Guild Wars Wiki talk:Formatting/Images

I think that JPEG, PNG, GIF and SVG files should all be acceptable, although there may be some technical limitations I'm not aware of. -- Gordon Ecker 22:39, 13 March 2007 (EDT)

I would prefer SVG for most icons, although smaller and larger icons cannot always use the same SVG. I believe this would require an extension though. LordBiro 04:55, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

I don't think acceptable image types fall under "formatting" discussions... seems to fit in better with the image use policy. -- ab.er.rant 20:56, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

You're probably right Aberrant. Or this could be at GWWT:TECH. LordBiro 13:21, 15 March 2007 (EDT)

SVG is quite complicated to activate, though I am sure it would be possible I could never figure it out! It would definitely be preferable for things like the profession icons --Lemming64 13:27, 22 March 2007 (EDT)

What do you mean by complicated to activate? Do you mean from a server administrators point of view? LordBiro 15:53, 22 March 2007 (EDT)

This may be a noob question, bu how do u take and save a screen shot in the first place? Id appreciate if anyone left a quick message in my talk.Morimoto 14:30, 3 April 2007 (EDT)

To save a screen in the game you have to use the "print screen" button. It saves it directly in a folder named images in GUILD WARS directory. it is a *.jpg file Inyia 03:45, 26 April 2007 (EDT)

You can also force the game to save screenshots as bmp but putting -bmp at the end of your shortcut properties. - BeX 05:21, 26 April 2007 (EDT)

Screenshot. --Dirigible 05:57, 26 April 2007 (EDT)

Page's use?

Should this page exist? We have GWW:IMAGE, do we need a formatting page for images? If not it should be removed from GWW:FORMAT. --Rainith 01:51, 30 March 2007 (EDT)

This is different. This is about having like health bars or names in screen captures, etc. - BeX 23:31, 20 April 2007 (EDT)

So this should be renamed as "Screenshots"? -- ab.er.rant 01:11, 10 May 2007 (EDT)

No, I think it could encompass topics other than screencaptures. - BeX 01:30, 10 May 2007 (EDT)

Actually the tips on Screenshot should really be here too. - BeX 01:31, 10 May 2007 (EDT)

Boss map locations

→ continued in Guild Wars Wiki talk:Formatting/NPCs#Boss map locations

Content?

Before someone can actually draft up a guideline for images, we need to figure out exactly what will be the content. I can only think of:

• Screenshots - light source? include name? avoid party members? clarity level? orientation? attribution? description?
• Maps - different types of map, map markers, map size, etc..
• Categorisation - are we imposing categories onto all images?

What else? I'd rather this page not turn into a "how-to" for images because I'd say those are better suited for the Help namespace. -- ab.er.rant 01:48, 10 May 2007 (EDT)

It is my hope this page will not turn into a how-to, but rather a guildline for all images, so that when images are clearly not following the formatting guide, we have a groundwork to say why. It would help when deleting images, or asking for an updated one. I see a great deal of unsatisfactory images on the wiki, and it is very difficult to tell the user so, because without a formatting guideline, the common sense that applies to taking screencaps has nothing to back it up.

• As for the screenshots, I always say then when possible, use a white light source, turn off post processing, don't include any part of the interface, use the highest settings you are able to and tag all in game screens with {{arenanet image}}.
• With maps, you should ask Dirig, he's done almost all of the maps on the wiki.
• With categories, I was previously categorising the armor images. I'd forgotten about it in fact. I think that especially with the armor images, it's helpful to have them all organised in that manner. Category:Images exists, but there definitely needs to be a discussion about it. - BeX 05:22, 10 May 2007 (EDT)

