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.

Usage
For examples see Template:Annotated image/doc/Samples.

All parameters have names – there are no nameless "numbered" parameters.

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

In most cases you will need only the required parameters – the rest are there in case you want additional formatting options.

Example
Template:Annotated image/Extinction

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.
 * 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 Wikiversity logo. The zoom control sequences (CTRL + to increase, CTRL - 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.

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