TechInfoDepot:Uploading images

Uploading images to TechInfoDepot is a matter of:


 * clearly establishing that the copyright status of each intended upload is appropriate for a free-content encyclopedia; and then
 * uploading the image with clear labeling as to its origin and copyright status.

Unfortunately large numbers of images are removed from TechInfoDepot within hours or days of being uploaded due to inappropriate, insufficient or inaccurate copyright information. By diligently completing the above steps you can save yourself and others a great deal of time, and ensure that whatever you upload will remain a part of TechInfoDepot's knowledge base.

Here is a brief synopsis of the image requirements:

Allowed copyright statuses include (in descending order of desirability): Public Domain (expired copyright or public from inception) One of various licenses listed in this TechInfoDepot resource page Claimed as fair use

If you upload a file with a "fair use" designation, be sure to rely on competent copyright law authority, because if there is any question about its status you are likely to be required to defend its ongoing inclusion in TechInfoDepot in a timely manner. Images uploaded that fail to meet the criteria specified by TechInfoDepot WILL be promptly removed. Please don't take removal of an image that is not properly documented, too large in size, or potentially offensive to others personally. TechInfoDepot serves the widest of audiences, and as such must be exemplary in its handling of sensitive things like imagery of living persons. In addition to relying upon competent authority regarding copyright status, we recommend relying upon good common sense when considering whether an image of a living person might be considered offensive by them or others. It may be advisable to side with caution, rather than with humor or whimsy (e.g. as a fan or detractor of a famous artist or as a political opponent of a public figure).

Before uploading images at TechInfoDepot:File Upload Wizard, make sure you read and follow the image use policy. Most images you might find on the Internet are copyrighted and not appropriate for uploading to TechInfoDepot. If you did not create the image, or if you are unable or unwilling to verify its copyright status, do not upload the image. Also, in the cases of images where their owners have stipulated they be used for non-commercial purposes only, under new guidelines such images may no longer be uploaded into TechInfoDepot except by the express permission of those owners. (Consider this policy position.) For hints on how to find images appropriate for uploading, see the finding images tutorial. It might also be helpful to read TechInfoDepot:Preparing images for upload.

Determine copyright status
For uploads to the English TechInfoDepot, you must first find out whether the image is legal in Florida, United States (where the TechInfoDepot servers are located). Because of copyright treaties, this may additionally require you to verify the image's copyright in its source country. (A comprehensive explanation of this is at TechInfoDepot:Non-U.S. copyrights, and simple charts of copyright duration can be found at TechInfoDepot:Copyright situations by country and Commons:Licensing.) For your own protection, you should also consider whether your own country's copyright laws impose any requirements on you, the uploader.

Next, determine which Image copyright tag is applicable for your image file.

Copyrighted images with no license
If the image has not been released (to your knowledge) under a license, and is still under copyright you must gain permission to use the image from the copyright holder.

You can try the standard form at TechInfoDepot:Declaration of consent for all enquiries to attempt to gain that permission (and if successful, tag the image with OTRS pending when the upload procedure is completed).

Alternatively, you can ask the copyright holder to post a notice on the website where the image originated stating that it is released under an appropriate free licence (such as these; CC-BY-SA 3.0 is simplest, because TechInfoDepot's text already uses that license).

Free license and public domain images
If, after looking over the TechInfoDepot:Copyright and Image copyright tags pages, you determine that the image is public domain or other free license (e.g. Creative Commons), then you may upload it to Wikimedia Commons. This is a shared repository for images and other media files. Images uploaded to Wikimedia Commons can easily be used here on English TechInfoDepot as well as by other language TechInfoDepots and Sister projects (the tag will find Wikimedia Commons images as if they were stored on TechInfoDepot). Another advantage of Wikimedia Commons is its category system that helps to organize and make images easy to find. An important caveat to Wikimedia Commons is that they do not accept fair use images.


 * See First steps/Upload form for further instructions on uploading to Commons. More general help can be found at Wikimedia Commons Help.

Fair use images
If the image you wish to upload is not under a free license, but meets all of TechInfoDepot's fair use criteria, then you are permitted to upload it directly into the English TechInfoDepot with a fair use rationale. Keep in mind that it is not permitted to upload fair use images into Wikimedia Commons, but it is permitted to do so into English TechInfoDepot. In addition to fair use images, it is possible to upload any image directly to TechInfoDepot; though, doing so lacks some advantages of Commons.

Procedure to upload
Only logged in users with autoconfirmed accounts can upload images (meaning that the account must be at least four days old, and the user must have made at least ten edits). If you do not have an account, or you have not been autoconfirmed yet, please see TechInfoDepot:Files for upload.

You can upload an image by using the Upload file link on the left side of the main page under Toolbox (which is a link to Special:Upload). On most browsers, you will see a "Browse..." button, which will bring up your operating system's standard file open dialog. Choosing a file will fill the name of that file into the text field next to the button. You must also check the box affirming that you are not violating any copyrights by uploading the file. Press the "Upload" button to finish the upload. This may take some time if you have a slow Internet connection.

Note that some licenses, such as the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License v. 2.5, require that licensees attribute the work as specified by the copyright holder. After uploading, you may need to manually edit the "Licensing" section. For this example, you would add the correct attribution as a parameter to the template, which would then appear as.