1. I'm not sure about screenshots, I don't have any experience with those besides a few I took for the mesmer galleries on GuildWiki , and even those turned to be terrible, taken from a weird top-down angle making my poor mesmer look bizarre (Bexor didn't even say anything about this till months later!)
2. As for maps, rules of thumb I'm trying to follow:
   1. Minimap images are generally better than the large map, they have no clouds and are brighter. This has the disatvantage of losing some info, such as outpost icons and names, as well as the explorable area name. (I've been photoshopping most of my maps to avoid this; using the minimap but also keeping the icons/labels. Some maps benefit particularly more from this; for an example off the top of my head, Image:Tureksin the Delegator map.jpg is a map which you can't just take with a screenshot, the outpost and explorable labels are combined with the minimap image, while also removing the purple Vortex icon which would otherwise obstruct the path. Similarly with Image:Island of Shehkah map.jpg, getting rid of the Chahbek Village icon while keeping everything else. Image:Facet of Chaos map.jpg is another map you'll never actually see in-game.) I doubt most people would bother to waste so much time on maps though, so I'd suggest leaving it as just "Use minimap images if you can, they're clearer".
   2. I've been trying to keep them relatively roomy, usually including in the map the outposts from which you can enter that explorable for clarity's sake. So many people have this tendency to crop out everything but the red dots on maps, with the end result of not being able to tell absolutely anything from that picture, (unless you start counting dots, "Second dot to the right and straight on till morning"). A larger picture gives a better perspective, it has more context.
   3. For bosses/collectors/artisans, travel paths are useful. Even if they're messy and not a direct path to the NPC in question, it's generally better than just an empty map with a dot somewhere in the middle saying "it's here". These maps may have one path, two, or even three; the exact number should be decided on a case by case basis using common sense. For example, even though Jishol Darksong is far closer Honur Hill, it's also true that players get to Yahnur Market much earlier in the storyline, so anyone interested in capping it may be travelling from there; in this case paths from both these outposts make sense.
   4. Naming... people usually abuse this not only for maps, but with images in general ("coventinathematronLOC.JPG"). Ideally they should be using "{{subst:PAGENAME}} map.jpg" as the filename, I think, keeps everything tidy and neat.

   That's about all I can think of that would be suitable for a formatting guideline. (And I'm aware that many of the 500+ maps I've done so far don't conform to the guidelines I just listed; I've been going back and reworking the worst offenders, but the rest of them will need to wait until the rest of the missing NPC maps are created, as those are a higher priority).

3. Categories. I did start trying to categorize them for a while (see Category:Maps of explorable areas), but gave up after seeing that I had no clue how to properly structure them. Basically, do we want the maps in large categories (like the "Maps of explorable areas" one), or should we break it down by region/species? Would the maps replicate the Category:NPCs and Category:Locations trees?
4. For another question, I'm still not sure where we should be using {{arenanet image}}. I'm looking at Category:Images, and everything there should have that template, including skill icons, most user images, weapon images, insignia images, etc. Messy. --Dirigible 14:52, 10 May 2007 (EDT)

I've also been shopping screenshots to combine elements of the mini and full maps, but perhaps we can make it a bit easier. Tell people to use the images off World Map and give them a font to use. Then they can take a shot of the minimap, stick on the appropriate icons and write area and outpost names in the given font. You have the clarity of the minimap without the hassle of taking a screenshot of the map and trying to match the icons and text to the landscape. Eerie Moss 06:37, 16 May 2007 (EDT)

And the added advantage of being able to move the labels around a little bit to use space more efficiently (for example if you only need a portion of the map but you have to include a wide swath of land just so you don't cut off the explorable area tag). Eerie Moss 07:12, 16 May 2007 (EDT)

I'd prefer to use a cropped mission map with the red dots and green circle spliced out as the primary map map for explorable area articles and a cropped but otherwise unedited world map as the main map for region articles. I don't mind annotated or otherwise heavily photoshopped maps as secondary maps for explorable area and region articles, or as primary maps for other articles. -- Gordon Ecker 19:54, 16 May 2007 (EDT)

I'm not too sure that it's a good idea to detail how-to-make-maps to such a point. Would it actually discourage people from taking screenshots? "What? I have to do those things to conform to the guidelines? Ah, forget it." If we do mention specific fonts and icons to use, we'd have to very clear that it is absolutely optional and unnecessary. I'd go for mission maps too. World map labels is not necessary as we can always use captions and descriptions. -- ab.er.rant 20:35, 16 May 2007 (EDT)

Policy vs. formatting

GWW:IMAGE has a lot of things in it that shouldn't be policy, but rather formatting guidelines, and the article I'm writing for this has a lot of things in it that should be policy and not formatting. I'll do my best to cut and splice them into the correct places but if I mess up or there's a glaring error, please point it out to me! - BeX 15:28, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Proposed to accepted

