Memory Alpha:Image use policy

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About → Policies and guidelines → Image use policy

This page describes one of Memory Alpha's policies and guidelines.
Please read through the policy below to familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page.

This page outlines the rules and guidelines that apply to the use of images on Memory Alpha. They are not absolute, for the most part, but it is generally expected that they be observed unless there is a good cause for ignoring them.

The basic overview:

1. Obey our copyright policy when uploading images.
2. Use the image description page to describe an image and its copyright rules.
3. Use a clear, detailed title for the file. An obscure name like "qua_047.jpg" won't help anyone.
4. Remember that an image that is uploaded will replace any file that already has that name.
5. Edit (crop) the images to show only the necessary information.
6. Don't include any watermarks or text in the image (this includes copyright notices; those belong in the text of the image description page).
7. Use the JPG format for photographic images, such as screen captures. Use the SVG (preferred), PNG (if no svg is available), or GIF (as a last resort) for diagrams and other low-contrast images.
8. Personal images, or those specifically intended for a user page, are not allowed. The image must have a use in the main encyclopedia.

Remember that Memory Alpha is not an image gallery! Please upload images solely for the purpose of illustration. We endeavor to make the most of the images that are uploaded into the database, and request that uploads be strictly limited to article use, and the occasional article talk page.

To avoid redundancy, it is generally preferred that no more than one or two images should be used in an article. More images are acceptable if it is necessary to better illustrate a topic, especially on longer articles.

Finally, images are not to be used in signatures, and any image link used in such a way will be removed by an administrator.

Describing images

When creating an image, it is important to include text to describe the content of the image. This can be done by editing the [[Image: ]] page text. In all cases, the images should be accompanied by a specific note with:

• credit for the original author of the image or other media file (if the file is a fan-created work) including a link where the original author may be contacted, or
• the original source of the image or other media file (if the file is derived from an official Star Trek work, e.g. screenshots and sound bytes).

You must also include information about:

• whether the file is uploaded to Memory Alpha with express permission of the author, or under fair use rules, and
• the source of the file, being a specific episode, movie, book, other official work, a website, or any other medium.

Adding the appropriate descriptions on the Image: page not only ensures that Memory Alpha remains compliant with copyright rules, but also provides much more practical information for anyone who may want to use an image in the future.

Copyright

Please note: this is an abbreviated version of the official copyright policy – please visit that page for more detailed information.

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 Creative Commons License. Please note its copyright status on the image description page.

Images that are screenshots and other snapshots from Star Trek episodes and movies, and scans of book covers, fall under the category of fair use, as long as they are not posted in large numbers. Be sure to include the appropriate boilerplate message with the description.

Many Star Trek fans and licensed publications spend time creating their own artwork, either recreating images from the shows or original scenes inspired by the shows. Do not upload previously published or fan-created images to Memory Alpha without the express consent of the author. If you do upload an original fan image, you must include a note naming the original author, a link to the author's website as a source, and confirm that the image is posted with the author's consent. This may require leaving a notice on the image's talk page.

Boilerplate messages

By adding a copyright messages to an image, you are expressing the permissions given to view it under our license. Please choose the correct template, or images may be listed as possible copyright infringements.

{{imagelicensing}}

This is the style of license that should generally be used. It takes four variables, the license, creator/owner, source, and rationale. The format is:

{{imagelicensing| license= (ccl | pd | fairuse | copyright | other | nonegiven) | owner= | source= | rationale= }}

See its documentation for complete details and alternate versions. By default it presents:

The above image is published here under the following terms:

License

This image has been uploaded without choosing a license. The uploader has been made aware of the fact that this may be construed as placing the image under a Creative Commons by-nc license, if he/she is the copyright owner.

Owner/Creator

N/A - it is assumed that the original uploader is the owner/creator of this image.

Source

N/A

Rationale

N/A

Editing images

To replace an image with an edited version, use the upload file page, and make sure that your file has the same name as the one that you want to replace. Converting an image to another file format the (end of) the image name changes, hence one gets a separate image description page.

Deleting images

1. Drop a line to the person who uploaded the image, telling them of your concerns. You may be able to resolve the issue at this point.
2. Remove all uses of the image from articles – make it an orphan
3. Add one of these notices to the image description page
   • copvios: add the copyright infringement notice for images from possible copyright infringements to the image description page:
   • otherwise: add the listed for deletion notice to the image description page.
4. List the image on one of these links:
   • copyvios: list the image on possible copyright infringements
   • otherwise: list the image on Memory Alpha:Images for deletion
5. The image can then be deleted after a week in the normal way – see our deletion policy

To actually delete an image after following the above procedure, you must be an administrator. To do so, go to the image description page and click the (del) link. Do not click the Delete this page link, as this will delete the image description page but leave the image intact. To delete the image talk page (if any), you can use the Delete this page link as usual. Note that as of the MediaWiki 1.9 upgrade, images can be undeleted or reverted to an earlier version.

Image titles

Before uploading an image to Memory Alpha, please check whether there are already images of the subject. Then decide whether your image 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.

Using the same name

Using the name of an already existing image means replacing that image. 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.

Using a new name

Using a new name means creating a new file on Memory Alpha. Suitable names are descriptive titles that are useful in identifying the image. An image of the USS Enterprise could simply be called "enterprise.png", for example, but quite likely more images of the Enterprise will exist on Memory Alpha. In this case, it is good to be more specific, e.g. "uss_enterprise_(ncc-1701-d)_in_orbit.png".

As a rule of thumb, the name of any new image you upload should start with the article title of the object or person it shows. If there's more than one object or person, choose the most important one. After that title, you might want to add a (very short) description, or a qualifier such as a year, the abbreviation of a movie title, etc.

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. Note that names are case sensitive, "enterprise.PNG" is considered different from "enterprise.png". For uniformity, file names should consist of lower case letters only.

Renaming images

Currently, there is no easy way to rename an image – it has to be downloaded, then uploaded using another name. Administrators are allowed to "copy" images to a new name this way and delete the original image, if the file name doesn't adhere to the above rules.

Format

Use the following guidelines to determine what file format should be used for your images:

• Drawings, icons, political maps, flags and other such images (basically those with large, simple, and continuous blocks of color) should be in SVG, PNG or GIF format.
• Photos and photo-like maps should be in JPG 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 JPG format, only convert it to PNG if this reduces the file size without causing artifacts.

Try to avoid cropping or otherwise editing JPGs 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. If all you're doing is cropping JPGs, consider using lossless cropping with jpegcrop.

Note that it is not recommended to use animated GIFs to display multiple photos. The method is not suitable for printing and also is not user friendly (users can not save individual images and have to wait before being able to view images while other images cycle round).

Size

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 Ten Forward to do it for you.

Scale and crop images to a size appropriate for the article. Keep in mind that many browsers still use 800x600 displays, and so images wider than 200-300 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 200 pixels. Images without text on the side can be wider.

Images appearing in a sidebar should be resized to a width of exactly 292 pixels; larger images would stretch the sidebar while smaller ones would leave an unused border. Don't put all images in a sidebar, though – floating, or thumbnail, images are preferred. (See Image Markup for the available syntax.)

See also

• Image Markup

Revision history of articles containing images

Old versions of articles do not show corresponding old versions of images, but instead display the latest ones, unless the file names of the images have changed.