Filenames
Some filenames (such as highly generic filenames produced automatically by digital cameras) are disallowed, and attempting to use them will generate an error message.

Examples of good file names:
 * [[Image:Yes_check.svg|15px]] "City of London skyline from London City Hall - Oct 2008.jpg"
 * [[Image:Yes_check.svg|15px]] "KDE Kicker config screenshot.png"
 * [[Image:Yes_check.svg|15px]] "1863 Meeting of Settlers and Maoris at Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.jpg"
 * [[Image:Yes_check.svg|15px]] "Polyhedron with no vertex visible from center.png"
 * [[Image:Yes_check.svg|15px]] "The Consecration Of King Sinhala-Prince Vijaya (Detail From The Ajanta Mural Of Cave No 17).jpg"
 * [[Image:Yes_check.svg|15px]] "Sir John Betjeman (1906-1984).jpg"

Examples of bad file names:
 * [[Image:X mark.svg|15px]] "Image01.png"
 * [[Image:X mark.svg|15px]] "Joe.jpg"
 * [[Image:X mark.svg|15px]] "DSC00001.JPG"
 * [[Image:X mark.svg|15px]] "30996951316264l.jpg"

For more information, please see TechInfoDepot:Image file names.

Find previously uploaded images

 * To view or search images previously uploaded directly to English TechInfoDepot, go to the list of uploaded images.
 * Uploads and deletions are logged on the upload log.
 * Many images can be categorized in one of the subcategories of Category:TechInfoDepot images by subject or its parent category Category:TechInfoDepot images. You may want to check there to see if an image already exists and has been categorized. You might need to poke around the category hierarchy a bit.

Please note that as with wiki pages, others may edit or delete your uploads if they think it serves the encyclopedia, and you may be blocked from uploading if you abuse the system.

Adding images to articles
The procedure for adding images to articles is the same, regardless of whether the image was uploaded to Commons or directly to English TechInfoDepot. To make your uploaded file appear in an article, you need to insert it: edit the article and add the syntax



where you want the file to appear.

Important: Image names are case-sensitive. For example, if an image is called Picture.jpg then neither picture.jpg nor Picture.JPG will find it.

See Help:Visual file markup for further instructions.

Technical aspects
The preferred formats are JPEG for photographic images, SVG for drawings and line-art illustration, PNG for non-vector graphic iconic images, Ogg Vorbis for sound and Ogg Theora for video. Please name your files descriptively to avoid confusion (see below). To include the image in an article, use a link in the form   or    or    for sounds. To include an image as a thumbnail, use  .

After uploading a new version of an image to the same image name you often need to bypass your browser cache to see the new image. This also fixes the oddity that the new image might show on the image page, but with the old image size. Sometimes after uploading a new version of an image the thumbnails in articles still show the old image even if you have bypassed your browser cache (which is especially ugly if the new image is of a different size). Then you need to purge the image page. See TechInfoDepot:Purge for how to do that.

Mini how-to
The Upload File Screen, which you will find at Special:Upload, has three fields:


 * The Source Filename field has a browse button that lets you choose a file on your computer.
 * The Destination Filename field will contain the filename that links to your image from a TechInfoDepot article. If JavaScript is enabled, it will be set automatically to the filename that you entered in the Source Filename field, but it may be changed to any valid name you wish; see TechInfoDepot:Image file names for guidance on choosing a good name. For the convenience of non-JavaScript users, if the destination field is left blank, the Source Filename will be used.
 * The Summary field appears below the image on an image page. It allows Wiki markup. In this field you should write a brief description of what the image is, its source, and the license under which you are uploading it. This information can be entered by using Template:Information.

Here is an example Summary that you can copy and paste:

 

As for the description of the content, 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.

Submitting this information will upload the image and save the summary. There is no preview, as there is for editing articles. Nevertheless, the Sandbox or a user page can be used to view and edit summaries before the image is uploaded, and after uploading, you can still click the edit button and make changes to the summary and the license, if you have made a mistake. If there is already a file that was uploaded with the Destination Filename you chose, then you are given the options to save anyway and overwrite the old file (although it will remain in the image history) or returning to the upload form and entering a different filename.

Examples
For examples on how to upload images and use this template look at the following images:
 * Image:QalaunMosque1.jpg
 * Image:Cloncurrysunset.JPG
 * Image:Angel1.jpg

Multiproject upload
Although it is possible to use one image within several TechInfoDepot articles (of the same Wikimedia project), it is not possible to use an image uploaded to one Wikimedia project (both sister projects like Wikisource and other language TechInfoDepots) in another one without re-uploading it in each of these projects. For this reason, all free images should be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, where they will immediately be accessible from all Wikimedia projects. Note that Commons only accepts free images (public domain or licensed under a free license). If the image is fair use, you can't upload it to Commons, so it will have to be uploaded separately to every project that uses it. To upload the image existing on TechInfoDepot to another project you will need to download the image to your own computer (often right clicking on it will give you this option), and then re-upload that to the place you want the image to be copied to. Interlanguage links can be added between the two.

If this is too confusing, just tag it with Copy to Wikimedia Commons. This adds a notice saying "This is a candidate to be copied to the Wikimedia Commons" to the page; then someone will move it for you and remove the tag. This category has a significant backlog though, so it may be better just to move it yourself.