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This help desk is a forum for questions and help on:

How to use Commons

Anyone, from newbie to experienced, can ask a question here. Questions will be replied to here as well. Any answers you receive are not legal advice and the responder cannot be held liable for them.

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In order to get quick answers consider the following points:

• Have you checked the frequently asked questions, help pages and the help desk archive?

• For licensing and copyright issues, please use the copyright village pump
• For proposing changes to the way Wikimedia Commons works, please use the proposals village pump
• For community-wide discussions, please use the main village pump
• For changing the name of a file, please see our file renaming guidelines
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• For questions not about Wikimedia projects, try English Wikipedia's reference desk

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Uploaden van bestand voor wiki tekst nieuwe pagina

Ik wil graag een nieuwe pagina aanmaken en daarvoor een bestand opladen, hoe moet ik dat doen? Elies1966 (talk) 16:00, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

@Elies1966: (via Google Translate) If I understand your question correctly, please read Commons:First_steps/nl and Help:Your first article (which, sadly, no one has translated into Dutch and which may not fully reflect the policies of the Dutch-language Wikipedia).

(via Google Translate) Als ik je vraag goed begrijp, lees dan Commons:First_steps/nl en Help:Your first article (die helaas nog niet in het Nederlands vertaald zijn en mogelijk niet volledig het beleid van de Nederlandstalige Wikipedia weerspiegelen). - Jmabel ! talk 20:15, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

I think you meant: en:Help:Your first article. Mathglot (talk) 05:38, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

How do you zoom?

Hey, there's too much black around this photo, how do I get it to zoom in more so that the black isn't shown on there? Wikieditor662 (talk) 20:51, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

@Wikieditor662: Sounds like you want to crop, not zoom. Depending what you want it for, you could use CropTool to create a version on Commons that with the margins cropped out (PLEASE, though, do not overwrite if you do this: save to a different filename like File:Beethoven 5th Symphony Holograph manuscript (margins removed).jpg). Or, if you just want it on one of the Wikpedias displaying without the margins, you could use {{CSS image crop}}. For example:

{{CSS image crop |Image=Beethoven 5th Symphony Holograph manuscript.jpg |bSize=400 |cWidth=372 |cHeight=270 |oTop=8 |oLeft=13 }}

- Jmabel ! talk 01:07, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

Thank you! But why not override? Wikieditor662 (talk) 03:33, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

• @Wikieditor662: I assume that by "override" you mean "overwrite". Please read COM:OVERWRITE: it is pretty rare that it is correct to overwrite a Commons image that you did not upload yourself. In the case of this document, someone might want a version that clearly shows the edges of the paper and lets them see just what the document looks like. A "clean" crop loses that. - Jmabel ! talk 05:28, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

  I did upload this myself, but I suppose that this version can still stay... why would someone want to see the corners though? Wikieditor662 (talk) 06:05, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

  • I answered that in my remark immediately above. - Jmabel ! talk 17:56, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

Also, how do I crop it onto the current version which already has a description and thumb? [[File:Beethoven 5th Symphony Holograph manuscript.jpg|thumb||1807 [[Holograph manuscript]] of this piece.]] Wikieditor662 (talk) 03:37, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

• You still haven't said where you want to use this. If (as I take it from this last question) you are using this within a WMF sister project and you are not particularly strong on complex wiki markup, the simplest approach would be to use CropTool (linked above), save to a distinct filename, and use that rather than the current file in the project where you want to use it. If you are doing something else, please be more specific about what you want to do, and on what site. - Jmabel ! talk 05:28, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

  Ah, sorry, I want to use it on Wikipedia, I thought it would be clear as it's the most popular one, I suppose there were more of the wikis that are useful than I thought... Wikieditor662 (talk) 06:04, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

  So for Wikipedia do you know how do I crop it onto the current version which already has a description and thumb?

  

  1807 Holograph manuscript of this piece.

  Wikieditor662 (talk) 14:17, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

  • @Wikieditor662: What article is this for? I'll do it for you, which will apparently be a lot quicker than explaining. - Jmabel ! talk 21:08, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

    It's in two articles:

    • Ludwig van Beethoven
    • Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)

    (it's in the body for both of them). Wikieditor662 (talk) 23:26, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Can this be considered Public Domain

Hi,

I wanted to ask if this work can be considered Public Domain? I'm interested in a snippet of the title page for the book's article on the English Wikipedia, The Natives Of Mailu.

