Commons:Extracting graphics from open license publications

This guide provides information on how to extract vector graphics from compatible license publications in pdf in four steps:

1. Extracting images from the pdf source
2. Uploading the images to Wikimedia Commons
3. Creating a category for the publication
4. Creating a category for the publisher

Extracting individual images from a pdf

1. Download and install Inkscape (Open source and free)
2. Find the page with the graphic you want to upload on your .pdf viewer
3. Open the .pdf in Inscape (File, Open)
4. Select the page you want to open
5. Select all the parts that shouldn't be in the image and delete them (if you just shrink the artboard to the size of the section you want to display this can sometimes cause issues).
6. Remove any additional text e.g Fig.1
7. Shrink the artboard to fit the image
   1. Go to File then Document Properties
   2. Click Resize page to content
   3. Add a 10 margin to all sides and click Resize page to drawing or selection
   4. Close the menu
8. Vectorise the text so it displays properly on Wikimedia
   1. Select everything (either by clicking edit, select all, or by pressing ctrl + a)
   2. Click 'Path' then 'Object to path'
9. Go to File, Save as, and chose Plain SVG
10. Click Save

Extracting multiple images from a pdf

See the instructions for using PDF2SVG here.

Upload images to Wikimedia Commons

1. Go to the Wikimedia Commons main page
2. Make sure you are logged in to your account (top right hand side of the page)
3. Click on on the blue Upload button.
4. Click the blue button select media files to share
5. Select the images from one publication (you can upload up to 50 images at a time)
6. Upload the images
7. On the first screen
   1. Fill in the source as the URL of the publication and the author
   2. Chose for the license
   3. Click 'next'
8. On the second screen
   1. Fill in the name and description for each image which can be the same if the description is short
   2. Add a date as the date of publication
   3. Add categories relating to the subject matter at the category 'SVG charts in English'
   4. Add the category 'Graphics from NAMEOFPUBLICATION replacing with name of publication e.g Category:Graphics from Getting Climate-Ready, A guide for Schools on Climate Action. If the name of the publication includes any special characters (e.g a : or a ?) do not include them
   5. Click Upload

Create a category for the publication

Note: This only needs to be done once per publication

1. Look at one of the images you have just uploaded
2. Click on the red link for the name of the publication at the bottom of the page, this will take you through to the page to create the category
3. Paste in [[Category:Graphics from NAMEOFPUBLISHER]], replacing with name of publisher e.g Category:Graphics from UNESCO publications
4. Add 'Created category' to the edit summary and save the page

Create a category for the graphics from the publisher

Note: This only needs to be done once per publisher

1. On the category page for a publication (which you have just created) click on the red link for the name of the publisher at the bottom of the page, this will take you through to the page to create the category
2. Paste in [[Category:NAMEOFPUBLISHER]] into the edit window
3. Add 'Created category' to the edit summary and save the page