Wikipedia:Images

For the Manual of Style relating to the use of images on Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Images.

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

Tutorials and help

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

Graphics

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

Help

• Help:File page
• Help:Options to hide an image
• Help:Viewing media – aimed at readers
• Wikipedia:Media copyright questions
• Wikipedia:How to upload a photo ‎

Policy and guidelines

• Wikipedia:Image use policy
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/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

Maintenance

• 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 June 2016 Category:Articles with missing files 7,265 123 Category:Copy to Wikimedia Commons 7,872 22,218 Category:Wikipedia files lacking a description 4,911 7 Category:Images with inappropriate JPEG compression 1,842 2,704 Category:Images which should be in PNG format 445 398 Category:Images with watermarks 238 619 Category:Wikipedia non-free file size reduction requests 1,027 11 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 10 Category:Publicity photographs with missing fair-use rationale 197 260 Category:Wikipedia files with disputed copyright information 1,199 4,755

Files by type

Picture of the day

Hip, Hip, Hurrah! Painting: Peder Severin Krøyer Archive – More featured pictures...

The first Wikipedia logo

Featured pictures

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

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

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

See also

• 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