Help:Images

Photos and other visual content displayed on Antwiki are posted from files stored on the Antwiki webserver. To display an image you have on your computer on Antwiki you must first upload the file to Antwiki. Uploaded images are displayed on pages using some relatively easy to learn, but quite specific, syntax. This page explains how to upload and display image files.

If you have a specific image related task you need help with you can click on the appropriate heading in the table of contents to quickly find the specific help you need. If you have never added or edited images on a wiki site you may need to look over this entire page in order to get a good start on working with images.

Introduction
You must have a user account to upload files or add an image to a page.

Image management in Antwiki follows Mediawiki and Mediawiki Commons standards. Much of the information on this page is copied or derived from Mediawiki Image Help and Images and other uploaded files. The purpose of this help page is to provide guidance for common Antwiki specific image-editing tasks. If you want to explore options that go beyond these specifics a good place to begin is to follow the previous two links.

File Attributes
Prior to uploading a file you should be aware of the following details about Antwiki image files.

File Format
Antwiki can accept uploads and display these image file formats:
 * jpeg
 * jpg
 * png
 * gif

File Size
Uploaded files cannot be larger than XXXX MB.

Image Dimensions
There are a few considerations to keep in mind about the actual width and length of uploaded images.


 * The largest width or length of an uploaded file does not need to be more than 1,500 pixels.
 * There is no need to load a large and small dimension file of a single image. Images can be scaled down to a smaller size when they are added to an Antwiki webpage.
 * Images are typically displayed on a page at a size that is much smaller than the uploaded file. The original image can be viewed by clicking on any image shown on a page.

File Name
There are no requirements concerning files names. Even so it can be helpful to use a name that provides some clue as to what the image is about. IMG_03597.jpg, for example, is not as informative as Anoplolepis-gracilipes-foraging.jpg.

You do not need to rename an image file prior to uploading. The uploading procedure provides an opportunity to select a file on your computer, e.g., IMG_03597.jpg, and either leave the file name the same or create a new name, e.g., Anoplolepis-gracilipes-foraging.jpg.

File Copyright
Please go the Antwiki Copyright page to learn what files can and cannot be uploaded and what kind of copyright should be assigned to uploaded files.

Uploading Files
There are three main steps involved in uploading a file:


 * Prepare your file for uploading. The File Attributes section (above) provides details about what you need to consider before uploading.
 * Go to the Upload File page and fill in the appropriate fields in the entry boxes.
 * Click on the “Upload File” button at the bottom of the page.

There is a link to the upload page on the left side, under the Toolbox heading, on every Antwiki page (you must be logged in to see the Toolbox heading and its associated links. Here is a screenshot of the Upload File Page followed by an explanation of what should be provided in each entry box:



Source Filename
This is the file you are uploading. Click on the “Browse” button to open a directory navigation window of your computer files. From there you can navigate to and then select the image file you are working with.

Destination Filename
Leave this blank if you want the uploaded image to have the same name as the file you are uploading. If you do want to change the filename type the new name here.

Summary
The information entered here will be shown on the The File Page. This can include details like the person who took the photograph, the date it was taken, the geolocation, copyright information and more.

If you only plan to upload a few images and do not need to attach specimen/species information to them, you could leave this section blank. This would apply if, for example, you are uploading a photo of yourself to place on your editor page. If you want to include details about the image there are a few templates that allow you to consistently add and present descriptive information via the summary field. You can also add categories to your images in this field. Categories can help you to organize your images for you own use and to make it easier for others to locate your image files.

Information Template
This template provides a way to present image metadata in a neatly organized way. You can include specimen information, the photographers name, assign and display the copyright for the file and more. See the Information Template Help page to find out more.

Geolocation
Latitude and Longitude coordinates can be entered as part of the description in the Information Template or they can be set off on their own. There are two templates that display GPS coordinates with a link to a map of the location. See the Geolocation Help to learn more.

Categories
Categories help organize content. See the Categories Help page to learn more about how categories work and how Antwiki suggests  categorizing the images you upload.

Licensing
Each editor is responsible for insuring images they upload can be shared on the website (Antwiki Copyright Guidelines). Do not upload any images that you do not have clear permission to use.

You can choose a license to apply to your content by using the drop down selection list provided on this section of the page. Alternatively, you can declare a copyright license in the summary field and leave this blank.

