Wikipedia:Creation and usage of media files
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Wikipedia:Creation_and_usage_of_media_files".

This page explains how to create and use media files. If you need help playing Ogg Theora and Vorbis files, see Wikipedia:Media help.
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Images, audio, and video files must be uploaded into Wikipedia using the "Upload file" link on the left-hand navigation bar. Only logged in users can upload files. Once a file is uploaded, other pages can include or link to the file. Uploaded files are given the Image: prefix by the system, even if they are not images, and each one has an image description page. Please consider uploading freely licensed content to the Wikimedia Commons instead of here. This allows the files to be used in articles instantly by all Wikimedia projects. The maximum size of an uploaded file is 20 megabytes. As of April 2008, the following file types may be uploaded: png, gif, jpg/jpeg, xcf, pdf, mid, ogg, svg, djvu. All others are prohibited for security reasons, and pdf and djvu are intended primarily for projects like wikisource.

If you want to give a link to the file description page in an article, use an extra colon at the front, e.g. [[:Image:FILENAME]]. If you type [[Media:FILENAME]], a download link to the media file is created. The file name has to contain the file type.

Contents

Special characters and math

It is not necessary to upload images to use special characters or even complex mathematical expressions.

Wikipedia uses a UTF-8 encoding scheme, which means that any Unicode character can and should be entered directly. See m:Help:Special characters for details and help.

For mathematical formulae, we use TeX markup. For help and instructions, see m:Help:Formula.

Text files

Please do not upload plain text (.txt), Microsoft Word (.doc), or text files in other formats. Instead, please start a new page and input the text using standard wiki formatting. Please do not dump text into Wikipedia unless you wrote it yourself, or you know that it meets the project's stringent copyright licensing requirements. If you do not have time to format it yourself, add the {{wikify}} tag at the top of the page.

In rare cases an html file is uploaded, for example as test or demonstration.

Occasionally a PDF file is uploaded, such as Image:Davis recall petition.pdf; also there is a WikiReader Image:WikiReader Free Software and Free Contents.pdf (preview version), and more are being prepared. However, most PDFs should be converted into wikitext. Source documents should be uploaded to Wikisource instead.

For a discussion on uploading spreadsheets, see the talk page.

Textfile usage

Type [[Image:davis recall petition.pdf|description]] to create a link to the media description site of the document.

Images

Images can be displayed directly on Wikipedia pages.

The preferred formats are JPEG for photographic images and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) for drawings, though PNG can be used. Vector graphics are preferred to raster graphics for drawings, because they can be scaled as needed without losing information, and can be edited more easily.

Image usage

Type [[Image:FILENAME.ogg|description]] when you want to display an image file directly. In most cases, a thumbnail is more useful: [[Image:FILENAME.ogg|thumb|description]]. See Wikipedia:Picture tutorial for further information.

See also:

Audio

Wikipedia uses Ogg Vorbis for sound. The Ogg Vorbis format is not encumbered by patents, and has been found to offer higher audio fidelity than the MP3 format. It is competitive even at low bitrates for encoding speech, comparable with even HE-AAC. A decision has been made that MP3 files will not be hosted at Wikipedia.

Software supporting Vorbis exists for many platforms. Winamp multimedia player can be used to play Ogg Vorbis files. Although Apple iTunes does not natively support Vorbis, Xiph.org provides a QuickTime component which can be used in iTunes and QuickTime on both Windows and Mac OS. On Microsoft Windows, DirectShow filters exist to decode Vorbis in multimedia players like Windows Media Player and others which support DirectShow.

Useful software for audio:

  • For audio editing, Audacity is a high quality free audio recorder/editor for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux/Unix.
  • Sweep is another free audio editor which can be used in Linux environments.
  • For encoding to Ogg Vorbis, it is recommended that you use the Hydrogenaudio-recommended encoder version for best results. oggenc (cross-platform) is the command-line encoder, while OggDropXPd (Win32-only) is an easy-to-use GUI for encoding to Ogg Vorbis.
  • dBpowerAMP Music Converter offers a convenient GUI for transcoding between most audio codecs, including Ogg Vorbis. The Vorbis encoder must be downloaded separately from the software, but it is freely available from the same website.
  • The easiest way to play ogg vorbis files on legacy Macintoshes (OS 9 and lower) is to use JustOgg.

The VorbisSoftwarePlayers node at the xiph.org wiki has an up-to-date list of Vorbis-supporting software for all operating systems. Users can test these players using the list of Vorbis audio streams available at [1].

Audio usage

Most viable is to use Template:Listen, see its page for detailed description, common usage is listed here:

{{Listen|filename=Name of file.ogg|title=Title of this file|description=The description of this file|format=[[Ogg]]}}

Example:

{{Listen|filename=Accordian chords-01.ogg|title=Accordion chords|description=Chords being played on an accordion|format=[[Ogg]]}}

gives this:

Accordion chords

Chords being played on an accordion
Problems listening to the file? See media help.

