Commons:First steps

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First steps to contribute to Commons

1. You have to log in to upload files. Creating an account only takes a few seconds, and is free.
2. Ensure the file license is compatible with the Commons:Licensing. Generally, if the file is under a copyleft license, such as the GFDL (GNU Free Documentation License) or a Creative Commons license, it is okay, but compliance should always be checked.
3. Upload your file with information about its license.
4. Describe your file. What is the subject? What is the background? How was it made? Who made it? When? Where? What kind of camera or equipment was used?

The preferred format for image descriptions

{{Information|

|Description=

|Source=

|Date=

|Author=

|Permission=

|other_versions=

}}

Copy-paste the above block into the image description dialog. The single fields get used the following way:

• If you can't fill in one variable with information use a "-" sign instead (without the quotation marks). Please don't leave a variable out. You have to use all variables as otherwise the template doesn't work correctly.
• Description: Description of the content. What you can see, hear, or otherwise perceive, in case of a photograph. Historical background in case of a painting. In case of scientific data, a brief scientific analysis of this image, video, audio file or other kind of media file. Descriptions can be in any language, but it is always a good idea to include an English description as well. If you can speak multiple languages, consider adding the description in all of them.
• Source:
  • Self-made work: a statement such as "Own work." or similar.
  • File made by another person:
    • Link to a website, with a direct link to the page embedding the file and a direct link to the file
    • Catalog number
    • Name of institution
    • Book source
    • etc.
• Date: Date of creation (or date of release), preferably in ISO 8601 format, such as "2006-01-08" for 8 January 2006.
• Author: Author(s) of the image. If no individual person known, use the name of the institution(s) that released this file. In case of self-made work, put your real name and your linked username in parentheses, such as "Gabor Eszes ([[User:UED77|UED77]])", which shows up as "Gabor Eszes (UED77)".
• Permission: Short quote of the permission of the copyright owner of this image in case of a individual permission. In case of a general permission (eg US Public Domain or free content licenses) short link to that legal disclaimer or an according hint. If you are the copyright onwer yourself give a short notice as "Dual-licensed under the GFDL and CC-By-SA-2.5, 2.0, and 1.0" Alternatively, you can say "See below" to direct others to license tags after the file information. Note: You still need to tag the image in any case with the appropriate license template!
• Other versions of this file: If there exist within the Wikimedia Commons other versions of this file, e.g. a black and white version of a color image or another image description in case of a diagram, link these versions here with a wiki link.

Making files useful

Other people have to find your file to use it to illustrate articles in other Wikimedia projects. You can help them by linking it to an article on Commons and/or adding it to a category. Both have advantages and disadvantages. You can tell if a page is an article or a category by looking at the leftmost tab at the top of the page. (This page is a project page).

1. Search Commons to see if an appropriate article for your file exists. Fewer articles exist in Commons than in Wikipedia, but bicycle, lake, many National Parks, plant species, animals, etc., exist. Add a link to at least one article, if possible. Also, add your file to the pages of relevant articles.
2. Add categories to your file.
   1. search will find categories if you check the appropriate box in the search screen.
   2. Alternatively, you can navigate the categories hierarchy to find a category or article that is relevant to your file.
   3. Add categories using [[Category:category_name]], e.g., [[Category:Mountains of the United States]]. Put categories at the bottom, but before interlanguage links, if any.
3. Many categories contain both subcategories and articles. In your search of categories, you may find relevant articles.
   1. If no appropriate article exists, consider creating one. Use gallery pages on similar topics to guide you. It is also convenient to borrow from the Wikipedia article structure; you can then make two-way interwiki links to navigate back and forth easily.

The file is now available for all Wikimedia projects. You can use a file from the Commons like you would any other, using [[Image:]] or [[Media:]] links.

Transferring files from other projects

As files on the Commons can be used by all Wikimedia projects, it is a great idea to start transferring copyleft-licensed files from other projects. To transfer files from Wikipedia, please follow Wikipedia's Moving images to the Commons guidelines.