Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Icons

"WP:MOSICON" redirects here. For the Wikipedia directory of icon collections, see Wikipedia:Icons.

For the purposes of this guideline, icons refers to any small images, including logos, crests, coats of arms, seals, flags and similar graphics, unless otherwise stated.

The overuse, misuse and abuse of icons in Wikipedia article text, lists and tables presents a number of problems. How to avoid the principal issues is summarized below, followed by more in-depth discussion of each problem.

Generally

Avoiding icons problems

Appropriate use

Icons may be helpful in certain situations:

• They can aid navigation in long lists or tables of information as some readers can more quickly scan a series of icons due to the visual differences between icon. However, since not all readers can do this, the flags should be accompanied with country names and the use of sortable tables.
• Repeated use of a icon in a table or infobox should only be done if the icon has been used previously in the table with an explanation of it purpose.

Help the reader rather than decorate

Icons are commonly misused as decoration. Adding a country's flag next to its name does not provide additional encyclopedic information, and is often simply distracting (example). Wikipedia generally strongly eschews the use of images for decorative purposes, preferring those that provide additional essential information or needed illustration.

Inappropriate use

Do not use too many icons

Icons are often overused. When added excessively, they clutter the page and become redundant, as in this sportsperson's infobox. Here, a single flag icon might be appropriate, e.g. next to the national team the article subject played for. Avoid overuse of other sorts of icons as well.

Do not repurpose icons beyond their legitimate scope

Icon 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. See also the next two sections.

Readability, usability and accessibility

Poor use of icons can present a variety of usability problems for different users.

Remember accessibility for the visually impaired

Failure to provide alt text, which is text describing the content of the image, will make the information meaningless or confusing to those using screen readers or text-only browsers. This is mainly a problem when including flags directly as images, as the standardized flag icon templates provide alt text. To provide alt text, simply add the description to the end of the image markup: [[Image:PictureName.jpg|300px|right|Description of the image]].

Inventing new icons

The practice of inventing a new icons to fill a perceived need for one is not simply deprecated but expressly forbidden by policy, as it constitutes original research; additionally it will most often advance a personal viewpoint which may have political or other contentious undertones, and it constitutes the neologistic invention of something that is unlikely to be recognizable or meaningful to anyone else. One example of such an invention is a bogus "North American flag".

Flags

For the purposes of this section of the guideline icons refers to flags and similar images unless otherwise stated

Note: Terms such as "country" and "nation" as used below should be understood to also apply to other uses of flags, such as U.S. states, the United Nations, etc. Furthermore, the bulk of these recommendations are also applicable to official seals, coats of arms, and other representations which serve similar purposes to flag images.

1. Flag images should be useful to the reader, not merely decorative.
2. Flag icons may be appropriate as a visual navigational aid in tables, infoboxes or lists provided that citizenship, nationality or jurisdiction is intimately tied to the topic at hand, such as comparison of global economic data or reporting of international sporting event results, and cannot be expressed better with text. They should always be accompanied by their country names at least once.
3. Flag icons should not be used in general prose in an article.
4. Flag images, especially flag icons in biographical infoboxes, should not be used to indicate birth or death places, as this may imply an incorrect citizenship or nationality.
5. Flag images should not be used as stand-ins for images of people or other article topics.
6. Flag images should have alt text and/or captions for accessibility (the standardized flag icon templates do this automatically).
7. Flag images should not be used inappropriately, and should explain their applicability in the caption if usage of the flag is limited in some way.
8. Non-national flags should be used only when directly relevant (e.g., articles on a city may include the city flag).

Avoiding flag problems

Appropriate use

Flag icons may be helpful in certain situations:

• They can aid navigation in long lists or tables of countries as many readers can more quickly scan a series of flag icons due to the visual differences between flags. However, since not all readers can do this, the flags should be accompanied with country names (see #Accompany flags with country names).
• Repeated use of a flag in a table or infobox (usually to save space and avoid repeating the country name) should only be done if the flag has been used previously in the table with the country name.
• They are useful in articles about international sporting events to show the representative nationality of players (which may differ from their legal nationalities). Example: List of WPA World Nine-ball Champions.