The book was first published in 1915, but this uploaded work was republished in 1988. The original author Bronisław Malinowski died in 1942. You can read the article for clearer details. Kingsacrificer (talk) 10:07, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

The original book is PD by age, but the republished book isn't PD because the added edits by Michael Young attract new copyright. However, since you want just only the title page, it might qualify for {{PD-text}}, but we need to check for the country of origin (do you know where M. Young is from?). Also, it might be better to ask copyright questions at COM:VPC. HyperAnd [talk] 13:19, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

Thank you. I've asked my question there. Kingsacrificer (talk) 16:13, 28 December 2025 (UTC)

Cat-a-Lot

Despite my experience here, I'm still kind of a noob with Cat-a-Lot. I need help reverting a bunch of disruptive category moves but am not sure how to move from one category to another using Cat-a-Lot. Can anyone help me out here? Thanks a lot, Cutlass^Ciera 18:10, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

Even with a little bit of testing around with my own files, I'm still not sure I get it. For context, I'm trying to move files in a redirected category into the page I moved it to. Cutlass^Ciera 18:24, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

@Cutlass:

1. Navigate to the redirected category.
2. Start Cat-a-lot (typically a click at lower right, assuming you have it installed as a gadget).
3. Select "all" in Cat-a-lot.
4. The category that is the target of the redirect should be prominently visible in Cat-a-lot. Click the right-arrow next to that category name to move everything.
5. If you had any doubt that this worked, you can open another tab and look at your contributions; in the unlikely event that something is wrong, there is a revert available within Cat-a-lot, but it won't work once you have navigated away.
6. Refresh the page to confirm that you succeeded

Sorry if I'm missing some minor detail there, I'm on my way out the door. - Jmabel ! talk 22:45, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

Minor further followup: try it on one or two files before you try it on the whole contents of a category; also, if there is so much in the category that it doesn't all fit on one page, you have to use Cat-a-lot a page at a time. - Jmabel ! talk 00:21, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

Editing a cascade protected file

I might be missing something obvious, but why was I able to make this edit? I'm not an administrator. Rockfang (talk) 19:49, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

Apparently cascading protection only applies to overwriting the file and not editing the page normally. But for whatever reason, the warning template doesn't reflect that. HyperAnd (talk) 22:41, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

Kişisel fotoğrafım

googleda adıma yaptığım aramada vikipediada sonuç gördüm. Avukat İbrahim uğurluel fotoğrafı eski ve beni yansıtmıyor. Yeni bir fotoğrafım var isterseniz onu yükleyebilirsiniz. Eski fotoğrafın kaldırılmasını talep ederim Advocateturk (talk) 20:52, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

(Translation via Google Translate:) I found results on Wikipedia when I searched for my name on Google. The photo of lawyer İbrahim Uğurluel is old and doesn't reflect me. I have a new photo; you can upload that if you want. I request that the old photo be removed.

Jmabel ! talk 00:16, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

@Advocateturk, Wikipedia:A picture of you may be of help to you. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:56, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

Items such as Translations:Commons:Command-line upload/9/bn

I looked at Special:Contributions/BDR Welfare Council Gopalganj 1 and found a large number of items with this name style.

Are these a normal artefact, or is something amiss here, please?

If something is amiss, please would a knowledgeable person take whatever action is necessary to sort it out? 🇵🇸‍🇺🇦 Timtrent 🇺🇦 talk to me 🇺🇦‍🇵🇸 11:55, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

@TimTrent: Normally should be "Commons:Translations", not "Translations:Commons" if that is what you are asking. - Jmabel ! talk 18:10, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

the filters dissapears in the home page

I can't filter in the home page. I need to filters to images and licesnses but it appears in the home page. ~2025-43228-46 (talk) 16:14, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

I don't understand what you mean in this context by "filter", could you please be clearer. - Jmabel ! talk 18:11, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

Changing a Category title

We currently have a category Category:Harris Mausoleum. Having just written the article for the Bullough Mausoleum, en:Bullough_Mausoleum, I'd like to rename the Category. It is a mausoleum for the Bullough family, built, paid for and populated by them. Harris is simply the depopulated and deserted village nearby. Can I just go ahead and Move it? I tried to do so but got some sort of warning message. Thanks and regards. KJP1 (talk) 14:15, 28 December 2025 (UTC)

@KJP1:  Done I take it there is no Wikidata item yet, correct? - Jmabel ! talk 01:21, 29 December 2025 (UTC)

Jmabel - Many thanks indeed. And no, I don’t think it does have a corresponding Wikidata item yet. But I’m afraid I have no idea how to create that. Is it an automated process? KJP1 (talk) 05:25, 29 December 2025 (UTC)

@KJP1: I think eventually a bot creates something minimal, scraping what it can understand from the Infobox in the en-wiki page. Definitely not typically as good as what a human can do. Worth learning, in my opinion. I'll take a 15-minute or so shot at this one.- Jmabel ! talk 21:49, 29 December 2025 (UTC)

Ah, there was an item Bullough Mausoleum, Harris, Rum (Q17829499), just not connected to your en-wiki article, I'll do that. - Jmabel ! talk 21:52, 29 December 2025 (UTC)

Where is MOVE button on the SANDBOX page?

