Wikipedia:Images

This is an information page.

It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

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

All pictures 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.

Policy and guidelines[edit]

Wikipedia:Image use policy
Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Images
Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility#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

Tutorials and help[edit]

Image/picture tutorials[edit]

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

Graphics tutorials[edit]

Help[edit]

Help:File page
Help:Pictures – detailed instructions for inserting images into articles
Help:Options to hide an image
Help:Gallery tag – adding a gallery
Help:Viewing media – aimed at readers
Wikipedia:Media copyright questions
Wikipedia:How to upload a photo

Maintenance[edit]

Page count of image related maintenance categories

Category	Number
	September 2012	January 2024
Category:Articles with missing files	7,265	0
Category:Copy to Wikimedia Commons	7,872	384
Category:Wikipedia files lacking a description	4,911	140
Category:Images with inappropriate JPEG compression	1,842	2,494
Category:Images which should be in PNG format	445	253
Category:Images with watermarks	238	32
Category:Wikipedia non-free file size reduction requests	1,027	8
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	0
Category:Publicity photographs with missing fair-use rationale	197	14
Category:Wikipedia files with disputed copyright information	1,199	559

Files by type[edit]

Picture of the day

Portrait of Margaret van Eyck

Painting credit: Jan van Eyck

Featured pictures[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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

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