Muppet Wiki:Image Policy

Policies regarding the use of images on Muppet Wiki.

Best practices[]

Please use filenames that are relevant to the subject of the picture. A lot of imaging programs apply an auto-generated filename made up of a prefix and a string of numbers. If you've downloaded an image from somewhere else, or have generated the image on your own in some way, please name the file accordingly. If you have a large bulk of files to rename, Bulk Rename Utility is a recommended free option.

If you find an image online that you'd like to use here, especially if it comes from social media, use Google Image Search to try and find a higher resolution copy (such sites are notorious for degrading image size and quality).

Categorizing and providing lengthy descriptions on image description pages aren't required here as you may have seen enforced on other wikis.

Usage on articles[]

Early on, we adopted the practice of reserving the right side of a page as the home for images on an article rather than alternating them on the left and right which can have messy results. The wikicode used to place images in an article should be positioned at the top of a page or section header (not randomly placed within the body text). In general, add pictures to articles using the following wiki markup:

[[File:ShawnColvinErnie.jpg|thumb|300px|Shawn Colvin sings with Ernie.]]

Image captions shouldn't contain quotes or commentary as they aren't considered NPOV contributions. Informational or explanatory captions are welcome when necessary, but aren't always needed. For example, a single image on a character page is self-explanatory: it's a picture of that character. But a column of images on a long list of references may require some text to identify how the illustration relates to the article. (Although a wry description in keeping with the spirit of the scene may be okay.)

Only one character image with a transparent, white, or cut-out background should be included on a character page (any other preexisting image that applies can be exchanged if necessary or kept if it serves a specific purpose); all others should be kept on Character images with a blank background. (CE discussion)

Accurate imagery should be used whenever they're available for articles. Sometimes, as in The Adventures of Rowlf in Outer Space, no imagery exists, but for the purposes of the article's aesthetics, a similar picture is included with a caption and link to the source material.

Alterations[]

Please crop gutter — Please crop out the black gutter space.

Per Thread:257577, altering images for the purposes of falsifying the reality of the subject is prohibited. Acceptable image edits include cropping, color correction, the stitching together of two sources to form a unified image, watermark and blemish removal, and anything that doesn't distort or produce a false representation of a topic's reality.
- Watermarked images from Jim Henson's Red Book have historically been an easy target for reuploading to the Wiki and should only be reposted when no other visual representation of the subject is available. Watermark removal is not encouraged in respect to the Jim Henson Company Archives.

Reverting images to previous lower-quality versions will be met with immediate reversion. Continuous activity of this sort without discussion could be seen as a form of vandalism, and grounds for blocking.

An example in which cropping is encouraged includes screenshots of media produced for television broadcast, typically before HD media became commonplace. In addition to captured material intended to be obscured by CRT television sets, extra black space can often be found in this type of archival material (see accompanying diagram). Removal of these areas is preferred.

Upscaling[]

There are a number of reasons why images shouldn't be upscaled, primarily because the process usually results in loss of quality.

Concerning screenshots from a Standard Definition source (such as VHS or DVD), native aspect ratios are typically either 640x480 or 720x540 (depending on how the pixel aspect ratio is being processed). Anything larger than those sizes means it's been stretched out beyond its native size, probably due to a streaming service. Taking screenshots at full screen view is not necessary. Exceptions include (but are not limited to) SD episodes on HBO Max that have been upscaled using a superior process than most imaging programs on your computer.

Rare exceptions can be made for manufactured upscaling in unique circumstances where the subject of a screenshot is too small to fit within a gallery, for example. Upscaling in these cases should only be attempted by expert graphics editors. If you need help with images that are too small to include on the wiki, please reach out on the Forum:Index.

Galleries[]

Picture galleries should be relevant and/or interesting of note to the article. Excessive image farms (especially of commercially available material) are mostly discouraged. We don't want to become a dumping ground of galleries that serve no topical purpose.

Galleries should typically be formatted using the following wiki markup:

<gallery spacing=small widths=200 orientation=square>
Kermit on The Muppet Show 01.jpg|caption
Piggy on The Muppet Show 01.jpg|caption
</gallery>

"square" can be replaced with "landscape" or "portrait", as appropriate.