How do I find MOVE button on the SANDBOX page en:User:KatlanmisKulak/sandbox? KatlanmisKulak (talk) 14:53, 28 December 2025 (UTC)

There is none as you are not autoconfirmed in English Wikipedia. Ruslik (talk) 19:44, 28 December 2025 (UTC)

graduale henk van riel

ik probeer mijn mp3 bestand van graduale henk van riel toe te voegen aan uw beschrijving offertorium. Ik word geweigerd. Het werk is wel te vinden op you tube. Kan ik dat dan niet koppelen? Het is wel een hele mooie bijdrage aan uw beschrijving offertorium en graduale. Met vriendelijke groet, henk van riel. Henk van riel (talk) 12:13, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

BEGIN moved from a clearly unrelated thread above - Jmabel ! talk 19:10, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

Beste , ik was niet uit op persoonlijke promotie, maar wel op een prachtige aanvulling op uw artikel 'offertorium'. Met eerlijke bedoelingen en met vriendelijke groet, henk van riel. Henk van riel (talk) 12:28, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

END moved from a clearly unrelated thread above - Jmabel ! talk 19:10, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

Taylor Swift Photo with Stone Harbor Lifeboat

I saw this photo with your credit and would like to use it in my book "Insider's Guide to the NJ Shore." Pease advise. Thank you. Charles Poekel [EMAIL SUPPRESSED] ~2025-43939-04 (talk) 14:29, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

@~2025-43939-04: Could you please link the file page you are talking about? We have over 100 million files on this site; a search does not quickly indicate what file you are talking about; virtually none of the files here should be credited to Commons itself (we host files that are either free-licensed or in the public domain; we generally don't own the rights); most files here have specific (free) licensing requirements that are stated on the respective file page, but if we don't know what file page we can't know those specifics. - Jmabel ! talk 19:15, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

Ace hinojales

sir I'm apologize my behavior ..that matter I've been pressure to my sister garage business that time I'm ready to die because I can't hold the pressure if your standing in my shoes it very hard...I learn a lot and I'm going back to uae soon I'm in recovery and I'll accept the consequences....my ex wife is Geraldineand my daughter is sayara hinojales his 3 years old now..please give me a chance and I'll promese it won't happen again...best regards Ace Geraldine noquillo (talk) 15:28, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

@Geraldine noquillo: I have absolutely no idea what is going on here, but this message almost certainly will not reach whoever you intend to address. This is literally your first edit on this website. - Jmabel ! talk 19:17, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

donations

Jimmy, It would be helpful if you recorded those of us who have paid because a month ago I sent $52 to Wikipedia, yet I keep getting pleas for help.

I understand your frustration with the public who take your services for granted-pretty much as I’m frustrated with the public who don’t give a damn about anything. I don’t the answer, except charge a fee for the service Noel

Professor Noel Fidge Docker, Vic Australia ~2025-44093-65 (talk) 05:55, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

@~2025-44093-65: This is the help desk for Wikimedia Commons. It's a place for asking questions for using this site. Assuming "Jimmy" is Jimmy Wales, I really doubt he reads this page. - Jmabel ! talk`

@~2025-44093-65 WP/WMF has no way (or desire) to know that your temporary account has anything to do with your personal donations. However, if you register an account (it's free), you can set it to not displaying donation requests. If you want to write somewhere Jimmy Wales is more likely to see, User talk:Jimbo Wales is that place. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:36, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

Confused

What has happened? THRONE36 (talk) 11:51, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

Well, you made a comment at the Commons:Help desk. More details might generate a more helpful answer. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:40, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

Can I upload old Winston cigarette commercial?

