Help:Images

Images, whether photographs, illustrations, videos or other visual material, can often be a wonderful resource for improving an MEpedia entry. At the same time, certain restrictions apply to which images are eligible for use on MEpedia, with respect to copyright, right of privacy, or other considerations. This page explains how to add images to a page, or link to an image from a page.

Finding an eligible image
Some sources of free content that may be usable on MEpedia include: Even if you find an image through one of these sites, you should double-check to make sure it is appropriately licensed for re-use. Occasionally these searches yield an image that does not in fact meet the criteria. If the only image you can find that's properly licensed for use is a video, but you want a still image, you can pause the video and take a screenshot. Again, verify that the license allows this.
 * commons.wikimedia.org
 * search.creativecommons.org
 * Flickr

First upload the file
Images and other files must be uploaded before they can be displayed on, or linked from, a page. When an image file is uploaded to MEpedia, it will get its own page, with a "File:" prefix. (For example, File:MEupregulatedgenes.png.)
 * See Help:Files for how to upload a file to MEpedia. Be sure to remember the name of the uploaded file, because you will need that file name when you add the image to a page.

In the Visual Editor

 * Go to the line on the page that you want the top of the image to appear on.
 * Click on the left of that line, click on the Insert menu, and then select Media.
 * A search box will appear. Delete any words in it, and start typing "File:" followed by the name of the file. (For example,  .)  If you can't remember the file name, you may be able to find it in Special:NewFiles or in Special:AllMyUploads.
 * The file may appear below the box as you type, but sometimes you need to type the whole file name.
 * Once the file is shown below the search box, click on it once, and then click the "Use this image" button.
 * Fill in the "Caption" (description) that will be displayed under the image.
 * The caption should include the author or citation (for journal articles), and the copyright license. (You do not need to mention the copyright license if the file uses the recommended CC-BY-SA-3.0 license or a public domain license.)
 * Example caption: Author: Shaw101, License: CC-BY-4.0
 * Example caption: Citation: Song and Jason (2005). The BMJ 19(3) p28-31. License: CC-BY-ND-4.0
 * Fill in the "Alternative text" box with a brief description of the image, for people who are visually impaired or who can't display images in their browser.
 * Click on the "Advanced Settings" tab on the left.
 * Under "Position", choose whether you want the image displayed on the left, right, or center of the screen.
 * Click the "Apply changes" button in the top right and the image should appear on the page, with the caption underneath.
 * Check to see if it looks OK. If you need to change anything, just click on the picture and select "Edit" to change any of the options or caption.

In the Source Editor

 * Click the picture icon, or
 * Type in the image's "File:" page name, surrounded by double brackets. Be sure to include the author/citation and the copyright license that goes along with the image.
 * For example,
 * If the image is from a research paper, the caption should say which research it is, and can be linked to it.
 * To include a reference in the image's caption, first cite the reference for the image somewhere on the page.
 * For example,
 * Then add the reference to the image.
 * For example,

In the Visual Editor

 * Highlight the words on the page that you want to link the image to. Click on the link (chain) symbol in the toolbar:VisualEditor Toolbar.png
 * A search box will appear. Delete any words in it, and start typing "File:" followed by the name of the file. (For example,  .)  If you can't remember the file name, you may be able to find it in Special:NewFiles or in Special:AllMyUploads.
 * The file may appear below the box as you type, but sometimes you need to type the whole file name.
 * Once the file is shown below the search box, click on it once and the highlighted words will then be linked to the image's "File:" page.

In the Source Editor
Simply create a link as you would normally, but specify the image's "File:" page, and include a colon at the beginning. If you forget the colon at the beginning, the image will be displayed on the page, instead of linking to it!
 * For example,

Learn more

 * Formatting Images - MediaWiki
 * Images in the Visual Editor - MediaWiki