Lists of uploaded music

Lists of uploaded spoken articles

Further information on audio files

Video

Wikipedia uses Ogg Theora for video because it is open and royalty-free. Because most popular movie/audio formats are patented and require a royalty, there are no free all purpose video converters. See also WikiCommons' Theora video conversion help page.

Limitations and Implementation Issues

  • Both the Wikipedia project and the Wikimedia Commons limit uploads to a maximum of 20 megabytes.
  • There is currently no standard for acceptable streaming bitrates in articles. For the widest broadband compatibility, a bitrate of no more than 220 kilobits/sec will work for users of 256 kilobit DSL. Very high bitrates near or over 1,000 kilobits/sec may outstrip the ability of Wikipedia or the Commons to deliver the streaming data fast enough.
  • Resizing a video to use a smaller thumbnail does not change the bitrate or bandwidth requirements. A video recorded at 640x480 but shown in an article at 160x120 will still stream all the data that would be used to display it at the 640x480 size. If you need a smaller video size in an article for some reason, you are much better off to just recompress the larger video to the smaller size to bake in the bandwidth savings. Better quality can be obtained in these small videos, by having the original uploader create the smaller size using their original uploaded content.

A template to make this technical issue more prominent in articles is available as: {{User:DMahalko/VideoResizeWarning‎}} -- this same template also exists in the Wikimedia Commons for insertion into video upload descriptions.

Notice: Video files can be difficult to use correctly in Wikimedia projects. When a low-detail and low resolution video is enlarged, it does not show more detail and file size stays the same. This is also true in reverse:

Showing a high detail, high resolution video as a small thumbnail does not reduce the bandwidth needed to play the file or decrease the file size. Videos should never be shown in articles smaller than their original size because it wastes network bandwidth.

If a thumbnail resolution or lower bandwidth version is needed in an article, the video should be downloaded, recompressed to a smaller size, and reuploaded. It is helpful to link the original video to the recompressed smaller versions.

An example usage of this template can been seen in this video on the Wikimedia Commons: Image:Rhof-histWaschmaschine.ogg This page also includes links to smaller, low bitrate, downsampled versions of the video.

Offering multiple bit-rates

Image:Rhof-histWaschmaschine 208x160 100kbit.ogg
TIrreler Bauerntradition shows an early Miele washing machine in the Roscheider Hof, Open Air Museum
This video size: 50% 100kbit
Other sizes and bitrates: 25% 64kbit‎ 75% 220kbit 100% 270kbit Original 1100kbit

There currently is no defined method to offer readers multiple video versions, in order to select a quality and speed most suitable for their network bandwidth. While any video may be fully downloaded first for local playback, streaming of video requires that the file size be small enough to be reliably streamed continuously to the user within their bandwidth limits.

One possible option for offering multiple bitrates is shown here. This is a custom wikitable and is used in the washing machine article to showcase use of a vintage washing machine.

There is no predefined ready-to-use template for creating a multi-bitrate thumbnail like this and there is no built-in facility provided by Wikimedia to automatically downsample video into various smaller thumbnail versions with lower bitrates.

If you intend to offer multiple bitrates to readers you will need to construct a custom wikitable similar to this one which references each derivative transcoded low-bitrate version.

Useful software

  • For video, ffmpeg2theora [2][3] is a command line encoder capable of converting numerous file formats (.mov, .mpg, .mpeg, .avi) into Ogg Theora. It works on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux/Unix. (For information on how to use ffmpeg2theora, click here.)
  • You can also use the encoder_example application included with libtheora in combination with a program like MPlayer [4] that is capable of dumping raw (yuv4mpeg) video and sound to encode in Ogg Theora
  • LiVES and Cinelerra are video editing programs for Linux which are able to edit Ogg Theora videos

For assistance with conversion, try contacting:

Video usage

Television clip of Buzz descending the ladder and stepping onto the moon.
Television clip of Buzz descending the ladder and stepping onto the moon.

The easiest way to embed video directly into an article is by using the same [[image:]] tag as for image files. The result is on the right.

[[Image:FILENAME.ogg]]

You can use a thumbnail like with images:

[[Image:A11v 1094228.ogg|thumb|Television clip of Buzz descending the ladder and stepping onto the moon.]]

By default, a frame from the midpoint of the video is used for the initial still image. To use a different frame, use the thumbtime parameter. For instance:

[[Image:Bombers of WW1.ogg|thumbtime=3]]

Specify the time in seconds, or use colons to separate hours, minutes and seconds.

"Bombers of WW1" with a still from the midpoint
"Bombers of WW1" with a still from the midpoint
"Bombers of WW1" with a still from 3 seconds
"Bombers of WW1" with a still from 3 seconds
Buzz Aldrin steps onto the Moon
Image:A11v 1094228.ogg

Television clip of Buzz descending the ladder and stepping onto the moon.
Wikipedia:Media help


Alternative, Template:Video can be used. This adds a title box to the clip.

{{Video
|filename=A11v 1094228.ogg
|title=Buzz Aldrin steps onto the Moon
|description=Television clip of Buzz descending the ladder and stepping onto the moon.
}}

To just give a link to the video, use:

[[:Image:A11v 1094228.ogg|Click here to see the video.]]

See also:

See also
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