I have a file of a Winston's cigarette commercial dated to 1955. Can I upload it? KneeHallHawk (talk) 16:00, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

@KneeHallHawk: Hard do know from just that. If it is from the U.S., then there is a fair chance that the answer is yes, because often things like that were not copyrighted. And if it is from Europe and from 1955, it may well fall out of copyright in a few hours (1955 + 70 = 2025). But you'd do better to ask at COM:VP/C, and if the commercial you are talking about is on line somewhere, you should link it so it is clearer what you are talking about. - Jmabel ! talk 20:29, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuz6kqSvyIw

I was able to download this from YouTube. I apologize for any confusion caused. KneeHallHawk (talk) 21:33, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

Hi KneeHallHawk. There's more information on this in COM:YOUTUBE, but there's an issue with the video you linked to above. The first one is that it's almost certain that whoever uploaded the commercial to YouTube isn't the original copyright holder of the commercial; in other words, the YouTube uploader is almost certainly not connected to either the company that makes (made?) en:Winston cigarettes (the most likely copyright holder) or the creative team (advertising agency?) that made the commercial (a potential copyright holder). So, without knowing more about the original copyright holder of the commercial, it's going to be hard to accurately assess its copyright status. The commercial (including any screen shots taken from it) probably should (at least for now) be assumed to be still under copyright protection and not OK for Commons without verifying original copyright holder consent. Now, it's possible that the commercial could've entered into the public domain already depending on where it was produced and first broadcast due to a lack of en:copyright formalities (at least under US copyright law), but 1955 (assuming the date is correct) isn't generally really old enough for something to be within the public domain just because of its age under US copyright law; so, more information about the commercial is needed. If you can find that info and add it to any post you make about this at COM:VPC, it might help others to better assess the commercial's copyright status. -- Marchjuly (talk) 22:51, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

Hi Marchjuly:

https://archive.org/details/wintasgo

I was able to find the same video on Internet Archive w/ some additional copyright info attached. I hope this will help determining if it can be uploaded. KneeHallHawk (talk) 14:57, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

@KneeHallHawk: Thanks for the extra information. You might want to ask about this at COM:VPC. The licensing of the Internet Archive version you found places restrictions on commercial reuse (i.e., it's an NC type of Creative Commons license); so, just based on that, this couldn't be uploaded to Commons because such licenses are too restrictive for Commons puproses. However, I'm almost positive Creative Commmons license weren't around back when the commercial was created in 1954; so, it's possible that the NC license wouldn't be valid for the commercial since it was added well after the commercial first aired by someone other than the original copyright holder. So, you might want to ask about that at VPC. -- Marchjuly (talk) 06:11, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Is this logo simple enough?

Is the Iris Angola Association logo (top left) simple enough to upload? I feel like it's kind of on the border of simple logo and not. Thanks! Urchincrawler (talk) 16:23, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

@Urchincrawler: questions about the threshold of originality are better asked at COM:VP/C. - Jmabel ! talk 20:31, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

ok thanks Urchincrawler (talk) 21:45, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

Mass upload project for government press images

There is an archive/repository of Bangladesh government released press images, that I think should have good significance to be uploaded here en-mass. But, it needs to scraped regularly and there's a few thousand images uploaded each year, that has possibility of being removed whenever government changes or due to cyber attacks.

The repository is at: https://pressinform.gov.bd/site/view/daily_photo_archive/-?page=2&rows=1000

official link being: https://pressinform.gov.bd/site/view/daily_photo_archive/-

but I modified it to show thousand images at once, maybe it can show all the images if I increase the row count enough. However, the images might benefit from having the caption being put into the description with OCR. Could this be brought under some sort of government image archive project? Greatder (talk) 06:37, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

@Gratder: I don't read Bengali but where is there any indication that these images are sufficiently free for Commons? What exactly does that notice say? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jmabel (talk • contribs) 21:18, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Might have messed up on a "keep" for a file deletion. Could someone take a look?

Commons:Deletion requests/File:HDSig-a.jpg is the file in Question.

I haven't done one of these before.

I am wondering if I followed proper protocol on this. If I didn't, please point me in the right direction.

Thanks, Urbanracer34 (talk) 15:27, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

@Urbanracer34: It's ok in the part where you are expressing your evaluation of the image in relation to Commons:When to use the PD-signature tag. Other users may agree or disagree with the evaluation, but that is the point of a discussion. However, the two parts where you criticize the nominator are irrelevant (IMHO, you should remove those parts while you can). Minor formatting suggestions: the usual practice is to bold the word keep or to use the template Vote keep (which can be abbreviated as {{Vk}} or {{K}}). Also, you can simply link the template PD-signature to which you refer instead of transcluding it. -- Asclepias (talk) 17:17, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

@Asclepias I fixed it the best I could. I couldn't get the template to link for some odd reason. Could you give it another check please? Urbanracer34 (talk) 17:31, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

You can also leave it as it is. I realize that you want to illustrate its use with the parameter "United States". -- Asclepias (talk) 17:41, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the assistance. I think I have it from here. Urbanracer34 (talk) 17:46, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Quiero subir un archivo

foto de fauna y descripción de un reptil, llamado cuije Sergio cayetano palacios (talk) 19:08, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

• Commons:Bienvenido. ¿ Cuije? No estoy seguro, tal vez esta buscando el gecko enlutado Category:Lepidodactylus lugubris? Saludos, -- Infrogmation of New Orleans (talk) 20:23, 1 January 2026 (UTC)
• @Infrogmation: I think you missed something, the key word there was subir, "to upload".
• @Sergio cayetano palacios: Vease COM:Primeros pasos. - Jmabel ! talk 21:22, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Copyright Of Religious Books

hi everyone,

I I have seen some images which shows the translated text of religious books. And I know that translation is also copyrighted, but what about religious books. The purpose of translation is not a commercial but a ground of humanity, but it may be or not considered copyrighted on Commons.

