Single images

Offline MediaWiki Code Editor

Assistant for Single Images

For other solutions to display images see: Images

Single Images are commonly inserted in Wikipedia articles. But only an image already hosted on Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Commons can be inserted in Wikipedia articles. Do not attempt to insert images from other sources.

MediaWiki software assumes that the image name you add to an article refers to one at the English Wikipedia, if one exists there. If the English Wikipedia doesn't have an image with that name, the software looks at Commons. That's another good reason to name an image at the Commons in such detail that it's unlikely you'll accidentally choose one that already exists at the English Wikipedia. (No, the software won't warn you.)

Basic recommendations

An assistant to insert single images into a page.

When there is more than one image in an article, spread the images evenly within that article. Each image should be relevant to the section it is in, and normally there should be only one image per section.

For accessibility and other reasons, you should put an image inside the section it belongs to, after any "Main" or "See also" template at the top of the section. The more general rule is to put an image immediately above the paragraph of text to which it most closely belongs. It's certainly okay to have text following the image, within the section where it's placed.

Multiple images within a single section, while not forbidden, can cause problems, particularly if the section is short. In particular, don't place an image on the left side of a section and a second image directly opposite, on the right side. For some readers, this squeezes text into a tiny column between the two images. On some computer screens the images may even overlap. (Even if you know how to use special parameters in the image links to force blank space between the images to avoid squeezing the text, don't do it. The blank text looks terrible on larger computer screens).

Image alignment

Some editors prefer to put all images on the right side of an article, aligned with any infoboxes. Other editors prefer them to be evenly alternated between left and right (for example, one image on the left in one section, and the next image, in a following section, on the right). Either approach is acceptable, but don't get into ownership issues over the arrangement of images—aesthetic judgments are inherently subjective, and not worth fighting about.

One place that's bad for an image is left-aligned immediately under a subheading. The heading ends up directly above the image (making it look somewhat like a label) and puts the subsection text to the right of the image, disconnecting it from the heading. If you want an image left-aligned in a subsection, make sure there is at least a paragraph of text between the image and the subheading. If you absolutely want the image to follow directly after a subsection heading, right-align it.

There are several techniques you can apply with the help of these assistants to insert images, even if you do not know the sintax.

Assistant for single images

Single images are easy to insert into an article if you know the file name (including extension) of the image. This assistant allows to customize:

1. Dimensions of the image

2. Alignment

3. A frame to contain the image

4. Alternative text (for the case the image is not shown)

5. Image caption (recommended)

Clicking on an image opens the image page in Wikimedia Commons by default. But you can point the link to any other page.

If you need to include links inside the caption, you can do this after inserting the image code in the Edit window. In the code, you can find the image caption between the last pipe (|) and the two closing square brackets (]]). Locate the image caption and make the necessary changes.

Assistant for cropped images

The Assistant for cropped images allows to crop an image to obtain an image detail and display it as if it were a single image. With this assistant you can fix the dimensions of the image detail, alignment, heading, caption and background color.

Assistant for images with annotations

This assistant allows the superimposition of explanatory notes on an image. These notes may contain links. Superimposed annotations are always more legible than embedded annotations. Another advantage of superimposed notes is that may be easily modified without touching the images.

The assistant also allows to customize detail dimensions, alignment, headings, caption and background color, likewise the format of the annotations, font size, text color, and background color if you need to highlight the annotations. The assistant also allows to turn the annotations into links.

See also

For other techniques involving images you can use the following templates:

{{Site plan}} To display an image such as a site plan or map with another image superimposed on it.

{{Superimpose}} To place one image over another.

{{Superimpose2}} To place up to 50 image layers over one another.

{{Location map}} To place a single image over another at a map coordinate location.

{{Location map+}} This template places one or more location marks on a map, with optional labels. It is in the same family of templates as the Location map template and the documentation for that template might be helpful. This template uses a helper template, Location map~, one or more times to generate a mark for each location.

{{Overlay}} To place up to 30 marker images of various configurable kinds over a base image with optional grid and legend.

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