Inappropriate use

Do not use flags in general article prose

The flag icons were created for use in lists and tables (especially of sporting and other statistics), and have subsequently found widespread usage in infoboxes. They should not be used in the article body, as in, "...and after her third novel was published, Jackson moved to Bristol, England, in April 2004, then...". Such misuse of icons in prose breaks up the continuity of the text, distracting the reader (example). This principle applies equally to other iconic images (for example, in an article about last year's top-40 pop singles, we would not interrupt sentences with icons of CD covers).

If the use of flags 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.

Do not emphasize nationality without good reason

Wikipedia is not a place for nationalistic pride. Flags are visually striking, and placing a national flag next to something can make its nationality or location seem to be of greater significance than other things. For example, with an English flag next to him, Paul McCartney looks like an "English singer-songwriter from Liverpool who was in the Beatles"; without the flag next to him, he looks like an "English singer-songwriter from Liverpool who was in the Beatles". Emphasizing the importance of a person's citizenship or nationality above their other qualities risks violating Wikipedia's "Neutral point of view" policy.

Do not use flags to indicate locations of birth and death

The use of flag icons in the birth and death information in a biographical article's introduction and/or infobox is forbidden, as flags imply citizenship and/or nationality. Many people born abroad due to traveling parents never become citizens of the countries in which they were born and do not claim such a nationality. For example, actor Bruce Willis was born on a U.S. military base in Germany, so putting a German flag in his infobox, for any reason, might lead the casual reader to assume he is or was a German citizen. Similarly, many people die on foreign soil due to war, vacation accidents, etc. without any effect on their actual citizenship or nationality.

Do not substitute a flag for a picture of the subject

A flag (or some other symbolic image) should not be used as an image placeholder, such as in biographical articles. This practice is strongly deprecated, as the use of a flag to represent a person or object is both incorrect and nonsensical. While it may be appropriate to use a flag or seal as the principal image in an infobox for the organizational entity it represents (for example, the FBI), in most cases these uses have been superseded by the introduction of infoboxes that have specific fields for flag and seal images (example).

Do not use subnational flags without direct relevance

Subnational flags (regions, cities, etc.) should generally be used only when directly relevant to the article. Such flags are rarely recognizable by the general public, detracting from any shorthand utility they might have, and are rarely closely related to the subject of the article. For instance, the flag of Tampa, Florida, is appropriately used on the Tampa article. However, the Tampa flag should generally not be used on articles about residents of Tampa: it would not be informative, and it would be unnecessarily visually distracting.

A common example of use of subnational flags is in tables or lists of sporting information with regard to subnational teams; in such contexts, the appropriate flag is of course not the national one, in multiple entries in such listing would end up with the same flag. Another applicable situation would be that of a list concerned with subdivisions of a specific country.

See also #Use of flags for non-sovereign states and nations.

Do not use supernational flags without direct relevance

Supernational flags (those of international organizations) should generally be used only when directly relevant to the article. For instance, the flag of the European Union, is appropriately used on articles related to the European Union. However, the European Union flag should generally not be used alongside a national flag in articles about residents of EU member states; it would not be informative, and it would be unnecessarily visually distracting.

Accompany flags with country names

When a flag icon is used for the first time in a list or table, it needs to appear adjacent to its respective country (or province, etc.) name, as not all readers are familiar with all flags. Use of flag templates without country names is also an accessibility issue, as it can render information difficult for color blind readers to understand. In addition, flags can be hard to distinguish when reduced to icon size.

Country can sometimes be omitted when flag re-used

The country name may be omitted if a flag appears with its country name earlier in a list or table. When a flag icon is needed more than once, the flag-and-name template, for example {{flag|Japan}}, or its shorter variant {{flag|JPN}} should be used first, but may be reduced to {{flagicon|JPN}} in subsequent uses. However, some editors feel that some tables such as those containing sports statistics (example) are easier to read if {{flag}} is used throughout.

