Wikipedia talk:Extended image syntax

How do we specify background color?

How do we specify a background color, so that e.g. black text is visible on a black background? I'm looking at the info box in Atlantean language. Thanks. — kwami (talk) 06:37, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

I have an idea. Give me 15 minutes... nagualdesign 07:05, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

..Took a little longer than expected. I created a new image file, File:Dig Adlantisag.png, and added it to the infobox. Ping me if you'd like any alterations. nagualdesign 07:44, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

Thanks! That looks beautiful; I was hoping for an easy fix rather than hand the work over to someone else, but there probably won't be many times we need to do something like this. — kwami (talk) 08:26, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

I don't mind in the least. It was pretty straightforward. I could do something similar for the Klingon language infobox if you like. nagualdesign 08:34, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

..Since the Klingon fonts don't show up on desktop or mobile I went ahead and replaced the altname parameter with File:tlhIngan Hol.png. nagualdesign 10:26, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

Displaying thumb of some video without that "Play the Video"-Button

Interview with Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki

Is there any way, any magic keyword to show just the preview image of a video without that Start-Button, like it is in Page information of Wiki? --Wurgl (talk) 09:23, 21 May 2021 (UTC)

I think your best bet would be WP:TemplateStyles to set background-image: none on .mw-tmh-player.video > .mw-tmh-play:not(:hover). The last part of that makes sure the play button is able to reappear on hover. User:GKFX^talk 11:42, 21 May 2021 (UTC)

It is for german wikipedia where that template is missing. Importing that template (causing sure a lot of discussion) is too much effort for a very few (maybe 3) videos/images. I was hoping there might be some undocumented parameter. However, thanks. --Wurgl (talk) 09:34, 23 May 2021 (UTC)

Coordinates of the thing the image is of

Is there syntax for or a way to use coordinates for the thing that the image is an image of? E.g. if you have a picture that is of a particular building in a town, the coords for the article will be for the town. The picture may have coords in its metadata of course, but that’s invisible in any article it’s included in. I ask because a friend in real life recently added a picture and wanted to specify exactly where it was, and I realized I’d never seen this use case before.

For example, I took two of the pictures in Loch Muick, and they’re far enough apart to have noticeably different coords. Is there a natural way to add that information to those images in that article? Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 02:02, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

The obvious place for such coordinates would be via {{coord}} in the image's caption. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 03:22, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

I tried this with {{Coord| 56.851082| -3.741822|display=inline|name=Dail-an-eas bridge}} in the fourth image in Glen Tilt. (The documentation for {{Coord}} made me think it was only for the main article location.) It works, but it doesn't look as if anyone ever expected coord to be used this way -- the "name" parameter does nothing in the article, and in the linked GeoHack page it does use it as the (easily missed) page title, but also gives it as the article name in the link back to Wikipedia. It would be nice if the image syntax allowed something prettier to be automatic. For example the Glen Tilt page itself has "Coordinates: 56.833°N 3.776°W / 56.833; -3.776" at the top right, with tooltip text for the button saying "Show location on an interactive map". Can something like that be made to happen when a coord is used in an image caption? Perhaps using the name parameter to make it "Show Dail-an-eas bridge on an interactive map" for the tooltip? Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 05:34, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

A facility for image coordinates already exists, although not in the form you want. See "Camera location" in the "Summary" section of the file description page for this image. We could debate the merits of making it more visible/accessible, but in my opinion it would be a bad idea for multiple reasons. It would be unwise to allow the same information in both places, with no mechanism to ensure that they are in agreement. The information in the file description is for readers as well as editors, and it would not serve readers in the long term to protect them from having to learn to use it. My suggestion is to update the file description with the coordinates, revert your change to the caption, and call it a day. 68.97.42.64 (talk) 06:21, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

The popup for WikiMiniAtlas is obscured if {{coord}} appears in the last line of an image caption. This can be avoided by using it earlier in the caption, or by adding 2 line breaks after it. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 11:05, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

I see what you mean; I added a couple of line breaks and the WikiMiniAtlas popup is now visible. It sounds like that's the best current answer. I take the IP's point about the image file being the natural places for the coordinates to live, but that shouldn't prevent useful reader functionality -- a template that was able to extract the coords from the image file and display a WikiMiniAtlas link would be a nice gadget to place inside a caption. I'll suggest that at VPT. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 12:35, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

I'm with 68.97.42.64 on this. Commons provides a number of templates specifically for this, which are used on file description pages - they include c:Template:Globe location, c:Template:Location and c:Template:Object location. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 15:55, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for the links; those look like what I was looking for. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 09:25, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

@Mike Christie: those look like what I was looking for. That seems unlikely, since they can't be used in image captions. They are for use in the file description like the example I gave above. that shouldn't prevent useful reader functionality Said functionality is in the file description, provided editors don't go out of their way to prevent readers from learning to use it. Your solution would tend to undermine the intent of the file description, both for coordinates and for all of the other useful information there. Curious and resourceful users of any software poke around for things that might be useful to them, rather than assuming that everything that might be of use is placed in front of them with no effort on their parts. Those users will always be more productive, and that's just a fact of life. Again, it doesn't serve the lazy users to keep them lazy, and in my opinion those users are becoming less common with each new generation. This is from a person who had a long career working with the human-computer interface. You're free to disagree with my philosophy on this, but I wanted to be sure you understand it. The file description is intended to be used. 68.97.42.64 (talk) 20:11, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

Well, there are two people looking for an answer here; my friend, who does want to put locations in captions, and for whom this is probably not the answer they were hoping for, and me. I think my friend's wish to display locations in captions is a reasonable opinion, though I don't find it useful myself, but I understand your point about storing the data in only one location and I think that if locations are ever to be displayed in captions it would be best to have it extracted from the underlying file. That's why I said Redrose64's answer was what I was looking for. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 20:17, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

You seem to equate the file description to Wikidata; i.e. a data repository not to be used directly by readers. I think that's the crux of our disagreement. 68.97.42.64 (talk) 20:33, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

I was under the impression that one of the reasons to store data in {{Coord}} was that it was machine readable -- in fact the template documentation says as much. And you're right that I am assuming that it would be OK to programme something to read it. I can see that wikidata might want to take that data, and that any programmatic access might pull from there instead, but are you saying that it is actually undesirable to read the commons coord data via template coding, for some display purpose or other? I would think that would suffer from the same criticism as above: reading a copy of the data is less desirable than reading the source. Or are you saying that wikidata should be treated as the source here? Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 20:50, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

I'm saying that the coordinates should appear only in the file description, where the more resourceful users will find it, remember that they found it, and go whenever they want image coordinates. For those who don't want image coordinates, who I believe comprise a large majority, placing them in the caption creates visual clutter that detracts from the article. And, as I've said, it reduces the likelihood that a reader will ever discover the file description and the useful information often found in the "Description" and "Date" fields, for example. By your reasoning, we should have a way to pull those items from the file description and show them in the caption because some readers will find them informative; all to accommodate readers who lack the motivation to click through to the file description and investigate what's there. That's bad design in my opinion. 68.97.42.64 (talk) 21:16, 15 July 2021 (UTC)