No changes have been made and there haven't been any objections to this so far. Unless someone says something over the next couple of days I'll change this from proposed to accepted. - BeX 13:59, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

No complaints here. -- ab.er.rant 08:19, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Use "u" maps, instead of "m" maps for missions/quests

→ moved from Guild Wars Wiki talk:Community portal

Proposal: Players should use the "u" key to get a map for a screenshot, rather than the "m" key. Names of places should be used in a map. For instance, see the current page for the Curse of the Nornbear mission. The original map, although it has a nice 1, 2, 3, 4 on it, has no information about where any of that is. See the map on the top of the page? Maps should be put up in that format -- showing names of places. Banaticus 22:44, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. I'd also prefer the "u" map for explorable areas in order to include the shrine and collector items. -- Gordon Ecker 06:38, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

I usually would screencap both and use the u-map and then just paste the words from the m-map on it so that they were combined. The u-map tends to have more information. We should ask Dirigible (master of maps) to comment. - BeX 06:40, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

This guideline already says Map screenshots should be taken from the mission map when possible. Mission map screenshots have no clouds and are generally brighter. So there's really nothing to change. It's fine to propose that players use the "u" map, it's another to force every single map-uploader to know and do this. Just replace the "m" maps that you come across with "u" maps. -- ab.er.rant 15:35, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Voyeurism

Lets get rid of this in future screen shots. eg; images of swords held by warriors in only their briefs, and the Straw Effigy by a female rit with nothing on in the dye screen - you can barely see the effigy. We aren't children, so good lighting, in armour and a good angle of the item is all that is needed - not some 13 year old kid stripping a computer model down to its underwear to post it on the web - if you are into voyeurism and want to show it to the whole world, do what everyone else does, take a photo of a tea-pot with your reflection in it whilst naked and post it on ebay. ie - add a new guideline that (except in armour pages) screen shots of items should be done whilst clothed. Veldrik 05:38, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

The reason why some people post pictures of items without their armor on is because sometimes it interferes with the visibility of the skin of interest in the picture. — kyrasantae 06:51, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

Honestly, it doesn't really matter to me - there's no outright nudity, and none of the Guild Wars models show anything more than what you might see on a public beach. I think you're reading too much into the motivations of those posting pictures here, Veldrik. (Aiiane - talk - contribs) 07:21, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

I think the first priority should be the visibility of the item itself, light underwear with light skin and dark underwear with dark skin are the two cheapest solid, neutrally coloured backgrounds available. If someone happens to have an armour set that provides a good background for the item, that's great, but I don't think we should compromise visibility. -- Gordon Ecker 07:52, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

I think it's only voyeurism when you try to zoom in to see what NPCs are wearing underneath their armor... not when people are trying to get clear item screenshot. But if you do see any full body shots of items, feel free to crop it down to focus on the item and re-upload it. -- ab.er.rant 15:58, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Image naming

Disambiguations

As we were going to split the weapon articles with same name and diffrent appearance according to Tolkano's reward weapon names, shouldn't this secion get updated? The disambiguations are even right, though shouldn't we better leave a note about this? At best refering to the general article naming here?
(I split the Earth Staff and some other weapon articles some time ago, unfortunately i wrote the disambiguations describing locations with a minorcase letter. Would it be enough to move the articles to the right name, or should the images be reuploaded as well?) —ZerphaThe Improver 12:43, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Doesn't really matter if you want to re-upload them or not. For consistency, yes, it'd be nice, but it's not necessary. Since I'm not following the issue, I don't really know what you want updated so no comment from me about that. -- ab.er.rant 01:56, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Ok, i'll only move the articles then, that's done a lot faster than tagging the old images for deletition and reuploading them. —ZerphaThe Improver 13:00, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

"General Guild Wars Wiki images"

Every now and then there are images for userboxes or projects that are in a specific user namespace as it doesn't correspond to the game itself. (E.g. Auron's Axolotl for the mudkip userbox or the inventory icons project icon.) What would you think about a "Guild Wars Wiki" picture naming for those cases? E.g. [[Image:GWW_<name>.<image type>]]. A userbox template like {{User mudkip}} could then use Image:GWW User mudkip.jpg, or this project icon Image:GWW Projects Inventory icons icon.png. —ZerphaThe Improver 12:43, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

