howto:tag

Table of Contents

Tagging is the second most important job on Danbooru, and should be done meticulously.

By tagging an image with keywords which describe the content, users are able to search for images featuring a specific character or theme. Detailed and specialized tagging is what made Danbooru become an anime-art database, instead of just a huge collection only good enough for casual browsing.

Users at Member level can be invited to become Builder when their prominent tagging efforts are noticed.
(See Help:Users#Getting_Promoted for more information.)

If you have any trouble or issue with tagging, please create a thread in the Forum to ask, or consider using an already existing tag help thread.

Existing tag help threads:

  • How do I tag this? (topic #12251) is for help on tagging things specifically.
  • Wiki Requests (topic #12858) is for questions on the definition of a tag.

This article describes how to tag posts. For a general overview of the features of tags, see help:tags.

Tag What You See

Tag what you see, not what you know. In other words, only tag the visible elements of the image. For example, if you know that someone's outfit includes black pantyhose but you can only see their body from the waist up, only tag the parts of the outfit you can see.

Another good example is character traits: Remilia Scarlet is canonically a vampire, but you should only use the vampire tag when vampire characteristics are clearly visible.

Do not use subjective tags (such as sexy, cute, hot, etc.). These tags are problematic because they are based on personal opinion, and different opinions can conflict.

There are some exceptions to this rule, such as tags that convey valuable information about in-canon relationships like siblings.

Minimal Tagging Criteria

Artist. See help:artists for more information.

Character. All featured characters must be identified.

Copyright. Indicate from which series the characters came from.

Source. The original URL the image was taken from must be provided. If there's no URL, indicate by words from where the material came from (i.e. name of the artbook, name of doujinshi, imageboard, scan etc)

Rating. Explicit material must be indicated according to howto:rate.

Spoilers. Some images are spoilers themselves, and must be declared with the spoilers tag.

General Tags

Describe the image in simple keywords. Just to get into the right mindset:

Remember: There are a lot users who are not familiar with a character or a copyright, so using the following basic tags will enable those without such knowledge to recognize and search for images easily.

Commonly Blacklisted Tags

The following must be tagged upon upload to ensure users' blacklists work as intended:

Missing Information

Source_request, if the source of the image is not known.

Tagme, if contents of the image are not known. This includes items and weapons characters are seen wielding, or exotic accessories they are wearing. Do not intentionally use tagme or the request tags as an excuse for being too lazy to tag own uploads.

Danbooru's Related Tags can help you find tags you don't know the name of or discover new tags using an existing tag as a starting point.

Below the tag edit text box, by clicking the down arrow on the Related Tags modal, you can retrieve a list of tags that are frequently used together with the tag your cursor is currently on.

Consider the tag witch. Calling on Related Tags will reveal that images with witch also tend to contain broom, ribbon, witch_hat, and dress. Calling it on a character, for example Kirisame Marisa, will often reveal a list of tags for clothing worn by the character.

You can then narrow down related tags by tag category using the tab listing at the top. The Wiki tab shows tags linked to by the wiki of the tag in question.

Related tags are never perfect. Remember to do your research and cross-reference tags with the image you're editing or uploading if you're not sure.

Frequent Tags

Adding tags to your Frequent Tags list in My Account > Settings > Advanced allows you to quickly view and add them when editing.

Use Danbooru's Existing Tags

Please use Danbooru's existing tags whenever possible, but do create a new tag if you are sure that it is not covered by existing tags or pools. If you aren't sure about which tag to use or whether creating a new tag is the right step, don't be afraid to ask on the forums.

Please double-check your tags on the left side of the screen after applying them. If you have any tags with a total count of 1, a new tag has been created. If this happens, please check that your tags have been correctly spelled.

Creating a New Tag

Tag types
  • Artist names carry the prefix ''artist:'' or ''art:''
    • See help:artists for more details on artist tags and the artist database.
  • Character names carry the prefix ''character:'' or ''char:''
  • Copyright titles carry the prefix ''copyright:'' or ''copy:''
    • Except where decided otherwise, Danbooru prefers using the original name of a work as the name of a copyright tag.
  • Meta tags carry the prefix ''meta:''
  • General tags carry the prefix "general:" or "gen:". All new tags without a prefix are automatically assumed to be general.

For Artist, Character and Copyright tags, you'll likely encounter situations where romanization is necessary. Read howto:romanize to brush up on the basics.

If you create a tag with the wrong type, or notice a tag with an incorrect type, you can edit the post and add the correct prefix to the tag in order to change its type. This can only be done for existing tags if their post count is lower than a certain amount depending on user level, the specific thresholds are documented in help:users.

Naming a tag

Use singular nouns. This ensures consistency and makes more sense for posts where only one of that object appears. For instance, if an image contains a bin full of wispberries, tag it wispberry.

Resolve ambiguities with Qualifiers. If the tag you are going to use had already been taken up for another purpose, add a qualifier in parentheses to distinguish them.

For example Black Rock Shooter is both the OVA name and the female protagonist's name.

Other situations where qualifiers may be used include, but are not limited to:

  • Characters with generic (ambiguous) names,
  • A character named after an object,
  • A character and copyright with the same name.

See help:qualifiers for further reading.

Use proper name order. Name order should appear the same as in the original materials. Commonly:

  • SurName_FirstName for Asians. Example: Shameimaru_Aya, where Shameimaru is her surname.
  • FirstName_SurName for Westerners, and most other ethnicities. Example: Ken_Masters.

Use the character's full name in your tags whenever possible.

See Also

Further Reading

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