Upload
Most folks skip over the "Upload options” checkboxes. You probably want to do the same, leaving the only remaining step to click on the “Upload file” button at the bottom of the page. The file will be uploaded and then you will see an Image File page. If you made any errors that cause the file upload process to fail the page will reload with a message about the problematic entry.

The File Page
Uploading an image creates a “file page” or “image description page". The page name consists of the file name and extension, prefixed with "File:" An uploaded image file “ants.jpg” would have a page name: “File:ants.jpg” or File:Formica-comata_0195.jpg. The page name is also how the image is referenced when you want to see the image displayed in an Antwiki webpage.

The important elements of the File page:
 * The Image. If the image dimensions are large the displayed image is typically shown at a lesser quality and smaller size than the original uploaded file. To see the original file just click on the image.
 * Image Details. Directly under the image there are some details about the image file (file size, image dimensions, etc.) and a link. Clicking on the link, or the image, will load the image in its original form.
 * Image Description. Details about the image that can be added during upload (photographer, specimen data, etc.)
 * Licensing. The copyright assigned to the Image File.
 * File Links. Lists other Antwiki pages that include this image in their content.
 * Categories. Used to organize images. Clicking on any category name (shown in red or blue lettering) will take you to a page that shows all the images and pages that include the particular category.

The image description, licensing, and categories can be set in place when the file is uploaded or can be edited within the file page anytime after the file has been uploaded. Editing is done by going to the file page and clicking on the edit tab found in the upper right side of the webpage.

The Bare Basics
Any image you want to display on a webpage must first be uploaded to the Antwiki server (as explained above). You can work with any images found at the gallery of images and image file list.

Images are referenced by their Image File Name, which is the same as the File Page name, e.g. "File:Pheidole tuxtlasana Wilson 2003.jpg" or "File:Formica-comata 0195.jpg"

The simplest syntax for displaying an image on a page is:.

Using a real file as an example:



If the width is not specified the image will be displayed with the same dimensions as the uploaded file. It is usually a mistake to not specify an image size as original image files are typically larger than anyone viewing Antwiki would want to see on a page. There is usually no need to display images larger than 300 px wide. Images should be balanced with the display of text and if anyone wants to see a larger view of an image can click on it, which takes them to the file page, and see the file in its original size from there.

One simple way to place a single nicely formatted image in a page is to display it as a "thumbnail"

This displays the image with a default width of 180px and places a bordered box around the image. .

Thumb images are displayed on the the right side of the page and the text flows around the image box. It is simple to add syntax to the image specifications and have the image appear on the left side of the page with a caption



There are many more nuances in how you can display and position images on a page. You can either see the references from Wikipedia listed just below to learn more or, if you see an existing image displayed in a manner that you like, click the "edit" tab of that page and copy the image syntax to replicate that image's style.

Beyond the Basics
Additional help with captions, borders, galleries and more is carefully explained and documented in already existing non-Antwiki help pages.


 * Nice explanations and examples that show how to place and style images on a page:
 * Mediawiki Commons Image Help
 * Image Tutorial
 * A bare bones list of image style parameters and their syntax
 * Image Syntax
 * Captions guidelines and suggestions
 * Caption Style help page

Taxobox Images
There is a separate help page about taxobox images.

Image Galleries
If you are adding more than a single image in with text on an Antwiki page you should consider placing them in a "gallery." This could be particularly helpful if you have a number of images that form a logical group. Some examples are a set of montage images of different castes for a single species or a series of photos showing different nests for a single species.

The formatting and display example here is from Pheidole_bicarinata.

Looking at the editing page shows the coding for the galleries in this includes multiple galleries, with a separate gallery for each caste.

For the queen and male....

Bulk Image File Uploads
If you are uploading only a few images then it is best to use the normal image upload page. However, if you have a large number of images to upload then Antwiki management (those with access to the server) can use the maintenance script ImportImages to upload any number of images in a single operation. We can also add metadata (attribution notes, copyright conditions, etc.) at the same time. See ImportImages for instructions on preparing these metadata files.

If you have a large image collection let us known and we'll discuss the details of organising a bulk upload.

InstantCommons
Antwiki has enabled the Mediawiki InstantCommons. This means that all images found in Mediawiki Commons can be accessed in the same way as images uploaded directly into Antwiki. This saves considerable time and effort and minimises duplication.

One caution is that if you try to upload an image that is already found in Mediawiki Commons you will get a "duplicate file found" warning, even though the image hasn't been uploaded to Antwiki. While you can ignore this warning and add this second copy, it would be better to abort the upload and use the Mediawiki Commons copy