Adding images helps improve many articles! These could be screencaps, diagrams, photos, or whatever else is relevant.
Requirements for adding images[]
Both anonymous and registered users can add images to an article in source text editing mode. In visual editors, only registered users can. Images must exist on the wiki. If they are not available, then they need to be uploaded first. Trying to add a non-existent image will only create a red link to a file page.
Only registered, logged-in users can upload files. See this page for details on uploading files.
All images must have {{FileInfo}} in their description on their file page. If they don't, they may be deleted.
How to add an image in source editing mode[]
Source editing maintains the option of adding and customizing images through the top bar, like in the Visual Editor. But as its interface is fundamentally different from visual editors, you can skip the above process and directly add and edit with the underlying wikitext. The image follows a specific format, enclosed in square brackets like a regular link.
[[File:Wiki.png|220px|center|thumb|link=Help:Adding images|alt=This is an alt text|class=This is for the HTML classes|And this a description]]
- Every image on the page starts with
File:
orImage:
, followed by the exact name of the uploaded file. It is case-sensitive: Wiki.png and WIKI.png are considered different files. - If only the link is specified, the image will be added as is: At the base resolution and inline. To customize its appearance, you can add arguments, separated by the vertical bar or pipe symbol,
|
. These are:- Size, specified in pixels. For example,
220px
will display the image at 220 pixels of width, whilex120px
will display the image at 120 pixels of height. - Alignment on the page.
left
andright
will align the image to the left and right respectively, with text flowing around the image.center
will align it to the middle of the page with no text flow around it. - Appearance. Adding
thumb
will cause the image to display as a thumbnail at a default width if it's not specified otherwise, with the description displayed beneath. You can also chooseborder
to display the image with a border around it. - Link will cause the image to open a specific page, rather than its file description. It is always preceded by
link=
. The option can also be used to bypass the image lightbox and display an image with no link to the description page. This can be done by adding the option to the syntax and filling it with an empty value (not even a space). - Alternative text, specified with
alt=
, which will display if an image does not load. This text is also used by search engines and screen readers, so it's best to specify a descriptive alt text for every image. - HTML class, specified by
class=
, defines classes of the generated<img/>
element. For instance,class=foo__bar baz
will add class="foo__bar baz" to the generated image element. These classes can be useful when customizing the appearance of the image(s) through the CSS pages. - Description, which will display below the image if it's specified to appear as a thumbnail or on mouseover. Any text that is not recognized by the wiki as an argument will be interpreted as a description.
- Size, specified in pixels. For example,
The wiki software does not require the arguments to be added in any specific order, although it's considered good practice to use a consistent pattern. For more details on adding images via wikitext, see the image formatting section here. For linking to image description pages, see this page.
How to view images at a higher resolution[]
When placed on the page, images are typically presented at a much smaller resolution. You can inspect them by going to the file page or by opening them in the lightbox.
The lightbox opens by default when clicking on the image, with the link to the file description page displayed at the top of the lightbox.
If you want to bypass the lightbox entirely, simply hold "Ctrl" (for Windows users) or "Command" (for Mac users), then click on the photo. It will open a new tab, but you'll be on the file page in the new tab.
See also[]
This page contains content from Fandom.