Please tell me, what is policy of commons on this Mr.Lazy Guy (💬) 20:00, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

• Same rules as any other book. Modern works are considered copyrighted unless there is specific statement that they are free licensed. -- Infrogmation of New Orleans (talk) 20:13, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

  it means that I should check all the categories related to religious books.Mr.Lazy Guy (💬) 20:43, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

I'm trying to upload a PDF file of my e-book under the license Creative Commons

I'm trying to upload a PDF file of my e-book under the license Creative Commons Attribution–ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). But the system doesn't accept it, claiming that I don't have this license. What should I do? Наталья Гвелесиани (talk) 05:27, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Natalia Gvelesiani, what is the subject matter of your e-book, and what would be your purpose in uploading it to Commons as opposed to, say, Wikiversity or the Internet Archive? (This project seems particularly odd as you seem to be using your user page here as something akin to the top page of a personal website. But Commons is instead a resource for Wikipedia and related websites.) -- Hoary (talk) 06:44, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

England, or not

Today, while (I hope) making the article en:Coffeehouse slightly less of a mess, I encountered File:17th century coffeehouse england 1-580x400.jpg (indirectly deriving from an engraving at the Bodleian). This was, back in 2008, described by B.killinger as showing Ein englisches Kaffeehaus am Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts. The file has been employed across various Wikipedias to illustrate this and that since. I don't doubt that the engraving was made in England, but its own caption (at its bottom left) seems to me to say "Paris Chez Monsi[eur] Tiolaria" or similar. (The "Tiolaria" in particular depends greatly on my guesswork.) Thus my guess that it's supposed to illustrate not an English coffeehouse but instead a specific Parisian one. However, I am uninformed about the conventions of captions for engravings, about French versus English wig, clothing, or interior design, etc. Any expert commentary available? -- Hoary (talk) 06:37, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

I'd agree with what you just said about this probably representing a specific coffeehous in Paris. - Jmabel ! talk 06:43, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

But, Jmabel, for all I know the monsieur may be specified as the seller in Paris of this engraving. What we need are subject experts. Meanwhile, here is the engraving as presented in an unspecified book that appears to be a scholarly production of the 20th/21st century; the caption provided for the book omits any mention of the locality of the coffee-shop. -- Hoary (talk) 01:10, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

@Hoary: Seems to me that chez is a giveaway that it is talking about the place portrayed. - Jmabel ! talk 01:26, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

Ditto for me, Jmabel. But I think we should seek expert input, as renaming such a widely used file and editing its description in, or removing it from, the articles in which it currently appears (or expecting others to do so) would be disruptive. Meanwhile, fr:Café parisien (admittedly an article of indifferent quality) doesn't mention "Tiolaria" or anything similar. -- Hoary (talk) 02:12, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

I can't help with the identification of the place represented. Yes, this type of inscription on an engraving often indicates where the engraving is published, available. But it might be the place represented. On another version, the name might look like Trolaria. -- Asclepias (talk) 03:34, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

Thank you, Asclepias. That leads us to its immediate source, here in A. S. Turberville's English men and manners in the eighteenth century. (In which it looks more like "Paris Cher Monſi' Trolaria" -- although the "s" of "Paris" is no more than a guess.) Anyway, Turberville certainly would have examined and understood the caption before adding the print to his book on English men and manners. -- Hoary (talk) 04:33, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

Googling "Trolaria" took me to this PDF file of a 1991 booklet, which strangely is not searchable. (How Google derived "trolaria" from it I know not.) The print is captioned as depicting a "Kaffeehaus in London". -- Hoary (talk) 04:44, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