I'd rather we just reword it such that images meant for non-specific user use, such as for project use or as a community-shared resource do not require the special naming for user images. The "User" prefix was only meant to help separate user-specific images (particularly the character images) from those are meant for articles (in whatever namespace, except Guild). -- ab.er.rant 01:56, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

As long as there are no conflicts with article images, which is basically prevented by a descriptive name, there is no need for that. poke | talk 13:49, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Well ok. Simply having the name "Image:Mudkip.jpg" appears a bit strange, though. —ZerphaThe Improver 12:59, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Texmod template

Me and Pyron Sy recently re-uploaded all the sample images for Texmod mods to the wiki, instead of Imageshack, etc. I was wondering if we could add a template to Category:License templates for Texmod images. It'll help determine whether an image is just a screenshot, or if it's a modded screenshot, and becauseI think we deserve our own template :P ~Farlo Talk 10:23, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

This was already discussed at several other places, for example here; please do not spread that "discussion" through the whole wiki. poke | talk 13:49, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

Several questions

• 1. Is it acceptable to show .gif's on a page - instead of displaying the .jpg and making it direct to .gif? (see Champagne Popper)
• 2. Is it possible to display multiple images next to each other without having to use tables?
• 3. Where can I find an overview of the quick image templates, like or -> I was having trouble finding them due to difficult naming. I'd suggest making {{Pile of Glittering Dust}} instead of {{Dust}} -- Karasu (talk) 12:05, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

1. To ease loading times, it's better to display a jpg and have it redirect to the gif; alternatively, have a direct link to the gif. It would depend on the size of the gif file though; small gifs probably wouldn't be too bad.
2. Tables are used to neaten the arrangement of mulitple images - if it looks fine with images just next to each other, I'm sure that would be acceptable. Just put the code for one image next to the code of another, and it should put those images next to each other.
3. Those image templates can be found at Category:Image templates. -- Brains12 \ talk 12:36, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

1. Thank you for your reply. I was trying to link to the gif with text (see my question on Help_talk:Editing) - but such a direct link doesn't work using the normal method.
2. Just putting [[Image:]][[Image:]] would default to right alignment below each other. Or wasn't that what you meant? -- Karasu (talk) 12:41, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Added the editing tip to Help:Editing - you need a colon before "Image".

That was what I meant, but I'm not sure why you're getting that problem. For example, doing [[Image:User Brains12 Spiral.png|18px|]][[Image:User Brains12 Spiral.png|18px|]] results in . -- Brains12 \ talk 12:53, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Redirecting?

Don't know if this is where I should ask this or not or if its possible. I would like to be able to redirect to a page if an image is clicked on my user page. For example if someone clicks on the picture of my ele instead of taking me to the file info I would like it to go to a page I set up for info on my ele Like to MyPage/EleInfo if that makes sense. Is this possible? Brian78wa 19:51, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

I believe all you have to do is use #redirect [[page]] at the top of the image page. --JonTheMon 19:53, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Image redirects are still broken though, so it won't work for the moment. I think there's some fix being sought or planned, not sure how that's getting along. Ignore me. Apparently it's already been fixed >.> -- Brains12 \ talk 20:35, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

You sure it isn't working? i click on your swirl and get your user-page --JonTheMon 20:36, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) No, they are fixed..? poke | talk 20:36, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

I tried this and it erased my pic Ill try it again though thanksBrian78wa 21:16, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Tried it worked this time I may have just done something wrong last time im fairly new to wiki editing.Brian78wa 21:20, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Thumb

Another question I dont know if this is the right place to ask. I have a few images of my chatacters on my page.I have recently uploaded new versions of them because I got new armor. The pics still show up as old pic if use the thumb switch. ie thispic.jpg|thumb. but if I take out the thumb they show up as new pic. How would I get them to show up as new pic using thumb?

