Image Use and Citation Policy

There are two options for crediting images:

Before capturing a photographic moment on university grounds, at a university event or of a UofL person, consider if a release/consent form is required, should you plan to use that photograph in marketing or publications (print or digital). 

Non-Required Examples 

A release is generally not required if UofL community members or others are: 

• photographed in a public space or at public events (athletic events, student activities, etc.) 
• photographed in a non-public environment but the primary focus is not recognizable (silhouette, blurred/out of focus) 
• UofL faculty or staff 

invited to attend a group activity/event and chose to participate 

Required Examples 

A release is generally required if students or others (except UofL faculty/staff) are: 

• the primary focus of a photograph taken in a non-public space, are recognizable and have been recruited specifically to serve as subjects/models 
• under the age of 18 

As a courtesy to subjects/models, you are encouraged to obtain a photo release/consent form in instances where an individual can be identified and is the primary focus of a specific photograph. 

A sample release/consent form is available [PDF]. 

Every image used online must include a descriptive alt tag.

Example: 
<img src="https://libapps.s3.amazonaws.com/customers/764/images/kimberly-farmer-lUaaKCUANVI-unsplash-2.jpg" alt="colorful books"> 
 

Because of the way that Springshare stores images (under each author’s Image Manager account) and the possibility that other site editors may need to know what the image is and where it’s used, we suggest including the following in the file name: 

• Project alias (a short name to help identify which project the image is used for, ex. raihome); 
• Unique identifier (if it has one) OR descriptive phrase (to help differentiate it from other images in that project);  
• Size in pixels (optional);  Your initials. 
• Include a hyphen between each of the above. 

Examples 

• raihome-teaching-300x200-tlh 
• endnote-importing-500x200-tlh 
• exhibits-ulpaSONJ26644-tlh 

By including the project alias first, the items will be grouped together in your Image Manager. 

Large file sizes increase the page load time. We recommend resizing images and optimizing them for web usage if they are larger than 600px wide (unless the image will be the whole width of the page). The largest size an image will display in LibGuides is 1170px and this is when it goes the whole width of the page.   

Resizing 

The Creative Cloud suite includes access to Photoshop. In Photoshop,  

1. Open image 
2. Image – Image Size  

3. Leaving the linked symbol on, change either the height or width. With the linked setting on, the other dimension will scale automatically.
4. Click the OK button.

Saving the File

File - Export - Export As

Set the file format and quality (5 or 6 works well). Photoshop will show you an image to the sizing options so you can preview the image quality.

Then click the Export button.

Image Type

• PNG: use for images with transparency or screenshots
• JPG: use for photographs
• GIF: use for icons