Tardis:Image use policy

'''The observations contained in this tutorial primarily apply to the Wikia, or Oasis, skin. They may not be obviously true in the MonoBook skin. However, it is the Wikia look of this site which matters most, and all editors must edit according to the design standards which apply to Wikia.''' Images are an important part of this wiki. Articles should be illustrated when possible. But we don't want just any picture on our articles. We want the best possible images. Here, then, is an illustrated guide to what makes a good picture. The recommendations that this guide makes are based on key point found in T:ICC and T:IUP. If you've not read these policies, we encourage you to do so before proceeding further.

Widths
This section illustrates the dramatic impact of width on your images, especially as used in infoboxes.

Your pictures must be a minimum of 250px wide, but it would be better if they were at least 300px. This is because every pic could be used in an infobox, where the width is fixed at 250px.

Look at what happens when we try to use a <250px width picture in an infobox. We'll use the cover of DWMS Holiday 1992 as an example. The image at far right has a maximum width of 205px. Notice how it therefore produces blank spaces to the left and right of the image. This is because it cannot completely fill the 250px-wide space that the standard infobox allows for.

The picture on the left is an obvious improvement. Because its maximum width is 500px, it easily scales down to 250px and completely fills the frame. The infobox therefore "looks right".

Heights
Especially as used in infoboxes, heights must be limited or else the infobox as a whole will grow to undesirable heights. With covers, as we saw in the previous section, you have no choice but to use something with a portrait orientation. Covers are almost always longer than they are wide.

But with screenshots, you want to get as close to widescreen as possible. The better image here is the one on the left. Note how it significantly reduces the overall height of the infobox. Now, it's not the greatest image in the world, and there are very definitely reasons why it's not the infobox picture on the live Fifth Doctor page. But of these two choices, it's superior.

Some may have their doubts about this. After all, the picture on right seems to be closer and to have greater detail. And, in itself, that's true. But the infobox is not the only graphical element on the page.

Also, on this wiki, as opposed to Wikipedia, the longer the infobox is, the further down it pushes the first image in the body of the article. So we do want to try as much as possible to use widescreen pictures for infoboxes. And, again, because any image could theoretically be used as an infobox pic, we need to make all pics widescreen — with certain exceptions — just in case.

Tight focus
In the previous section, we mentioned that although the Fifth Doctor image on the left was better, it still wasn't of good enough quality to be the infobox picture. This is because it doesn't actually have a tight enough focus for an infobox. Where possible, you should go with the an extremely tight cropping of a person's face.

Notice in this example how we have two pictures of almost the same dimensions, so the main difference between them is the tightness of the cropping. It's an easy choice, though. The one on the left is the one to go with, because we want the frames filled with the faces of of our subjects. In an infobox, the key is to have a closeup on the topic of the article. Since the topic of this article is the Fourth Doctor, we much prefer a picture that's a closeup on his face. If the article were, say, Hat, then the image on right might be in the running for the infobox.

Of course it's not always possible to have a tight closeup on a character. Some characters are very minor and are only glimpsed in a long shot. Others were unlucky enough to have been a part of Doctor Who when close-ups, by and large, were technically difficult and therefore rarely occurred. For these people, you'll simply have to get the tightest shot you can muster.

Eyes
It is a long-held design convention that it's a good idea, where possible, to have pictures on the right of a page looking left, and pictures on the left side of a page looking right. The concept is that your illustrations should subtly draw attention to a page.

For this reason it's best that an infobox pic look left. So if we were writing an article about the Doctor, and we had to choose from only the two examples above, the Fourth Doctor image would be preferable.

That's not to say that every image of a character uploaded to this wiki must be looking right. That would be silly. There are many instances in the body of an article where you want to place the pic on the left meaning you need the character looking right. And there are times, when the best picture is one where the character is looking right or vaguely to the centre.

That's why it's not a requirement that infobox pics be looking left — but it is a good idea.