Transformers Wiki:Images

Acceptable image sources
Ideally, this wiki prefers to use official promotional images whenever possible. These are images released by Hasbro or TakaraTomy in their press coverage, and can be clearly sourced to such to avoid confusion as to the ownership of the image. Leaked information that has not been officially released cannot be used on this wiki.

When detailing cartoon episodes or live action movies, screenshots of the media in question are acceptable assuming it has already aired to the public. As above, leaked shots that have not aired yet are not acceptable to use unless they were in an official teaser spot on television. In the case of live action movies, we usually wait until the DVD has released, as official shots can be hard to come by and may have been pirated.

In some cases with older toys or toys for which no promotional image has been released, we are forced to use secondary sources to get a photograph for illustrative purposes. Ideally we would prefer photographs you take yourself of the toy, as you can release the copyright into the public domain. If you cannot do this and wish to use a photograph from a fan website, make sure you get the explicit permission of the site's owner first.

Image naming
When uploading an image, please make sure that the filename is descriptive of what the image depicts. The Transformers franchise heavily reuses character names, so avoiding confusion about which character is depicted is crucial. A good rule of thumb is to include both character name and series name. In cases where multiple shots of a character from a series might cause confusion, cartoon episode or comic issue names often help, as can one or more descriptive words about the scene. Abbreviation is acceptable, as long as it doesn't obscure meaning.

Image quality
Oftentimes there will be issues with the quality of an image uploaded to this wiki that will require it to be replaced. These include:
 * Grainy graphical artifacts due to too much compression.
 * The image dimensions being too small to really see anything.
 * The image being zoomed in too much on a given detail, thus limiting its usefulness.
 * For photographs, if the image was taken under poor lighting conditions.
 * For screenshots, if the image is not a direct screen capture but a photograph of a television screen.

Image format
Most images you will see on this wiki will be in the JPEG format. We have found that in all but a select few cases this is the ideal format for our purposes as it helps keep filesize down and generally displays images clearly. It is not the only format we use, but in the case of screenshots of movies or cartoons, we request that you use it whenever possible.