---
title: Images and files
tags: [Writing]
---
Images are uploaded to the wiki and shown in articles by name:
```forge
```
The text in brackets is the **alt text**: what the picture shows, for people who can't see it. Clicking an image opens its file page, with its licence, where it's used and its history.
## Uploading
- **One file:** **Files → Upload a file**. Give it a title, a licence and a source.
- **Many files:** **Files → Upload several**. Set the folder and licence once, then drop in as many images as you like. Each gets a name from its file name, checked as you type; files go up a few at a time, and one failing doesn't stop the others. Afterwards, copy them all as Markdown or as one gallery.
- **From the editor:** the image button in the article editor (one of the wiki's files, or a new upload), or drop or paste images into the text. One image goes in at the cursor; several go in as a gallery.
PNG, JPEG, WebP, AVIF, GIF (animations kept) and SVG work, up to 20 MB. Images are resized for different screens and re-encoded, and location data in photos is removed. Very large photos are shrunk in your browser before they're sent.
## Names and folders
A file's name is how articles use it (`media:rampart-with-sheila`), so it can't change later. Files can go in one level of folders (`weapons/r-301`) to keep big wikis tidy.
## Licences
Every upload says where it came from:
- **Own work:** you made it; it's shared under CC BY-SA 4.0 like the wiki's text.
- **Freely licensed:** CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC0 or public domain; give the licence and the source.
- **Fair use:** official screenshots, promotional art and covers, used to illustrate an article; give the source.
## New editors
New editors' uploads wait for a trusted editor to check them before they appear, and new editors upload one file at a time. Owners and admins have no hourly limit, so a crew can load a new wiki quickly.
## Galleries
Several images side by side:
```forge
:::gallery[Through and half-blind dovetails]
:::
```
The text in quotes becomes each image's caption.
## Albums
To show every image in a folder, name the folder instead of listing the images:
```forge
::album[Every weapon]{folder=weapons}
```
Each file's title is its caption. Upload a new file to the folder and it appears in the album on its own; nobody has to edit the page. Albums go by name; `sort=newest` puts the latest uploads first. They show 60 images unless you set `limit` (up to 200), with a link to the rest of the folder under them. In the editor, type `folder=` to pick from the wiki's folders.
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