This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. Use common sense in applying it; it will have occasional exceptions. Please ensure that any edits to this page reflect consensus.

Shortcuts: WP:MOSICON MOS:ICON

This page in a nutshell: While small icons can be useful in Wikipedia articles in some circumstances, there are also problems associated with their misapplication and overuse. Words can be clearer.

For the purposes of this guideline, icons are any small images, including logos, crests, coats of arms, seals and flags.

The use of icons in Wikipedia project content, mainly lists, tables, infoboxes and navboxes can provide useful visual cues, but can also present a number of problems. Guidance on principal issues is summarized below, followed by more in-depth discussion of each.

Contents 1 Generally 1.1 Avoiding icons problems 1.1.1 Appropriate use 1.1.2 Inappropriate use 1.1.2.1 Do not use icons in general article prose 1.1.2.2 Clarity 1.1.2.3 Encyclopaedic purpose 1.1.2.4 Do not use too many icons 1.1.2.5 Do not repurpose icons beyond their legitimate scope 1.1.2.6 Do not distort icons 1.1.2.7 Do not illustrate or introduce unpublished ideas 1.1.2.8 Remember accessibility for the visually impaired 2 Flags 2.1 Avoiding flag problems 2.1.1 Inappropriate use 2.1.1.1 Do not emphasize nationality without good reason 2.1.1.2 Do not use flags to indicate locations of birth and death 2.1.1.3 Do not use a flag when a picture of the subject is not available 2.1.1.4 Do not use subnational flags without direct relevance 2.1.1.5 Do not use supernational flags without direct relevance 2.1.1.6 Accompany flags with country names 2.1.1.7 Country can sometimes be omitted when flag re-used 2.1.2 Historical considerations 2.1.2.1 Do not rewrite history 2.1.2.2 Use historical flags in contexts where the difference matters 2.1.2.3 In some military history contexts 2.1.2.4 Entities without flags until after a certain point in time 2.1.3 Political issues 2.1.3.1 Use of flags for non-sovereign states and nations 2.1.3.2 Overbroad use of flags with politicized connotations 2.1.4 Biographical use 2.1.5 Use of flags for sportspeople 3 Logos 3.1 Copyrighted images 3.2 Non-copyrighted images

[edit] Generally

[edit] Avoiding icons problems

[edit] Appropriate use

Icons may be helpful in certain situations:

• They can aid navigation in long lists or tables of information as some readers can more quickly scan a series of icons due to the visual differences between icon. However, since not all readers can do this, the icons should be accompanied with names or the use of sortable tables or both.
• Repeated use of an icon in a table or infobox should only be done if the icon has been used previously in the table with an explanation of its purpose.
• They are useful in articles about international sporting events to show the representative nationality of players (which may differ from their legal nationalities). Example: List of WPA World Nine-ball Champions.

[edit] Inappropriate use

[edit] Do not use icons in general article prose

Icons should not be used in the article body, as in, "...and after her third novel was published, Jackson moved to Bristol,  England, in April 2004, then...". This breaks up the continuity of the text, distracting the reader (example).

[edit] Clarity

If the use of flags in a list, table or infobox makes it unclear, ambiguous or controversial, it is better to remove the flags even if that makes the list, table or infobox inconsistent with others of the same type where no problems have arisen.

[edit] Encyclopaedic purpose

Shortcut: WP:ICONDECORATION

Icons should not be added only because they look good, because aesthetics are in the eye of the beholder: one reader's harmless decoration may be another reader's distraction. Icons may be purely decorative in the technical sense that they convey no additional useful information and nothing happens when you click on them; but purely decorative icons should still have a useful purpose in providing visual cues or layout. Avoid adding icons that provide neither additional useful information relevant to the article subject nor visual cues or layout that aid the reader. Icons should serve an encyclopaedic purpose other than decoration.

[edit] Do not use too many icons

When icons are added excessively, they clutter the page and become redundant, as in this sportsperson's infobox.

[edit] Do not repurpose icons beyond their legitimate scope

Icons can represent a specific entity and should not be repurposed to represent something else, e.g. because an actually appropriate flag is not available. For example, do not abuse the flag of the United Nations to represent the entire world, as this is not an accurate application of the official flag of that international organization.

