Shortcut: H:IOUF

This page in a nutshell: To use an image or other media file on Wikipedia, you need to upload it, and then edit a Wikipedia page to use the file.

[edit] Uploading

Typically the first step in using an image or other media file is to upload it to Wikimedia Commons. For legal reasons, some files must be uploaded to the English Wikipedia instead. Many media files are copyrighted without permission to redistribute, and cannot be uploaded to either location. See Wikipedia:Image use policy for details about which media files can be uploaded.

The preferred image formats are SVG, PNG, JPEG, and XCF. The preferred sound formats are Ogg (using FLAC, Speex, and Vorbis codecs) and MIDI. Videos must be Ogg files using the Theora video codec.

Bear in mind that media files can contain hidden data, such as comments that are not displayed, Exif metadata, and messages hidden via steganography.

Choose a good name for the media file before you upload it, as it cannot be renamed later. Once the file is uploaded you should be able to read and make sense of its file page, which describes the file and lets the reader see the image in its original size.

[edit] Using

Once you have uploaded a file, you can use it in a Wikipedia article by editing the page to contain text that looks like this, with the result shown just below it and to the right:

[[Image:Wikipedesketch1.png|thumb|alt=A cartoon centipede reads books and types on a laptop.|The Wikipede edits ''[[Myriapoda]]''.]]

(Although the above text may appear in multiple lines for formatting purposes, the actual text should be on one line.) The above text contains the image file name "Image:Wikipedesketch1.png", the alt text "A cartoon centipede reads books and types on a laptop.", and the caption "The Wikipede edits Myriapoda." Alt text is intended for visually impaired readers, and should describe the gist of the picture's appearance. The caption is intended for all readers and explains the picture's meaning. Alt text and captions typically have little text in common.

A reader of the article can click on the thumbnail, or on the small double-rectangle icon below it, to see the corresponding image page. The image normally floats to the right as illustrated here.

The extended image syntax provides many options to control how an image is displayed. You can make it float to the left, center it, and place it without text flowing around it. You can change its size and let the reader move around in a panorama. You can avoid image stackups in several ways, for example, by alternating left and right images, by aligning images, and if all else fails by forcing a break. You can create a gallery of images arranged into an array by using table syntax, by using a template such as {{Image gallery}}, and by using a gallery tag (unfortunately, gallery tags do not support alt text, so they generate galleries that are not accessible to readers who cannot see the images). Also, you can create plain pictures that do not have captions and can be mingled with text and other images; these can use more fine-grained techniques, including borders, vertical alignment with text, and control over links. You can also link to an image without displaying it.