All I can add is that the inscription starts "Sold by... [illegible on this file]", so the publisher, meaning that the one on the left might be the artist or the engraver. But all versions of the image have the one on the left, but not all have the one on the right. For some reason, a gsearch on "trolaria" picks up this book - Chapter 1 seems very on topic. The clearer image here credits it to "Anon c. 1700" & the seller is in the yard/ward of St Mary Aldermary, a Wren church in the City of London. It's in loads of books. Trolaria is perhaps an engraver, with a few mentions. "PLATE 32 Sold by Dizy & Coin Aldermary Church Ward , A coffee house . Notice hats on pegs , news - sheets and smoking ✓ Paris Cher Monfi Trolaria" says a snippet hit, and "Paris Cher Monfi Trolaria Sold by Disey & Cain Alderman , Church Yard An early eighteenth - century coffee house" says another. Hope that helps. Johnbod (talk) 03:26, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

Many thanks, Johnbod. Your response and the pair of endnotes you point to in The Printed Image in Early Modern London are most informative. I've arrived here (Drawing in England from Hilliard to Hogarth) and here (The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making); I'm now a little too sleepy to summarize it all but shall make an attempt tomorrow. -- Hoary (talk) 12:19, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

Link to the British Museum page: [1]. -- Asclepias (talk) 15:55, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

An excellent resource, Asclepias. Thank you for it. I expect to write something up later today. -- Hoary (talk) 23:15, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

Done! -- Hoary (talk) 04:43, 5 January 2026 (UTC)

Resolved

I think that this question was replied to adequately based on the supplied information. If you have anything to add or a follow-up question please feel free to replace this box with your comment. This section will be archived after two days. Hoary (talk) 04:43, 5 January 2026 (UTC)

Copyright help regarding File:Georg Hönel als Student 1870 cut2.jpg

Obviousely I made a mistake when filling in the forms of the uploading procedure. The photograph was taken in the years around 1870-1872 by an unknown person. It shows my grand-grandfather Georg Friedrich Hönel born 1851 and died 1909. Since I am not familiar with Wikimedia Commons rules I did not understand how to make the necessary steps to release this photograph to free usage. Thank you for help! Gernot Haraldson (talk) 11:10, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

@Gernot Haraldson: I've fixed that, but you still need to add categories. - Jmabel ! talk 20:16, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Thank you so much! I'll try to fix the category issue a.s.a.p. to the best of my poor knowledge! Gernot Haraldson (talk) 22:14, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

teto

so i want to upload some pictures of kasane teto (https://kasaneteto.jp/illust_logo/) for the dutch wikipeda. the ones i want to upload are the 4 from the top, but i will only use the 2008 one. the other ones i want to upload if other people need to use them. on the website i linked are the picters and the copyricht stuff. can i or can i not upload the picters? Tymenaz (talk) 12:53, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

@Tymenaz:  Do not upload the pictures as they are not freely-licensed. It also explicitly states terms that are unacceptable:

商用でなければ、どうぞ！アマチュアによる同人レベルでの活動範囲内であればご自由にお使い頂けます。
As long as it's not for commercial purposes, go ahead! You are free to use it as long as it's within the scope of amateur, doujin-level activities. (Google Translate)

Forbidding commercial use is against our licensing policy.

Also, I highly recommend reading COM:THIRD before even considering uploading third party works. HyperAnd [talk] 13:24, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

@HyperAnd ok, i will see what i can do to get premision from them to upload it to commons with all licensing recuerments met. in the e-mail that im planing to write will be the folowing things: the question of uploding the 2008 ilustrasion to wikimedia commons and a link to the commons licensing policy so that they know that they would be agreeing to. do i need to add anything?

Tymenaz (talk) 16:17, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

@Tymenaz: Please read COM:THIRD. - Jmabel ! talk 20:18, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

@Jmabel when i sayed that i only read the top part, but after reading the whole thing i did what it says there if you want to get a license. so im just waiting for a response now.

Tymenaz (talk) 22:33, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

This logo

[2] Is it Commons-ok per COM:TOO or not? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 14:23, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Near the borderline for U.S., so hard to say. I wouldn't upload it myself. - Jmabel ! talk 20:20, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

that means we just had to upload fair use? Does webp consider trademark? Thebaldball (talk) 10:48, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

Fair use on en-WP can be seen as doubtful in that context [3], hardly seems like "only if its presence would significantly increase readers' understanding of the article topic, and its omission would be detrimental to that understanding." But you can try, and if someone objects they will say so. Same applies to uploading it on Commons. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:31, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

Help documenting Sydney

Hey all, I've been extensively photographing South West Sydney for some time now, I was wondering if anyone else wanted to join me in my travels? I'm using Wikidata to locate photographic sites (and adding sites to Wikidata as I find them). - Chris.sherlock2 (talk) 15:44, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Copyright help regarding File:BHV-Logo.jpg

Bitte beschreibe dein Problem mit der Datei unterhalb dieser Zeilen. Ich habe das Logo des Berliner Hockey-Verbands hochgeladen, dass es ein deutscher Sportverband und eingetragener Verein ist. Dessen Domain ist die https://berlin.hockey.de/ und das Logo ist unter anderem hier zu finden: https://berlin.hockey.de/temp/images/logo/logo-berliner.svg. Ich bin selber Präsidiumsmitglied des Berliner Hockey-Verbands und dort zuständig für Medien- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit (https://berlin.hockey.de/praesidium). Die Nutzung des Logos für diesen Anlass ist durch das Präsdidum genehmigt, ich verteile selber die Nutzungsrechte für das Logo. Welche Angaben fehlen oder muss ich ergänzen, um die Nutzung des Logos öffentlich zu machen?

