This article covers how to display images on a wiki. Any logged in user can upload images to a Wikia - see Help:Images for help on how to do so.
Once the file is uploaded, copy or otherwise make note of the image's name: it will be in the format "Image:Filename.jpg". (Note: this name is case-sensitive: using "Image:Filename.JPG" will fail to display the image.)
The normal method of adding images to a page is to use the following code:
[[Image:Filename.jpg|thumb|Caption here]]
This produces an image 'floated' on the right side of the page. On this article, the table of contents pushes it down (by design) - but when there is nothing else next to the text, the image will show immediately next to it.
More advanced image display techniques[]
The most basic syntax for displaying an image is [[Image:Filename.jpg]]. Additional parameters can be added between pipe ("|") characters, including:
frame - places a frame around the image without altering its size. The original image size is used. Sizing does not work when |frame| is used.
thumb - creates a reduced-size thumbnail image, contained in a frame
##px - specify the desired width of the image in pixels.
Note that it is usually best to allow MediaWiki to automatically size images and thumbnails to suit the user's preferences and monitor size and resolution; hard-coding image sizes in this way can cause unwanted behavior at some resolutions.
caption - the last parameter in the image syntax will be used to provide a caption in a thumbnailed or framed image. Captions can contain links and other wiki syntax.
To use an image in an article, you simply surround the full name (including the "Image" part) in double square brackets:
[[Image:Example.jpg]] will give you:
You can resize by adding the size in pixels between two pipes:
[[Image:Example.jpg|50px|]] will give you:
You can make an image a thumbnail an image by adding "thumb" in the same way. If a pipe is there from a previous variable, you don't need to add another:
[[Image:Example.jpg|50px|thumb|]] will give you:
This is automatically formatted to the right of the page. You can change this by adding "left" or "center":
[[Image:Example.jpg|50px|thumb|left|]] will give you:
Anything not matching an input ("left", "thumb", etc) becomes a caption:
[[Image:Example.jpg|50px|thumb|left|Alt]] will give you:
Alt
To prevent text wrapping around an image, use "none"
[[Image:Example.jpg|50px|none]] will give you:
followed by more text
To link to the image page without showing it on the page, use a colon before the word "Image":
When sizing option is used, the MediaWiki software can generate downsized image thumbnails, improving the quality of the thumbnail.
However, MediaWiki does not generate upscaled images, so if you make an image larger than the original size, it will use the client's (browser's) method of upscaling images. The effect can depend on your browser.
Can I fix the placement of the image if the image has caption?[]
Let's say you want something like this:
This is the text............
[[Image here with caption!]]
Another text................
The image syntax "none" is useless in your case because you want to use caption too.
Currently there is no image-related syntax that could help with this, but you can use the following code or template to achieve it:
Put <br style="clear:left;" /> just below the image.
clear also works if the wiki in question has installed the template.
This is the code:
This is the text............
[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|left|Caption is here!]] <br style="clear:left;" />
Another text................
This is the result:
This is the text............
Caption is here!
Another text................
Can I display many images together?[]
The <gallery> tag is a MediaWiki feature for creating image galleries.
<gallery>
Image:Example.jpg
Image:Example.jpg|Captioned
Image:Example.jpg|[[Help:Wikitext]] can be used in gallery captions.
</gallery>
Brackets are used only for adding links within captions. Captions are optional. Images are separated by newlines. The width of the gallery can be changed in your preferences.
You can specify how many items you want in each row by using the perrow parameter to the gallery tag, such as <gallery perrow="5">
Licensing[]
What image licenses are acceptable on Wikia?[]
GFDL or public domain images are strongly preferred on Wikia. Creative Commons licensed images using "attribution" (BY) or "share-alike" (SA) licenses, or both, are acceptable for use on Wikia, and you may use the Help:Import free images tool to search for and import such images from Flickr for use on your wiki.
Creative Commons provides several open licenses, but their "non-commercial" (NC) and "no-derivatives" (ND) licenses are incompatible with the GFDL and Wikia's open content mission, so the license of CC images from Flickr or elsewhere must be examined carefully before use.
Copyright-violating images are subject to deletion. Copyright information must be added to the image description page of every uploaded image.
How do I specify the license?[]
All images should have a tag added to the Image description page stating which license they are under. For example, typing GFDL on an image description page should display something like:
Although there are some exceptions, externally hosted images may not usually be displayed on Wikia. Please see the page about externally hosted images.
Can I upload video and other files?[]
If they are not in violation of any copyright, you may store video and sound files on your wiki, but there is a size-per-file limit of 5MB, so large files might be an issue.
Alternatively, you can also display videos stored on YouTube (and certain other sites) directly on your wiki pages.
It is recommended that you upload files which are too large for local upload to another site and link to them there instead. For example, you can use the Wikimedia commons if the file would also be useful to a Wikimedia project (such as Wikipedia), or to sites like Ourmedia.
How do I add a logo to my wiki?[]
Administrators can change the logo of a wiki by uploading a new image over Image:Wiki.png. Similarly, the favicon (the icon next to the URL in the browser's address bar, and used in many toolbars and bookmark/favorite lists) can be changed by uploading a new image to Image:Favicon.ico. It is recommended that administrators protect these files from unauthorized changes.
