Wikipedia:Images

Summary

Images are one of the many types of media used on Wikipedia and may be photos, drawings, logos, or graphs.

All pictures used must be legal in the United States, where Wikimedia's servers are located. Images are stored on the Wikipedia website or the partner Wikimedia Commons website. All free content is stored on "Commons" and images that have more onerous copyright restrictions are stored on Wikipedia, under a fair use rationale. Also, images that are used on the Main Page have a local version to prevent vandalism from appearing. Editors can also choose to have a local version stored on Wikipedia.

Images are classified as files and use the prefix of File: or the deprecated prefix of Image:. The File namespace is one of several namespaces used on Wikipedia.

Since Wikipedia is not censored, readers and editors may come across offensive images.

Policy and guidelines edit

  • Wikipedia:Image use policy
  • Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Images
  • Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility#Images
  • Wikipedia:Image placeholders – former policy about placeholder images, especially for biographical pages, now deprecated
  • Wikipedia:File names – naming convention
  • Wikipedia:Image dos and don'ts – information page summarizing this page

Tutorials and help edit

Image/picture tutorials edit

  • Wikipedia:Wikimedia Commons – how to embed a Wikimedia Commons picture into an article, and how to move an picture from Wikipedia to Wikimedia Commons
  • Wikipedia:Uploading images
    • Wikipedia:Preparing images for upload
  • Wikipedia:Extended image syntax
  • Wikipedia:File copyright tags
    • Wikipedia:File copyright tags/Comprehensive

Graphics tutorials edit

  • Wikipedia:Graphics Lab
  • Wikipedia:Graphics tutorials
  • Wikipedia:Graphs and charts

Help edit

  • Help:File page
  • Help:Pictures – detailed instructions for inserting images into articles
  • Help:Options to hide an image
  • Help:Gallery tag – adding a gallery
  • Help:Viewing media – aimed at readers
  • Wikipedia:Media copyright questions
  • Wikipedia:How to upload a photo

Maintenance edit

  • Wikipedia:Proposed deletion
  • Wikipedia:Files for discussion
  • Wikipedia:Graphics Lab/Maintenance/Images for cleanup
  • Wikipedia:Requested pictures
  • Wikipedia:Template messages/File namespace
Page count of image related maintenance categories
Category Number
September
2012
April
2024
Category:Articles with missing files 7,265 5
Category:Copy to Wikimedia Commons 7,872 648
Category:Wikipedia files lacking a description 4,911 141
Category:Images with inappropriate JPEG compression 1,842 2,460
Category:Images which should be in PNG format 445 223
Category:Images with watermarks 238 57
Category:Wikipedia non-free file size reduction requests 1,027 10
Category:Wikipedia files that transclude the Non-free media rationale template with no Purpose specified 432 0
Category:Wikipedia files that transclude the Non-free use rationale template with no Purpose specified n/a 82
Category:Publicity photographs with missing fair-use rationale 197 15
Category:Wikipedia files with disputed copyright information 1,199 489

Files by type edit

Picture of the day
 
Photograph credit: Guillaume Levrier
  • Archive
  • More featured pictures
 
The first Wikipedia logo

Featured pictures edit

Wikipedia:Featured pictures is a repository of images that have satisfied the Featured picture criteria and are used on the Main Page.

Picture of the day edit

Wikipedia:Picture of the day is an image which is automatically updated each day with an image from the list of featured pictures. The {{POTD}} template produces the image shown above. Category:Wikipedia Picture of the day lists the different templates that can be used.

Wikipedia logos edit

The current and now iconic Wikipedia logo is the third in a series of three.

See also edit

  • Elcobbola (11 August 2008). "Dispatches: Reviewing free images". Wikipedia Signpost. Wikimedia Foundation.
  • Elcobbola (22 September 2008). "Dispatches: Reviewing non-free images". Wikipedia Signpost. Wikimedia Foundation.
Essays
  • Wikipedia:Arguments to avoid in image deletion discussions
  • Wikipedia:Adding images improves the encyclopedia