Descriptive file names are also useful. A map of Africa could be called "Africa.png", but quite likely more maps of Africa will be useful in Wikipedia, so it is good to be more specific in a meaningful way, e.g. "Africa political map Jan. 2012.png", or "Africa political map with red borders.png". Check whether there are already maps of Africa in Wikipedia. Then decide whether your map should replace one (in each article that uses it) or be additional. In the first case give it exactly the same name, otherwise a suitable other name. 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. Every letter of a file name{{snd}}including the extension{{snd}}is case sensitive: "Africa.png" is considered ''distinct'' from "Africa.PNG". For uniformity, lower case file name extensions are recommended.

You may use the same name in the case of a different image that replaces the old one, and also if you make an improved version of the same image – perhaps a scanned image that you scanned again with a better quality scanner, or you used a better way of reducing the original in scale – then upload it with the same title as the old one. This allows people to easily compare the two images, and avoids the need to delete images or change articles. However, this is not possible if the format is changed, since then at least the extension part of the name has to be changed.

{{Anchor|always tag|always_tag|copyrights_in_mind|copyrights in mind|copyright in mind|copyright_in_mind|no credits|no_credits|cite_sources|cite sources}}

===Required information===
{{anchor|RI}}{{shortcut|WP:IUP#RI}}
*An '''[[Wikipedia:Image copyright tags|Image copyright tag]]'''
*'''Description:''' The subject of the image. This should explain what the picture is of (ideally linking the article(s) it would be used on), and other identifying information that is not covered by the bullets below. For example, a picture of a person taken at a public event will often identify that event and the date of the event. (This is different from the image's caption or alt-text, and might be more descriptive than these.)
*'''Origin (source):''' The copyright holder of the image or URL of the web page the image came from
:*For an image from the internet the URL of an HTML page ''containing'' the image is preferable to the URL for just the image itself.
:*For an image from a book this is ideally page number and full bibliographic information (author, title, ISBN number, page number(s), date of copyright, publisher information, etc.).
:*For a self-created image, state "Own work" (in addition to an appropriate copyright tag, such as {{tl|self}} or {{tl|PD-self}}).
*'''Author:''' The original creator of the image (especially if different from the copyright holder).
*'''Permission:''' Who or what law or policy gives permission to post on Wikipedia with the selected image copyright tag
*'''Date''' the image was created, if available; a full date, if available, is better than simply the year
*'''Location''' at which the image was created, if applicable and available. This can be as specific as a GPS-derived longitude and latitude.
*'''Other versions of this file''' on Wikipedia e.g. cropped or uncropped, retouched or unretouched.
*'''Rationale for use''' (only required for [[WP:NFC|non-free images]]). A separate non-free rationale is required for each use of the image on the English Wikipedia. Details of what is required for the non-free rationale is described in more depth [[WP:NFC#Implementation|on the non-free content page]].