• In this infobox, flags of participating countries are first given with their names. Following this, the flag alone is used to identify the nationality of military commanders.

Historical considerations

Flags change, and sometimes the geographical or political area(s) to which a flag applies may also change.

Do not rewrite history

Flags should not be used to misrepresent the nationality of a historical figure, event, object, etc. Political boundaries change, often over the span of a biographical article subject's lifetime. Where ambiguity or confusion could result, it is better to not use a flag at all, and where one is genuinely needed, use the historically accurate flag.

For example, writer James Joyce, a native of Ireland while that island was entirely administered as part of the United Kingdom, should have neither an Irish flag nor a British flag, as both will confuse readers.

Use historical flags in contexts where the difference matters

When use of a historical flag and associated country name has at least a semi-officially applicable rationale, use them. For example, in lists of Olympic medalists, the USSR flag and country name should be used for reporting stats predating 1992, not those of either the Russian Federation or the CIS

In some military history contexts

It may in some narrow military history circumstances be appropriate to use flags, as they were used at the time being written about, including naval ensigns, provided that the flags are (as usual) accompanied at first occurrence by their country (or more narrow) names — our readers are not expected to be military historians. An example might be an in-depth exploration of a famous battle involving numerous forces with known flags; such flags might be used in summary tables to make it clearer which force was being referred to for a particular detail.

Entities without flags until after a certain point in time

Some subnational entities have not had flags until recently (e.g. the Welsh flag has only been official since 1959). While this flag can still represent Wales generally, it should not be used to represent the country when the context is specifically about a time period predating the flag. Some countries are also new, formed from parts of, or entirely subsuming, one or more other countries. It may need to be decided by consensus on a case-by-case basis what flag to use, when a topic crosses two periods and a conflict arises as to what country the topic pertains to in what contexts.

Political issues

Beware political pitfalls, and listen to issues raised by other editors with concerns. Some flags are (sometimes or always) political statements and can associate a person with their political significance, sometimes misleadingly. In other cases, a flag may have limited and highly specific official uses, and an application outside that context can have political (e.g. nationalist or anti-nationalist) implications.

Use of flags for non-sovereign states and nations

The exact definition of a "state", "nation" or "country" is often politically divisive and can result in debates over the choice of flag. For example, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are referred to by the British government as "countries" within the United Kingdom [1]; the Canadian government recently recognised the Québécois as "a nation within a united Canada";[2] and the United States recognizes many Native American tribal groupings as semi-independent "nations". Some people may feel stronger identification with such entities than with the wider state of which they are a citizen, and editors sometimes choose, for example, to use an English flag rather than a British one. Such choices can cause debates, or can sometimes mislead if the editor's own political bias is the motivation for the choice, and does not represent the views of the article subject.

In general, if a flag is felt to be necessary, it should be that of the sovereign state (e.g. the United States of America or Canada) not of a subnational entity, even if that entity is sometimes considered a "nation" or "country" in its own right. This is partly for the sake of consistency across Wikipedia, but also because a person's legal citizenship is verifiable, whereas "nationality" within a country can be porous, indeterminate and shifting. An English person's passport describes them as a "British citizen", for example, not "English"; being English is a matter of self-identification, not a verifiable legality in most cases. Many editors, however, feel that the UK's subnations in particular are an exception, most especially in sporting contexts, and disputes are likely to arise if this sovereign state maxim is enforced in articles on subnational British topics.

See also #Do not use subnational flags without direct relevance.

Overbroad use of flags with politicized connotations

Some flags are politically contentious – take care to avoid using them in inappropriate contexts. Some examples are:

1. Use of the flags of the Confederate States of America to represent all or part of the Southern United States prior to 1861 or after 1865.
2. Use of the flag of the Republic of China in contexts where the flag of Chinese Taipei is preferable.
3. Use of the Ulster Banner to represent Northern Ireland in inappropriate contexts; see Northern Ireland flags issue for details.

Biographical use

Flags make simple, blunt statements about nationality, while words can express the facts with more complexity.

