Help:Images

This page explains the image syntax when editing the wiki. You or another user must usually upload an image before you can use it on a page.

Syntax

The full syntax for displaying an image is:

 [[File:{file_name}|{options}]]

Where options can be zero or more of the following, separated by pipes:

• border, frame, thumb, or frameless: Controls how the image is formatted
• left, right, center, none: Controls the alignment of the image within a text
• baseline, sub, super, top, text-top, middle, bottom, text-bottom: Controls the vertical alignment of the image within a text
• {width} px: Resizes the image to the given width in pixels
• {width}x{height}px: Resizes the image to fit within the given width and height in pixels; it is possible to specify only the height by writing x{height}px
  • Note that the image will always retain its aspect ratio.
• link={destination}: Allows to link to an arbitrary title, URL or just nowhere (Template:mediawiki)
  • link= : Will display an image without link, e.g. [[File:Name.jpg|20px|link=Help:Images]] → 20px.
  • Note that link cannot be used in conjunction with thumb as thumb is always meant to link to the larger version of the image. In addition, link cannot be used with frame.
• alt={alternative text}: For changing the alternative text (alt="") of an image (Template:mediawiki)
• Special cases:
  • page=1: Displays the specified page when showing a djvu or pdf file

The options can be given in any order. If the given options conflict each other, the latter is applied, except for the format options, where the options take the priority in the order of frame, thumb, and frameless and/or border. If a given option does not match any of the other possibilities, it is assumed to be the caption text. Caption text can contain wiki links or other formatting.

Format

The following table shows the effect of all available formats.

Description	You type	You get

When the height of an image in thumbnail is bigger than its width and you find it too outstanding, you may try the option upright, which will try to adjust its size to more desirable size.

Note that by writing thumb={filename}, you can use a different image for the thumbnail.

Alignment

Note that when using frame or thumb, the default alignment will be right.

Description	You type	You get

Vertical alignment

text text [[File:Example.jpg|20px]]
text text [[File:Example.jpg|20px|baseline]]
text text [[File:Example.jpg|20px|sub]]
text text [[File:Example.jpg|20px|super]]
text text [[File:Example.jpg|20px|text-top]]
text text [[File:Example.jpg|20px|middle]]
text text [[File:Example.jpg|20px|bottom]]
text text [[File:Example.jpg|20px|text-bottom]]

results in (the text is underlined to show the result more clearly)

text text 20px text text 20px text text 20px text text 20px text text 20px text text 20px text text 20px text text 20px

Size and Frame

Among different formats, the effect of the size parameter may be different, as shown below.

• When the format is not specified, or only bordered, the size can be both reduced and enlarged.
• An image with frame always ignores the size specification.
• The size of an image with thumb and frameless can be reduced, but can not be enlarged beyond the original size of the image.

For how it appears when its size is not specified, see Format section above.

Format	Reduced	Enlarged

Stopping text flow

On occasion it is desirable to stop text from flowing around an image. Depending on the web browser's screen resolution and such, text flow on the right side of an image may cause a section header (for instance, == My Header ==) to appear to the right of the image, instead of below it, as a user may expect. The text flow can be stopped by placing <br style="clear: both" /> before the text that should start after the image. See Template:- for additional explanation.

Gallery of images

It's easy to make a gallery of thumbnails only, not other images, with the <gallery> tag. The syntax is:

<gallery>
File:Image Name.ext|caption
File:Image Name.ext|caption
{...}
</gallery>

Note that the image code is not enclosed in brackets when enclosed in gallery tags.

Captions are optional, and may contain wiki links or other formatting.

for example:

<gallery>
File:Example.jpg|Item 1
File:Example.jpg|a link to [[Help:Contents]]
File:Example.jpg
File:Example.jpg
File:Example.jpg| ''italic caption''
File:Example.jpg|on page "{{PAGENAME}}"
</gallery>

is formatted as:

• Example.jpg

  Item 1

• Example.jpg

  a link to Help:Contents

• Example.jpg
• Example.jpg
• Example.jpg

  italic caption

• Example.jpg

  on page "Images"

Parameters

The gallery tag itself takes several additional parameters:

<gallery {parameters}>
{images}
</gallery>

• caption={caption}: sets a caption on the gallery.
• widths={width}px: sets the widths of the images.
• heights={heights}px: sets the (max) heights of the images.
• perrow={integer}: sets the number of images per row.

Links

Link to description page

If you put a colon (:) before File:, the image will not be embedded and the link will lead to the description page of the file.

[[:File:Example.jpg]]
[[:File:Example.jpg|Sunflowers]]

results in

File:Example.jpg Sunflowers

Link directly to file

You can use the pseudo-namespace “Media” to link directly to a file, bypassing the description page.

[[Media:Example.jpg]]
[[Media:Example.jpg|Sunflowers]]

results in

Media:Example.jpg Sunflowers

You can also use: 

[[Special:FilePath/Example.jpg]]

which can be used to link to a potential file, even if it doesn't exist. You can also use:

{{FILEPATH:Example.jpg}}

which generates an external URL to the file inline:

Requisites

Before using images in your page, the system administrator of your wiki must have Template:mediawiki and a user has to upload the file. System administrators may also set the wiki to accept files from Template:mediawiki, such as the Wikimedia Commons.

Files at other websites

You can link to an external file available online using the same syntax used for linking to an external web page.

[http://url.for/some/image.png]

Or with different text:

[http://url.for/some/image.png link text here]

If it is enabled on your wiki (see Template:mediawiki), you can also embed external images. To do that, simply insert the image's url:

http://url.for/some/image.png