Wikipedia:Software screenshots
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Wikipedia includes many articles on pieces of software, and it is often useful to illustrate these with screenshots of the software running. This page is intended to discuss some of the specific issues raised by such images.
Note: This is not an official policy page, merely a request for comments. The text below represents individual suggestions, not the result of discussion and consensus. Please edit and discuss this page as you see fit, rather than trying to implement it as it currently stands.
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[edit] Content and formatting Issues
The below is a suggested set of guidelines for creating a screenshot image, based in part on discussion at Talk:Mozilla Firefox.
[edit] What to show
- Use the default configuration. Many pieces of software allow the user interface to be heavily customised, or even skinned. Unless the screenshot is intended to specifically demonstrate such ability, and is labelled as such, effort should be made to present the interface as it would appear for a default configuration.
- Where a piece of software runs on more than one Operating System, it should be decided which version to show. Where the difference in appearance between versions is minimal, one option is to simply remove the frame of the window (i.e. the part of the window drawn by the OS, rather than the application) from the image.
- However, in any case, screenshots taken in any OS should have the OS's default theme enabled. This makes it easier to know, at a glance, which OS is being used. It also looks more professional.
- There is an established convention that screenshots of web browsers show the Wikipedia Main Page. As with the software, it is recommended that Wikipedia is shown in or near its default configuration - use the default skin and "quickbar" settings. In many cases, it might be better to show the product page of the web browser, however, as this usually includes a logo.
- Similarly, a word-processor or image manipulation program could be shown manipulating content taken from Wikipedia.
- Beware of showing private information. E-mail software is particularly prone to this, but looking closely at any screenshot may reveal personalisations or names that you do not want to make public. You may wish to blur out such details before uploading the image—see Wikipedia:Graphics tutorials for help with this. Another approach (used in an Apple Mail screenshot) is to show only spam or email from a mailing list.
- Only update the image if the look has changed significantly. Although the default look of most software will vary slightly with each version, a screenshot only captures a general impression anyway. However, if a new version is released which (by default) has significant interface changes—for instance, uses a new skin—then it is probably sensible to produce an updated screenshot to match updated text in the article.
[edit] Image format and size
To be decided:
- Screen resolution of 800x600 or 1024x768, scaled down for ease of download?
- Actual image on page to be thumbnail—of what (approximate) dimensions?
- PNG format is the best for screenshots. It should be used over JPEG.
- Disable software screen-type-specific font-smoothing features (like Adobe CoolType [1] and Microsoft ClearType [2]). Sure, images taken with these features enabled might look good when viewed in certain kinds of screens (e.g., LCD), but they might also look bad when viewed other kinds of screens (e.g., CRT), and Wikimedians own different kinds of computer screens!
[edit] Copyright issues
It is generally agreed that screenshots come under fair use. However, there are potential issues with trademarks, and some software vendors seek to limit the extent to which images can be used. Previous discussion seems to have resulted in general agreement that using screenshots should not be a problem, but not all issues were resolved. The suggested image copyright tag for fair use software screenshots is {{software-screenshot}}.