— Preceding unsigned comment added by A. Oelze (talk • contribs) 21:39, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

(mit Hilfe von Google Translate) Auf der Dateiseite fehlt sowohl eine Lizenzvorlage als auch eine Begründung, warum die Datei gemeinfrei sein sollte. Sie müssen eines von beidem angeben. Deshalb wurde die Datei vom Bot entsprechend gekennzeichnet. - Jmabel ! talk 23:23, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Video does not play File:Город Станислав 1944.ogg

The video I uploaded does not play. It shows a decoding error status, restarting the decoding does not help. S. Mochar (talk) 16:04, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

It appears that the transcoding failed. So, I reset it. Ruslik (talk) 20:04, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

So what? S. Mochar (talk) 12:30, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

AirBorneo logo

[1] can this be upload per WP:TOO Thebaldball (talk) 16:27, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

Upload new version of file with different file type?

I want to replace File:Yale1888.jpg with the full-resolution TIFF directly from Yale Library.

When I try this I get the error:

> File extension ".jpg" does not match the detected MIME type of the file (image/tiff).

The tooltip says:

> Destination filename: This is the name of the file you will be overwriting. You cannot modify this.

How can I upload a new version of a file that has a different file type from the existing? PK-WIKI (talk) 23:24, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

@PK-WIKI: The simple answer is that you can't. You should instead upload it under a new name (with the correct extension for the new type) and then update any references that you want to update. It might be possible to do something clever with redirects, but in most cases that would at least be an abuse of the system. --bjh21 (talk) 23:47, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

You would have to convert the tiff to jpg to overwrite it. Abzeronow (talk) 00:39, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

Thomas Sanchez

I am a complete tyro. I have edited the wiki for the author Thomas Sanchez. I now wish to add a photograp[h. I ve put it in WIki COmmions, but do not know how to load onto the Wikipedia page. Any help would be appreciated DetroitSlim (talk) 00:55, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

Hi DetroitSlim. Did you take File:Thomas Sanchez.jpg yourself? The EXIF data for the file describes it as a screenshot. Is the image a screenshot from a video you took yourself? The reason I'm asking you this is because whether Commons can host this file kind of depends on COM:Own work and COM:Screenshot. Commons can only host content that meets COM:L, and generally this means content that is either within the public domain for some reason or that has been released under a copyright license by its copyright holder that is free enough for Commons' purposes. If all you did was upload a photo taken by someone else or made a screenshot of a video taken by someone else, you wouldn't be considered the original copyright holder of the image, and Commons wouldn't be able to host it without verifying the original copyright holder's consent. -- Marchjuly (talk) 02:07, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

@DetroitSlim: and you might want to read COM:THIRD. - Jmabel ! talk 08:12, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

Remove uploaded file how to

Ammara Ahmad Amarjit Chandan (talk) 10:07, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

@Amarjit Chandan: Hi, Please tag the file you want deleted with {{SD|G7}}. Please read COM:SD for details. Thanks, Yann (talk) 18:14, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

Unggah video

Kenapa tidak bisa unggah video Rico Crasela 01 (talk) 10:19, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

@Rico Crasela 01: Pastikan video yang diunggah adalah dalam format berkas yang bebas, seperti WEBM. Kita tidak menerima format MP4, MOV karena merupakan format berkas yang non-bebas. Lihat pula Commons:Video dan Commons:Project scope/Allowable file types. HyperAnd [talk] 21:17, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

Change in wiki commons rate-limiting? Getting frequent 429 - errors on wiki commons image requests

I have an app (ios / android) that is displaying images from wikimedia commons that has been out for over a year. About a week ago I started seeing a massive increase of 429 - Too many Requests responses. Nothing on our side has changed, the requests come from user devices (and IPs) and the 429 responses come after about 10-20 requests (request volume hasn't changed either). I haven't found anything about wikimedia commons rate limiting just the api and there we should be well below the limits. Have I missed some documentation or does anybody know who I could contact to resolve this? P.S: I am following the user agent format recommended here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Reusing_content_outside_Wikimedia Bbbub (talk) 10:55, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

