Photo & Multimedia Use on the Website

Photographs in the university’s Photo Archive Database (PAD) are available for web use but must be optimized to the proper image size and aspect ratio before being inserted into editable regions of web pages.  

All other images must be approved by UNCW Photo Services, prior to placement on a webpage. If approved, images will be optimized for web use. Content managers can learn more about this process on our Photo Approvals Process Cascade help page.

Prior approval from UNCW Photo Services is also required before any photograph is digitally altered in a manner that changes its editorial representation. Digitally altered photos must also be clearly identified as “photo illustrations.” 

If you have questions regarding the use of UNCW photographic images, please email our@uncw.edu.

Web image, video and PDF files will always follow specific naming guidelines. 

Best Practices

• A hyphen separates words in the file name (no underscore, period, etc.).
• Text in the image name will always be lowercase.

Photos taken from the Photo Archive Database (PAD) would use the following naming convention:

• Image description
• + PAD ID (Remove any underscores _ and replace with a hyphen - )
• + Template element/asset type

For example, a photo used in the hero of a page could be “students-in-biology-lab-d808763-hero-level4.jpg”.

For questions regarding asset naming conventions, please reach out to the web team. 

If content managers have not secured permission to use selected photos or possess satisfactory evidence the photo(s) are in the public domain or have been donated for use, the photo(s) must not be used. To place copyright-protected material, such as text, photos, audio, video or other documents, on a university web page, the content manager must obtain prior written permission from the copyright owner(s) as applicable.

The Office of General Counsel can assist content managers in ascertaining whether subject material constitutes public domain or proprietary content.

Audio and video files in any format, either for download or streaming, should not be placed on the main UNCW web server.

In addition, the content manager must provide text transcripts for audio and video to make the content accessible to visitors with disabilities.

Content managers can view additional use information on our Video Approval Process Cascade help page.