For example, the actress Naomi Watts could be said, depending upon context and point of view, to be any or all of: British, English, Welsh, or Australian. She was born a British citizen in England, lived in Wales for a long time, then moved to Australia and became an Australian citizen. There is no single flag for that, and using all four flags will not be helpful.

Special care should be taken with the biographical use of flag templates in the following situations:

• Never use a flag for birth or death place, since doing so may imply an incorrect citizenship or nationality; a great many people have been born or have died abroad.
• In a case of reliably-sourced renunciation of citizenship of a country, do not use the flag and name of that former country to indicate an article subject's nationality; if a flag is used at all, use that of the later nationality.
• In cases of emigration, do not use the flag and name of the later country where it is unknown whether legal citizenship applied (or applies); in particular, a recent immigrant from one country to another should not be automatically given the nationality (much less flag) of the second country. For example, Alex Pagulayan, a Filipino-Canadian sportsperson who recently emigrated permanently to the Philippines, will sometimes be listed with the Canada flag templates and sometimes with those of the Philippines in tournament charts, depending upon the time period, as he as represented both countries in competitions at various times; but should have his nationality or citizenship (with or without a flag) as "Canadian" in his infobox as he is not yet a Philippine citizen.
• If someone's citizenship has legally changed because of shifting political borders, use the historically correct country designation, not a later one, and perhaps mention in the article prose the new country name, e.g. "Belgrade, Yugoslavia (today in Serbia)"; it may also be best to avoid using any flag at all.
• Use the flag and name of the country (be it a state or a nation) that the person (or team of people) officially represented, regardless of true citizenship, when the flag templates are used for sports statistics and the like. If a French player is awarded a medal for playing in a German team, the German flag would be used in a table of awards. The Scottish flag would be used with regard to the FIFA World Cup, but that of the UK for the Olympics. Caution should be used in extending this convention to non-sporting contexts, as it may produce confusing results. And a countervailing example would be an article about a sports team that officially represents a particular country but is composed of members who are citizens of several countries; a table of players at such an article might list them by their country of actual citizenship or professed nationality.
• Avoid flag usage, especially to present a point of view, that is likely to raise editorial controversy over political or other factual matters about a biography subject.

See also "Historical considerations" for other relevant recommendations.

Use of flags for sportspeople

As with other biographical articles, flags are discouraged in sportspeople's individual infoboxes.

Flags should never indicate the player's nationality in a non-sporting sense; flags should only indicate the sportsperson's national squad/team or sporting nationality.

Where flags are used in a table, it should clearly indicate that the flags represent sporting nationality, not nationality, if any confusion is might arise.

Flags should generally illustrate the highest level the sportsperson is associated with. For example, if a sportsperson has represented a nation or has declared for a nation, then the national flag as determined by the sport governing body should be used (these can differ from countries' political national flags). If a sportsperson has not competed at the international level, then the eligibility rules of the international sport governing body (such as IRB, FIFA, IAAF, etc.) should be used. If these rules allow a player to represent two or more nations, then the eligibility rule that is most apt should be applied; most often it is the place of birth.

If a sportsperson most usually represents a specific country (e.g., Germany) but has represented a larger, supernational entity on some occasions (e.g., Europe) it may be more appropriate to use the national flag; this will often need to be determined on an article-by-article basis.

Subnational flags (e.g., England rather than UK) are traditionally used in some sports, and should not be changed to the national flag without consensus.

Logos

The insertion of logos as icons into articles is strongly discouraged. While illustration of a logo may be appropriate at the main article on the topic to which the logo pertains, use of logos as icons is not useful to our readers, and often presents legal problems.

Copyrighted images

Use of company logos, sports team crests and other copyrighted images in articles can only be done on a fair use basis. Use of such images as icons is nearly always prohibited (for more information, see Wikipedia:Non-free use rationale guideline and Wikipedia:Logos).

Non-copyrighted images

While copyright problems may not be present, all of this guideline's rationales against use of icons as decoration still apply. Generally, addition of logos to article prose or tabular data does not improve the encyclopaedia in any way and leads to confusing visual clutter.