We've formatted our galleries and captions to automatically center justify, but some other code variables can be found in Fandom's Help article.

Duplicates[]

With 227,217 images on the wiki, we're bound to get some duplicates. It's helpful to take some effort via search to avoid uploading an image we already have. If it's on the wiki, and you have a better quality copy, please upload over the existing filename to preserve the file's history. If the existing image works for the purposes you meant to use your image for, the image can be used again on another article.

To avoid said duplicates, type your username in the appropriate field at Special:ListFiles to track your uploads and user Special:Search to look for existing images with similar names.

When uploading images, please keep track through your user contributions to see if they uploaded. There's never any need to re-add the same image under a different file name, and if you think your image isn't showing up because of browser or editor issues, check your user contributions or the upload log first.

Formats[]

Please don't save your file in the PNG format if a JPG will suffice. PNGs should only be used for graphics and/or images with smooth gradients where compression artifacts would damage the image if it were saved as a JPG. JPGs should be used for most screenshots and photos (with some exceptions). Saving an image that should be a JPG as a PNG produces a larger file size (generating longer page load times) and makes the image harder to replace in the future.

Good example of a PNG: File:Kermiteye.png
Good example of a JPG: File:Title.ftb.jpg

Comparison of the same picture in both PNG and JPG formats:

MartinBigBirdPlush.PNG (4.48 MB at 2048 × 1536; file size way too large, dimensions blown up beyond the source material)
MartinBigBirdPlush.jpg (52 KB at 640 x 480; much smaller file size, dimensions retain original source)

Please try to avoid webp files. This is a newer format being used on the web and its long-term affects are unknown at this time.

GIFs[]

Animated GIFs should only be used to illustrate that which cannot be shown otherwise in a still image. In other words, visuals that can only be demonstrated by showing a motion graphic. File:Chip eyes blink.gif is a good example.

Try to keep GIFs under 1MB in size (and no larger than 2MB when possible). The larger the file size, the longer it takes the server to generate the animation, slowing down the loading of pages. Some best practices will help keep GIF file sizes low; for example, comparing the two versions of File:Sesame Street - Telly Monster Sneezing.gif (original accessible via the File History), the following best practices resulted in the file going from 260 frames in a 4.3MB file to 24 frames in a 598KB file:

Be sure to only include the relevant information. In the example Telly GIF, the original version showed scenes that didn't demonstrate what the GIF was meant to be illustrating. Trimming out the shots of Mr. Handford and focusing just on Telly's sneeze reduced the amount of frames used, dramatically.

Further reduce the amount of frames used by removing every other frame and increasing the animation time. This will cut the file size in half.

Reduce the viewable information by cropping or shrinking the dimensions from its original size. SD video content is typically 640x480, which is much more than a GIF animation needs to be. Somewhere around 320 pixels wide is a good size to adhere to.

Lower the amount of colors used and experiment with dithering options to find what works best for the animation. The fewer colors used, the lower the file size will be, but don't go so low that the quality of the image suffers.

Video[]

Due to the frequency with which videos are removed from YouTube, we try to keep links to that site at a minimum. Some exceptions include accounts owned by regular contributors who are keeping an eye on their own links or cases where wiki information is being sourced.

Links to YouTube can be added with {{youtube|xxxxxx}} and to others using the common external link method: [https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7stvjc video]

Embedding YouTube videos is one way we can track what has been taken down outside of our control. This script can be used to run a check on every video on the wiki. Sites other than YouTube (DailyMotion, for example) need to be checked manually.

Never link to anything that's commercially available unless it's an official upload. Sources include official channels for Sesame Workshop, The Jim Henson Company, Disney/Muppets Studio, individual show producers or sponsors, and filmmakers of Sesame Street inserts, for example.

Deletion[]

If you find that an image or video you added to the wiki was deleted, it was either unused for more than a day, a duplicate file, or it violated one of the rules listed on this page. A summary may have been left in the deletion log.