[edit] Do not distort icons

Do not modify or use non-generic icons in a way that is not notably used outside of wikipedia. See Wikipedia:OR#Original images for further clarification. One example of such a distortion is a user-modified fusing of North American flags

[edit] Do not illustrate or introduce unpublished ideas

[edit] Remember accessibility for the visually impaired

Every functional icon should have alt text, which is text describing the visual appearance of the image. Failure to provide this alt text will often make the icon meaningless or confusing to those using screen readers or text-only browsers. To provide alt text, simply add the description to the end of the image markup: for example, "[[Image:Commons-logo.svg|30x30px |link=Commons:Special:Search |Search Wikimedia Commons]]" generates an icon that links to Commons:Special:Search and has alt text "Search Wikimedia Commons".

Purely decorative icons, which convey no useful information other than what is already communicated by adjacent text, should use an empty link and alt text, so that they do not confuse screen readers. For example, "[[Image:Checkmark green.svg|24x24px|link=|alt=]]Done" generates "Done". This is mainly an issue when including flags directly as images, as the standardized flag icon templates already operate correctly.

[edit] Flags

For the purposes of this section of the guideline icons refers to flags and similar images unless otherwise stated

Shortcuts: WP:MOSFLAG MOS:FLAG WP:MOSFLAGICON

Note: Terms such as "country" and "nation" as used below should be understood to also apply to other uses of flags, such as U.S. states, the United Nations, etc. Furthermore, the bulk of these recommendations are also applicable to official seals, coats of arms, and other representations which serve similar purposes to flag images.

[edit] Avoiding flag problems

[edit] Inappropriate use

[edit] Do not emphasize nationality without good reason

Wikipedia is not a place for nationalistic pride. Flags are visually striking, and placing a national flag next to something can make its nationality or location seem to be of greater significance than other things. For example, with an English flag next to him, Paul McCartney looks like an "English singer-songwriter from Liverpool who was in the Beatles"; without the flag next to him, he looks like an "English singer-songwriter from Liverpool who was in the Beatles". Emphasizing the importance of a person's citizenship or nationality above their other qualities risks violating Wikipedia's "Neutral point of view" policy.

[edit] Do not use flags to indicate locations of birth and death

Shortcut: WP:FLAGBIO

Flag icons should never be used in the birth and death information in a biographical article's introduction and/or infobox, as flags imply citizenship and/or nationality. Many people born abroad due to traveling parents never become citizens of the countries in which they were born and do not claim such a nationality. For example, actor Bruce Willis was born on a U.S. military base in Germany, so putting a German flag in his infobox, for any reason, might lead the casual reader to assume he is or was a German citizen. Similarly, many people die on foreign soil due to war, vacation accidents, etc. without any effect on their actual citizenship or nationality.

[edit] Do not use a flag when a picture of the subject is not available

A flag (or other symbolic image) should not be used as an image placeholder, such as in biographical articles. While it may be appropriate to use a flag or seal as the principal image in an infobox for the organizational entity it represents (for example, the FBI), in most cases these articles have an infobox with the flag or seal image (example).

[edit] Do not use subnational flags without direct relevance

Subnational flags (regions, cities, etc.) should generally be used only when directly relevant to the article. Such flags are rarely recognizable by the general public, detracting from any shorthand utility they might have, and are rarely closely related to the subject of the article. For instance, the flag of Tampa, Florida, is appropriately used on the Tampa article. However, the Tampa flag should generally not be used on articles about residents of Tampa: it would not be informative, and it would be unnecessarily visually distracting.

A common example of use of subnational flags is in tables or lists of sporting information with regard to subnational teams; in such contexts, the appropriate flag is of course not the national one, in multiple entries in such listing would end up with the same flag. Another applicable situation would be that of a list concerned with subdivisions of a specific country.

See also #Use of flags for non-sovereign states and nations.

[edit] Do not use supernational flags without direct relevance

Supernational flags (those of international organizations) should generally be used only when directly relevant to the article. For instance, the Flag of Europe, is appropriately used on articles related to the European Union, the Council of Europe and other situations where this flag can be used to represent Europe. However, the European flag should generally not be used alongside a national flag in articles about residents of EU member states; it would not be informative, and it would be unnecessarily visually distracting.

