Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Images/Sandbox

For the purposes of this guideline, images are any small images, including logos, crests, coats of arms, seals and flags.

The use of images in Wikipedia encyclopaedic project content, mainly lists, tables, infoboxes and navboxes can provide useful visual cues, but can also present a number of problems. Guidance on principal issues is summarized below, followed by more in-depth discussion of each.

Generally

Avoiding image problems

Appropriate use

Images may be helpful in certain situations:

Inappropriate use

Encyclopaedic purpose

Images should not be added only because they look good, because aesthetics are in the eye of the beholder: one reader's harmless decoration may be another reader's distraction. Images may be purely decorative in the technical sense that they convey no additional useful information and nothing happens when you click on them; but purely decorative images should still have a encyclopedic purpose in providing layout cues outside of article prose. Consider using bullet points as an alternative layout marker. Avoid adding images that provide neither additional information (what the image looks like itself is not additional information unless the image is the subject of the article) to the article subject nor navigational or layout cues that aid the reader. Images should serve a purpose other than solely decoration.

Do not use too many images

When images are added excessively, they clutter the page and become redundant.

Do not repurpose images beyond their legitimate scope

Images can represent a specific entity and should not be repurposed to represent something else, e.g. because an actually appropriate flag is not available. For example, do not abuse the flag of the United Nations to represent the entire world, as this is not an accurate application of the official flag of that international organization.

Do not distort images

Do not modify or use non-generic images in a way that is not notably used outside of Wikipedia. See Wikipedia:OR#Original images for further clarification. One example of such a distortion is a user-modified fusing of North American flags.

Do not illustrate or introduce unpublished ideas

Further information: Wikipedia:No original research § Original images

Remember accessibility for the visually impaired

Every functional image should have alt text, which is text describing the visual appearance of the image. Failure to provide this alt text will often make the image meaningless or confusing to those using screen readers or text-only browsers. To provide alt text, simply add the description to the end of the image markup: for example, "[[File:Commons-logo.svg|30x30px|link=Commons:Special:Search|Search Wikimedia Commons]]" generates an image that links to Commons:Special:Search and has alt text "Search Wikimedia Commons". Image maps should specify alt text for the main image and for each clickable area; see Image maps and {{English official language clickable map}} for examples.

Clarity

If the use of images in a list, table or infobox makes it unclear, ambiguous or controversial, it is better to remove the flags even if that makes the list, table or infobox inconsistent with others of the same type where no problems have arisen.