Familypedia:First Steps/Image quality and description


 * How to make perfect media uploads

Images
Generally speaking, the quality of files should be as high as possible, so, for example, images can be used in high-quality printouts. With JPEG-format—which is recommended for photos but not diagrams—or PNG-format, use a high resolution. As of October 19th, 2005 the MediaWiki software can’t handle PNGs larger than exactly 12,500,000 pixels (12,500.000 kilopixels, 12.500000 megapixels, 12,207.031 kibipixels, or 11.920929 mebipixels)—3535×3536 pixels square, 4082×3061 pixels in the 4:3 ratio, or 4497×2779 pixels in the golden ratio—but otherwise images in such high resolutions are fine. The software is also unable to scale animated GIF-images, so you’ll have to supply these in the desired size.

Only certain file types are allowed in Genealogy Wikia. If you try to upload a different file type, you’ll receive an error message. If you modify an image of others, please upload it under a different filename and add a link from the original.

Different formats should be used for different types of images. JPEG works well with images with lots of details like photographs. A diagram, however, appears blurry when saved as JPEG and, like GIF and PNG, cannot be scaled without loss of quality. SVG works well with charts and diagrams, and images where there are few details. SVG can be edited easily and scaled with no loss of quality, but its use in photographs, for instance, is impractical. GIF is cumbersome for use with the server software and due to inherent restrictions in the format, use of GIF should be restricted to animated images only. For further information on image formats, format conversion, and other format recommendations, see Genealogy:Preparing images for upload.


 * Photographs: For photographs, use JPEG (file extension .jpg or .jpeg). While TIFF offers higher quality, these files tend to be rather large and the server software can’t convert them on the fly (that's why this file format is currently not allowed at Commons). PNG uses a lossless compression and is thus theoretically better for photographs, but it too produces excessively large file sizes. PNG should be reserved for images that require high quality and do not work well with other formats, such as computer screenshots.


 * Animated images: For animated images, use GIF (file extension .gif).


 * Diagrams: For diagrams, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics, file extension .svg) is the preferred type.

Audio and video
Supported sound types are MIDI (file extension: .mid) and Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) and for video files Ogg Theora only (also .ogg). Other widely used sound file formats like MP3 or WMA and video formats like MPEG and WMV are not allowed at Wikimedia Commons due to patent issues. Like images, quality of sound and video files should not be too low. The upper limit for file sizes is about 20 megabytes, so choose quality depending on the duration of your media file. For information on format conversion and encoding, see Genealogy:Software.

Good file descriptions
A good file description provides complete information about the file, including legally required information such as its copyright status and source, as well as descriptive information about what it shows and how it was made. To assist you in creating such a description, there is a standardized template for images. Additionally, this template is rendered in a typographically sound way. It is therefore highly recommended to use the template. Just copy the code below, paste it into the “Summary”-field during upload and fill in the blanks:

If you can’t fill in everything, use a ‘-’-sign instead (without the quotation marks). Please don’t leave blank variables, as the template won’t work as advertised otherwise.
 * The fields are used the following way:


 * Description:
 * Description of the content. What do you see, hear, or otherwise perceive? If it’s an artwork, please provide brief historical background. In case of scientific data, a brief scientific abstract of the file. If you have detailed information about the image, for example the name of the species or the size of the object, please add it. Especially with mineral images, including the size is helpful.


 * Source:
 * Use a statement such as “Own work.” or similar, if you created that file yourself. Otherwise please supply a
 * Link to a website, with a direct link to the page embedding the file and a direct link to the file
 * Catalog number
 * Name of institution
 * Book source
 * etc.


 * Date:
 * Date of the original document (or for original image, or creation), preferably in ISO 8601 format, such as “ 2006-01-15 ” for 15 January 2006.


 * Author:
 * Author(s) of the document. If you don’t know any individual, use the name of the institution(s) which released it. In case of self-made work, put your real name and your linked username in parentheses, such as “ Bill Willis (WMWillis) </tt>”. This’ll  read as “Bill Willis (WMWillis)”. You might as well directly link your real name to the username such as “ Bill Willis </tt>”.


 * Permission:
 * Supply a short quote of the permission the copyright owner of the file gave you. In case of a general permission (e. g. US Public Domain or free content licenses) supply a short link to that legal disclaimer or an according hint. If you are the copyright owner, give a short notice as “Dual-licensed under the GFDL and CC-By-SA-2.5, 2.0, and 1.0”, but you could also write “See below” to point to license tags after the file information.
 * Note: You still need to tag the image in any case with the appropriate license template!


 * Other versions of this file:
 * If there are other version of this file within Wikimedia Commons (for example a black and white version of a color image) use this field to link to these versions with a wikilink.

Note: Please read as well First steps/Sorting.

Upload summary
When you are uploading a file, the upload form gives you a place for a summary. The first 255 characters of your summary will appear permanently on the image description page, in the "File history" section.

If you are uploading the first version of a file (there is not already a file with the title you selected), then your upload summary will also be copied to the image description page. It is common in this case to provide complete information in the summary, as detailed under above.

If you are uploading a new version of a file, it is important to specify in as much detail as possible how you changed the file. This information is important because it can be difficult for others to tell the difference between two files. For example, for an image, you could say


 * Cropped 25 pixels off the top, brightened with Photoshop, saved at 95% quality