[edit] Accompany flags with country names

When a flag icon is used for the first time in a list or table, it needs to appear adjacent to its respective country (or province, etc.) name, as not all readers are familiar with all flags. Use of flag templates without country names is also an accessibility issue, as it can render information difficult for color blind readers to understand. In addition, flags can be hard to distinguish when reduced to icon size.

[edit] Country can sometimes be omitted when flag re-used

The country name may be omitted if a flag appears with its country name earlier in a list or table. When a flag icon is needed more than once, the flag-and-name template, for example {{flag|Japan}}, or its shorter variant {{flag|JPN}} should be used first, but may be reduced to {{flagicon|JPN}} in subsequent uses. However, some editors feel that some tables such as those containing sports statistics (example) are easier to read if {{flag}} is used throughout.

• In this infobox, flags of participating countries are first given with their names. Following this, the flag alone is used to identify the nationality of military commanders.

[edit] Historical considerations

Flags change, and sometimes the geographical or political area(s) to which a flag applies may also change.

[edit] Do not rewrite history

Flags should not be used to misrepresent the nationality of a historical figure, event, object, etc. Political boundaries change, often over the span of a biographical article subject's lifetime. Where ambiguity or confusion could result, it is better not to use a flag at all, and where one is genuinely needed, use the historically accurate flag.

For example, writer Oscar Wilde, a native of Ireland while that island was entirely administered as part of the United Kingdom, should have neither an Irish flag nor a British flag, as either would confuse readers.

[edit] Use historical flags in contexts where the difference matters

Use a historical flag and associated country name when they have at least a semi-officially applicable rationale use them. For example, in lists of Olympic medalists, the USSR flag and country name should be used for reporting before 1992, not those of the Russian Federation or the CIS

[edit] In some military history contexts

It may in some narrow military history circumstances be appropriate to use flags, as they were used at the time being written about, including naval ensigns, provided that the flags are (as usual) accompanied at first occurrence by their country (or more narrow) names — our readers are not expected to be military historians. An example might be an in-depth exploration of a famous battle involving numerous forces with known flags; such flags might be used in summary tables to make it clearer which force was being referred to for a particular detail.

[edit] Entities without flags until after a certain point in time

Some subnational entities have not had flags until recently (e.g. the Welsh flag has only been official since 1959). While this flag can still represent Wales generally, it should not be used to represent the country when the context is specifically about a time period predating the flag. Some countries are also new, formed from parts of, or entirely subsuming, one or more other countries. It may need to be decided by consensus on a case-by-case basis what flag to use, when a topic crosses two periods and a conflict arises as to what country the topic pertains to in what contexts.

[edit] Political issues

Beware of political pitfalls, and listen to concerns raised by other editors. Some flags are (sometimes or always) political statements and can associate a person with their political significance, sometimes misleadingly. In other cases, a flag may have limited and highly specific official uses, and an application outside that context can have political (e.g. nationalist or anti-nationalist) implications.

[edit] Use of flags for non-sovereign states and nations

The exact definition of a "state", "nation" or "country" is often politically divisive and can result in debates over the choice of flag. For example, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are referred to by the British government as "countries" within the United Kingdom [1]; the Canadian House of Commons recently recognised the Québécois as "a nation within a united Canada";[2] and the United States recognizes many Native American tribal groupings as semi-independent "nations". Some people may feel stronger identification with such entities than with the wider state of which they are a citizen, and editors sometimes choose, for example, to use an English flag rather than a British one. Such choices can cause debates, or can sometimes mislead if the editor's own political bias is the motivation for the choice, and does not represent the views of the article subject.

In general, if a flag is felt to be necessary, it should be that of the sovereign state (e.g. the United States of America or Canada) not of a subnational entity, even if that entity is sometimes considered a "nation" or "country" in its own right. This is partly for the sake of consistency across Wikipedia, but also because a person's legal citizenship is verifiable, whereas "nationality" within a country can be porous, indeterminate and shifting. An English person's passport describes them as a "British citizen", for example, not "English"; being English is a matter of self-identification, not a verifiable legality in most cases. Many editors, however, feel that the UK's subnations in particular are an exception, most especially in sporting contexts, and disputes are likely to arise if this sovereign state maxim is enforced in articles on subnational British topics.

