Wikipedia:Graphics Lab/Resources/Uploading standards

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Advice to graphists

  • All graphists:
    • If you are requested to modify an existing image, check the license for reasonability: if it's a Fortune 500 logo, is it tagged "{{PD-self}}" or some other equally impossible option? It may be annoying for a requester to have the image they wanted improved deleted, but we all have to follow WP:C.
    • Ensure that the image has a use on Wikipedia or a WMF project (IE. If the image has no value here, it will probably be deleted and your work will be wasted).
  • SVG graphists:
    • If you are SVGifying an image, make sure that it is actually worthwhile: if the SVG will be significantly larger than, and lower quality to, the original, you'll waste your time.
      1. Before you upload, compare the size of the SVG to the original: Unless it is a massively detailed image, it should be much smaller. If it is larger, investigate why - perhaps you have embedded a raster image in it (Never do this, it defeats the entire purpose of vector graphics).
      2. To try and reduce size, if you're using Inkscape, you can use the "Plain SVG" option when saving
      3. If you've used Inkscape's automatic "trace bitmap" function, or a similar online tracer, you must closely compare the files: Tracing is a good start but will NEVER produce a finished image.
    • The software used by Wikipedia to convert SVG images to PNG for display in articles is librsvg 2.40.21. This library has comparatively poor support for the SVG standard as it relies on the Cairo rendering engine and may produce visible rendering bugs with some uploads. Some examples can be seen here: commons:Category:Pictures showing a librsvg bug. If you'd like to obtain a copy of librsvg for testing images before you upload, it is available as part of GNOME. If you're on Windows, you can follow this (copied guide provided by User:Voidvector on Meta):
      1. Download the windows binaries from here, you will need both librsvg and librsvg-dev.
      2. The newest Windows version is 2.26, but Wikimedia servers use a patched version of 2.22, so the closest Windows version available is 2.22. (You can use the newest exe file with the older DLL file.)
      3. Create an empty directory somewhere, let's call it rsvg folder, extract librsvg-2-2.dll and rsvg-convert.exe into this folder.
      4. You can try run it now, but chances are it will prompt you for missing DLLs.
      5. Download and install the newest Windows version of GIMP.
      6. Copy all the DLL files in C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\bin to your rsvg folder
      7. Now you have a working rsvg command line in Windows.
      • Redirecting the output does not work in Windows, the file created from redirection is corrupted (probably because the CR-LF issue). So you have to use the command line option "-o". use "--help" to read about the other options.
      • It is hoped the developers will fix this.