@Bbbub: might be better asked at COM:VP/T. - Jmabel ! talk 21:20, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

Thank you, I have done that: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump/Technical#c-Bbbub-20260105111400-Change_in_wiki_commons_rate-limiting?_Getting_frequent_429_-_errors_on_wiki_comm Bbbub (talk) 11:18, 5 January 2026 (UTC)

Uploading a Photograph

I started to upload a photograph that I took and ran into a few problems: 1) I took the photo and would like to receive photographic credit. How do I do that? 2) After uploading, I got a message saying not to complete the upload because it was a photo that I took of Erwin Helfer for Erwin Helfer's wikipedia page, i.e., a personal photo. I'm okay with it being in the public domain, I just wanted photographic credit. 3) I've uploaded it but I am not sure what state I left it, uploaded but not submitted? I think I did this twice. 4) How do I proceed? Stevenbdolins (talk) 16:37, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

@Stevenbdolins:

1) You choose one of the several available licenses that require attribution (aka credit). You insert the corresponding license template or choose one from the menu of the upload tool you use. For example, possible licenses that require attribution are {{Cc-by-4.0}} or {{Cc-by-sa-4.0}}. See Commons:Licensing for more information. You can use the parameter "attribution" with some license templates to make your credit requirement more obvious to reusers. Note that in Wikipedia articles, your credit will not appear in the article but it will appear when clicking the photo. Also, realistically, be aware that people outside Wikimedia sometimes (often) illicitly reuse photos without mentioning the required credit. So, you must be prepared either to tolerate such uncredited uses or to go through the trouble of contacting the delinquent reusers to try to enforce your attribution.

2) I don't know what message you received. It was possibly related to something you replied while navigating through questions of the upload tool you were using. If you're uploading a photo for a Wikipedia article, that's not what is usually meant by "personal photo".

3) The account Stevenbdolins on Commons was created today and has not uploaded anything to Commons yet (see logs). And no upload attempt was blocked by the filters on Commons (see filters). Apparently, the account Stevenbdolins on en.Wikipedia, created on 16 December 2025, did not upload any file to en.wikipedia either (see logs) and the only filtered actions there were for edits, not for uploads (see filters). Maybe you can clarify what, when, where, how, you tried to upload.

4) Depends on the above. -- Asclepias (talk) 18:46, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

One further question: what upload tool were you using? I usually recommend Special:UploadWizard for beginners, especially if they are uploading a photo they took themselves, it walks you through that case very well. If you were using anything else—e.g. some cross-uploader from another wiki—please try that instead. - Jmabel ! talk 21:23, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

How do I upload a text file with images?

I want to create a new Wikipedia page. How do I do so? ValenciaEuge (talk) 17:22, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

@ValenciaEuge: Hi, What subject do you want to create a Wikipedia about? On Commons, we only accept multimedia content with an educational value. No text file created by you. Please read COM:SCOPE. Thanks, Yann (talk) 18:12, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

Also, note: if you want to "create a new Wikipedia page": (1) this is not Wikipedia, it is Commons, the associated media repository. (2) there is a different Wikipedia in each of several hundred languages. I'm guessing that you mean the English-language Wikipedia.

For the English-language Wikipedia, start with en:Help:Your first article. For uploading pictures, start with COM:First steps. If you plan to upload pictures you did not take yourself, you will almost certainly also want to read COM:THIRD. - Jmabel ! talk 21:26, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

Image of software

I am writing something about software, And I am hoping to add a image of it functioning. I have seen plenty of these images all over Wikipedia, But when reading the infographic, It said I cannot put a screenshot of software running on Wikipedia. Is this true? are all the other articles breaking the rules? Romey13 (talk) 02:51, 5 January 2026 (UTC)

Screenshots of software are not inherently different than screenshots of a movie or television show. If the original medium is either freely licensed or in the public domain, then a screenshot is a derivative work that is allowed. If the original work is not, then the screenshot almost certainly would not be (there could be some exceptions, but those would be rare and probably not relevant). Note that the way that some software renders is not even able to be copyrighted, e.g. a terminal interface that is just plain text. Other software definitely can be protected by copyright, such as video games. If you have a specific example in mind, that could help other users guide you on if the screenshot would be acceptable, but as you can see, there is no clear yes/no dichotomy and it's dependent on a few factors. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 03:05, 5 January 2026 (UTC)

It looks like they want to upload screenshots about software made by Lexaloffle games, according to their contributions on English Wikipedia. Here is their ToS. HyperAnd [talk] 03:51, 5 January 2026 (UTC)