See also #Do not use subnational flags without direct relevance.

[edit] Overbroad use of flags with politicized connotations

Some flags are politically contentious – take care to avoid using them in inappropriate contexts. Some examples are:

1. Use of the flags of the Confederate States of America to represent all or part of the Southern United States prior to 1861 or after 1865.
2. Use of the Ulster Banner to represent Northern Ireland in inappropriate contexts; see Northern Ireland flags issue for details.

[edit] Biographical use

Flags make simple, blunt statements about nationality, while words can express the facts with more complexity.

For example, the actress Naomi Watts could be said, depending upon context and point of view, to be any or all of: British, English, Welsh, or Australian. She was born a British citizen in England, lived in Wales for a long time, then moved to Australia and became an Australian citizen. There is no single flag for that, and using all four flags will not be helpful.

Special care should be taken with the biographical use of flag templates in the following situations:

• Never use a flag for birth or death place, since doing so may imply an incorrect citizenship or nationality; a great many people have been born or have died abroad.
• In a case of reliably sourced renunciation of citizenship of a country, do not use the flag and name of that former country to indicate an article subject's nationality; if a flag is used at all, use that of the later nationality.
• In cases of emigration, do not use the flag of the later country unless legal citizenship was achieved.
• If someone's citizenship has legally changed because of shifting political borders, use the historically correct country designation, not a later one, and perhaps mention in the article prose the new country name, e.g. "Belgrade, Yugoslavia (today in Serbia)"; it may also be best to avoid using any flag at all.
• Use the flag and name of the country (be it a state or a nation) that the person (or team of people) officially represented, regardless of citizenship, when the flag templates are used for sports statistics and the like. If a French player is awarded a medal for playing in a German team, the German flag would be used in a table of awards. The Scottish flag would be used with regard to the FIFA World Cup, but that of the UK for the Olympics. Caution should be used in extending this convention to non-sporting contexts, as it may produce confusing results. And a countervailing example would be an article about a sports team that officially represents a particular country but is composed of members who are citizens of several countries; a table of players at such an article might list them by their country of actual citizenship or professed nationality.
• Avoid flag usage, especially to present a point of view, that is likely to raise editorial controversy over political or other factual matters about a biography subject.

See also "Historical considerations" for other relevant recommendations.

[edit] Use of flags for sportspeople

As with other biographical articles, flags are discouraged in sportspeople's individual infoboxes.

Flags should never indicate the player's nationality in a non-sporting sense; flags should only indicate the sportsperson's national squad/team or sporting nationality.

Where flags are used in a table, it should clearly indicate that the flags represent sporting nationality, not nationality, if any confusion might arise.

Flags should generally illustrate the highest level the sportsperson is associated with. For example, if a sportsperson has represented a nation or has declared for a nation, then the national flag as determined by the sport governing body should be used (these can differ from countries' political national flags). If a sportsperson has not competed at the international level, then the eligibility rules of the international sport governing body (such as IRB, FIFA, IAAF, etc.) should be used. If these rules allow a player to represent two or more nations, then the a reliable source should be used to show who the sportsperson has chose to represent.

If a sportsperson most usually represents a specific country (e.g., Germany) but has represented a larger, supernational entity on some occasions (e.g., Europe) it may be more appropriate to use the national flag; this will often need to be determined on an article-by-article basis.

Subnational flags (e.g., England rather than UK) are traditionally used in some sports, and should not be changed to the national flag without consensus.

[edit] Logos

Shortcuts: WP:MOSLOGO MOS:LOGO

The insertion of logos as icons into articles is strongly discouraged. While illustration of a logo may be appropriate at the main article on the topic to which the logo pertains, use of logos as icons is not useful to our readers, and often presents legal problems.

[edit] Copyrighted images

Use of company logos, sports team crests and other copyrighted images in articles can only be done on a fair use basis. Use of such images as icons is nearly always prohibited (for more information, see Wikipedia:Non-free use rationale guideline and Wikipedia:Logos).

[edit] Non-copyrighted images

While copyright problems may not be present, all of this guideline's rationales against use of icons as decoration still apply. Generally, addition of logos to article prose or tabular data does not improve the encylopedia and leads to confusing visual clutter.