Help:Images

Images help detail the subject and provide extra understanding of it, not to mention that they're more aesthetically pleasing than a plain text page.

Step One: Uploading Images
To upload an image to Zelda Wiki.org, follow these steps:
 * 1) Click the "Upload file" link under in the sidebar to the left (at the bottom in the toolbox section). This links to Special:Upload.
 * 2) From this screen, click on "Browse..." to search your computer's files until you find the image you want to upload. Select it. (Note that only .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, and .png files are accepted.)
 * 3) Add a quick summary if necessary, then click "Upload file" to upload.

Sometimes you may run into an "upload warning" that tells you that your file should be no larger than 150 kilobytes (KB). If this occurs, unless the file just really doesn't need to be that big, you can go ahead and click "Save file" anyway.

If you upload a new version of an existing image, sometimes the image won't update immediately and the previous version of the image will be displayed instead. In such case, please be patient and wait for the database to catch up and update the image. This can take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes.

Step Two: Adding Templates
All images had to come from somewhere, right? We here at Zelda Wiki.org have a set of Image Templates which are to be used to credit the creator and/or copyright holder of the image. All of the Image Templates can be found here. A full explanation of the correct use of these templates can be found here.

Step Three: Adding Images to a Page
Finally, the reason that you uploaded the image. Open the page that you want to add the image to and begin editing it. Find out where on the page you want to add the image, and in that location type the following:



Replace "filename.png" with whatever your image's filename is, and there you have it! But... that doesn't look too good on its own, now does it?

Optional Image Syntax
There are several things you can add to an image's coding to manipulate it. Here is an example of an image using several of these:




 * File:filename.png is our image name, which you would replace with whatever your image name is.
 * right moves the image to the right side of the page. "left" could also be used.
 * thumb adds the box around the image you see quite often. Note that this could be replaced with frameless to acheive the same auto-resize effect without the frame being displayed.
 * 200px resizes the image to 200 pixels - you may choose whatever number you deem necessary (within reason) for your placement of the image.
 * This is an image example is an example of words that might be displayed below an image, but this only works if "thumb" is added; otherwise, the text is displayed as alt-text when one lays their mouse on the image.

Any or all of these can be used, and they need not be in this order exactly.

Types of Images
There are several image types accepted at ZeldaWiki.org, these are .png, .jpg/.jpeg, .gif, and .svg (buggy). Below are explanations of each type of image, and how they should be presented on the wiki.

PNG
PNG, which stands for Portable Network Graphics, is an image format, and probably the most important to the wiki. This is because PNG files maintain very good quality, and transparency. As of yet the PNG cannot be animated, making its predecessor the GIF, not quite obsolete.

JPEG
JPEG, also known as JPG or Joint Photographic Experts Group, is an image format that most websites, including ZeldaWiki.org, uses to display large photographic images. This is because JPEGS can display large images without taking up too much file space, however they do not support transparency nor do they preserve the quality that a PNG can.

GIF
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is an image format that supports only a 256 color palette, however is the only type that can be universally animated, thus making it still an important image type. On ZeldaWiki.org, they are only used for animated images and sprites (since they use a small color palette).

How images should be displayed
Images with transparent backgrounds should never be placed inside a frame. If a caption is required, the ImageCaption template should be used. Images with non-transparent backgrounds (generally JPEGs) should always have a frame.

Do
(transparent with caption, so ImageCaption template used)

(transparent with no caption, so frame prohibited)

(non-transparent background, so frame required)

Don't
(transparent background, so frame prohibited)

(non-transparent background, so frame required)