Sorry forgot to sign. still getting used to the whole signing thing.Brian78wa 18:29, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

rewrite

Images should be taken from the game when possible and not from concept art as the image in the game is the one which people will see when playing the game (i.e. for Dervish forms, renders of the form as seen in game are given preference over concept art). It should be render>ingame image>concept art. — Balistic 03:46, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

jStrip

Since this is an official rule page I decided to post this here first instead of making an edit to see if it's ok: in the area about saving images for the web (the function), if that isn't possible (like if somebody user doesn't have software with that feature) but they still want to reduce metadata and get a smaller filesize, can jStrip be mentioned? It's a freeware metadata removal tool. It's kinda old, but it works perfectly still. It can remove comments, EXIF, XMP, etc. http://davidcrowell.com/jstrip There are probably more advanced metadata removers, but I haven't found or needed to find others yet. Previously Unsigned 16:04, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Images resized.

Many of these images that I have found look awful. I suggest we look at each image and consider what ones to "revert" and what ones to keep. Some look good, others look too small by reduction and it seems to mess up the armor table formats. I was noticing this when editing in my sand box. It wasn't like this, when I did Warrior, Ranger, and Necromancer. I think many looked fine before the changes. Some needed it, but they're all the same size and some look too small. Especially, when being used by templates that were already adjusted via px to the previous sizes. What shall be done? Also, few of the imags look cut off, etc. when viewing the images individually. 72.148.31.114 19:25, 29 July 2011 (UTC)

GW Beyond Interactive Maps

I'm in the process of setting up the Beyond interactive maps and I was wondering if there were any objections to using "Area Name (War in Kryta) map.jpg" as the standard for the screencap of the interactive map that's displayed in the article. I've used North Kryta Province (War in Kryta) as an exmaple. ~FarloTalk 19:11, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

Exception to NPCs in dark places

How about we make an exception and select npc targets in dark areas? Only with the purpose of giving them a better contrast where not even the background helps. I have even tried spamming sparklers but didn't work. Could there be any other player resorce that may help photographing? Yoshida Keiji talk 15:17, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Dark places aren't an issue when renders exist for many of the models in dark places - and also screenshot identical foe/ally in a light place :P File:User Chieftain Alex Chieftain Signature.jpg Chieftain Alex 15:20, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Map references

After checking the entire guideline...no wander why so many uploaded maps were failing...

Map screenshots should be taken from the mission map when possible. Mission map screenshots have no clouds and are generally brighter. 
If you are marking a location on a map it is also helpful to include the route to get to this location. 

It is nowhere specified to include REFERENCES... this section needs update. Guild Wars Wiki:Projects/Images to update had a hard time due to poor specification. Yoshida Keiji talk 19:16, 21 May 2012 (UTC)

I think maps are partially a matter of taste. Guidelines are fine, just be careful of guidelines that discourage people from uploading just because they don't know how to crop properly or because they don't have the software or know-how to add map indicators or icons. -- ab.er.rant 02:40, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

As a reader (when I use wiki for myself searching, not as a contributor), most of the times I need a visual guidance, I directly click on the map skipping all the text, as its more than enough to graphically tell me the length of route, the passing areas and for orientation...but when there are no references... I have to click "back" to read...which sucks for fast users that check maps as I do...while thinking...(Where the F is this?)...

Maybe the guidelines could include a list of image store websites. That's from where I have learnt to "crop", add "references (text)" and "icons"...which is pretty easy. The ones I know, but not all I use are:

• http://www.imageshack.us/ this one was the first I ever used and liked.
• http://www.resize2mail.com/crop.php never used this one.
• http://tinypic.com/index.php my favourite.
• http://photobucket.com/

Maybe at the Upload image screen, we or most likely, the administrators could add an extra note to "Please note:" with a link to several image store sites. Like in this page Special:Upload. Unfortunatly the Special page has no talk section, so I cannot make a proporsal there. Yoshida Keiji talk 04:21, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

Starting to update images in better quality

I just registered here because I want to start updating the images of some weapons in better quality and dimensions from my own acquisition, because there are many sample pictures with very poor quality and compression from years ago. I say it here to avoid problems of any kind if I start editing random weapon pages updating the samples or previews, I will follow the guidelines of the wiki but I also want to add different angles, because some weapons can be seen in different positions or if you see the weapon from the side it looks strange (for example many people find this useful to know if to buy something or not, so I think it's a good opportunity to do it with few). —Scribeton (talk) 18:41, 18 August 2020 (UTC)