Help:Images

This page explains how to change the way an image looks on CEO.wiki without uploading a new file.

Most images here come from Wikimedia Commons, which anyone can use but nobody should re-upload cropped copies of unnecessarily. If a portrait is badly framed, sits off centre, or is the wrong shape for the space, you can reframe it here with the Template:Tl template. The file on Commons is never altered, so the same photograph can appear framed differently on different pages, and a better crop is a single edit away.

Quick start

{{Image crop
| image   = Satya Nadella headshot.jpg
| width   = 300
| ratio   = 4x3
| focus   = face
| zoom    = 1.1
| align   = right
| alt     = Portrait of Satya Nadella
| caption = Nadella has led Microsoft since 2014
}}

Choosing the settings

Shape: ratio

Sets the shape of the frame, independent of the shape of the original file.

• square for avatars and grids
• 4x3 for cards and general use, the default
• 3x2 for a standard photograph
• 16x9 for a wide banner
• portrait for a tall standing figure

Framing: focus

When a frame is a different shape from the original, something has to be cut off. focus decides what stays.

• face keeps the eyes near the upper third, which is right for

 almost every portrait, and is the default

• top for someone photographed from a distance
• center for objects, buildings and logos
• bottom, left, right for unusual cases

If a subject looks off centre, change focus before anything else.

Magnification: zoom

1 shows the whole width of the image. 1.2 crops in by twenty per cent. Use it when a person is small in a wide shot. Above about 1.8 most Commons files start to look soft, so check the result.

Size and position

width is in pixels and the height follows from the ratio. align accepts left or right to float the image beside the text; leave it out to keep the image in the flow. On narrow screens floated images automatically become full width, so you do not need to do anything for mobile.

Please always fill in alt

alt is the description read aloud to people using a screen reader, and shown if the image fails to load. Describe what is in the picture, not the file name. Cropping is visual only, so the alt text still describes the whole subject.

What this does not do

• It does not change the file on Commons, and it does not reduce how much is

 downloaded. A very large file is still a very large file.

• It is not for infobox portraits. Use the ordinary image =

 parameter of Template:Tl for those.

• It cannot rotate an image or remove a background. Those need a corrected file

 uploaded to Commons.

If an image still looks wrong

Check in this order:

1. Is focus right for the subject?
2. Does a small amount of zoom help?
3. Is the ratio fighting the original shape? A very tall photograph

 forced into 16x9 will lose most of the subject whatever you do.

1. Is there simply a better photograph on Commons? Search there before

 fighting a poor source image.

See also

• Template:Tl, the template itself
• CEO.wiki:Manual of Style