Template:Annotated image/doc

This template allows the addition of explanatory notes to images in the form of actual text (which can also contain links), which is usually more legible than text  built into the image –  especially if the image is reduced to thumbnail size.

Other uses include cropping an image to exclude unimportant parts and perhaps enlarge important parts, and internationalisation, as the annotations can be changed without changing the image.

This template and annotated image 4 are the only two annotated image templates that utilize annotation to superimpose wikitext onto images.

Syntax


Parameters
All parameters have names; there are no nameless "numbered" parameters.

Two of the parameters, image and imagemap, are mutually exclusive: use one of them, not both.

In the following list, those parameters required by the template are shown in bold.

Internationalisation
This template makes internationalisation easy; the text is already separate from the image, so it is easy to translate the text and, if necessary, move pieces of text, as the lengths of the same text in different languages can vary a lot. For example, nl:Sjabloon:Zijbalk mariene extincties, the Dutch version of Template:Annotated image/Extinction, is widely used.

Pitfall
There is one pitfall, although it is mainly about using one browser in the correct way (Microsoft Internet Explorer, of course). Internet Explorer has two ways of scaling up text to ease readability:
 * Text resizing, which appears in Internet Explorer's View menu, affects text but not images. This method can disrupt annotated images, as the text is scaled up but the image content and frame are not. Firefox and Opera do not use this mechanism, but users could be able to customize via browser preferences, extension, or user styles.
 * Zoom also scales the image as well as text annotations, and thus does not disrupt the relative sizes and locations of annotations in annotated images. Netscape and its Mozilla derivatives, Firefox and Opera have had zoom for years, and it is more useful, as it also scales text implemented as part of an image, e.g., as in the Wikipedia logo. The zoom control sequences (CTRL + to increase, CTRL &minus; to decrease) are the same in Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer. In Firefox and Opera, there also menu items for zoom, which show the control sequences. In Internet Explorer 7 only text resizing appears in the menu; in order to learn zoom, users must look up some external source. A device with touchscreen also have alternative zoom control via two fingers, the supported web browser should zoom properly following users' gesture.

Examples
Template:Annotated image/Extinction

Adding explanatory notes
See Template:Annotated image/doc/Samples.

Cropping
You have an image like commons:File:Mona Lisa color restoration2.jpg. But you want to show only a part of the image, say a part of the nose and mouth:

You can do it with following code:



The result is a 250pixels x 250pixels area from the 2000 pixels width image (the factual width of the image doesn't matter). The upper 800 pixels and the 850 pixels at the left side of the 2000-image are "discarded" as well as the "rest" at the right side after the 250 pixels and at the bottom after the 250 pixels:

Subpages (templates based on this template)
This list is automatically generated and updated. Redirects are shown in italics.