Afeatured article exemplifies Wikipedia's very best work and is distinguished by professional standards of writing, presentation, and sourcing. In addition to meeting thepolicies regarding content for all Wikipedia articles, it has the following attributes.

1. It is:
   1. well-written: its prose is engaging and of a professional standard;
   2. comprehensive: it neglects no major facts or details and places the subject in context;
   3. well-researched: it is a thorough and representative survey of the relevant literature; claims areverifiable against high-qualityreliable sources and are supported by inline citationswhere appropriate;
   4. neutral: it presents viewsfairly and without bias;
   5. stable: it is not subject to ongoingedit wars and its content does not change significantly from day to day, except in response to the featured article process; and
   6. compliant withWikipedia's copyright policy and free ofplagiarism ortoo-close paraphrasing.
2. It follows thestyle guidelines, including the provision of:
   1. a lead: a conciselead section that summarizes the topic and prepares the reader for the detail in the subsequent sections;
   2. appropriate structure: a substantial but not overwhelming system of hierarchicalsection headings; and
   3. consistent citations: where required by criterion 1c, consistently formatted inline citations using footnotes—seeciting sources for suggestions on formatting references. Citation templates are not required.
3. Media. It hasimages and other media, where appropriate, with succinctcaptions andacceptable copyright status. Images follow theimage use policy.Non-free images or media must satisfy thecriteria for inclusion of non-free content andbe labeled accordingly.
4. Length. It stays focused on the main topic without going into unnecessary detail and usessummary style where appropriate.

1. Prose. It features professional standards of writing.
2. Lead. It has an engaginglead that introduces the subject and defines the scope and inclusion criteria.
3. Comprehensiveness.
   • (a) It comprehensively covers the defined scope, providing at least all of the major items and, where practical, a complete set of items; where appropriate, it has annotations that provide useful and appropriate information about the items.
   • (b) statements aresourced where they appear, and they provideinline citations if they contain any of thefour kinds of material absolutely required to have citations.
   • (c) In length and/or topic, it meets all of the requirements forstand-alone lists and includes at minimum eight items; does not violate thecontent-forking guideline, does not largely duplicate material from another article, and could not reasonably be included as part of a related article.
4. Structure. It is easy to navigate and includes, where helpful,section headings andtable sort facilities.
5. Style. It complies with theManual of Style and its supplementary pages.
   • (a)Visual appeal. It makes suitable use of text layout, formatting,tables, andcolour; and a minimal proportion of items are redlinked.
   • (b)Media files. It hasimages and other media, if appropriate to the topic, that follow Wikipedia'susage policies, with succinctcaptions.Non-free images and other media satisfy thecriteria for the inclusion of non-free content andare labeled accordingly.
   • (c)Accessibility. Ituses proper formating to beaccessible to all readers.Bulleted and unbulleted lists andtables are structured correctly. Visual media, if included, utilizealternative (alt) text.
6. Stability. It is not the subject of ongoingedit wars and its content does not change significantly from day to day, except in response to the featured list process.

1. Is of a high technical standard.
   • It has good contrast, accurate exposure and neutral colour balance.
   • It shows no significantcompression artifacts, burned-out highlights,image noise ("graininess") or other processing anomalies (examples of common technical problems).
   • Its main subject is in focus, it has goodcomposition and has no highly distracting or obstructing elements.
   • Exceptions to this rule may be made for historical or otherwise unique images. If it is considered impossible to find a technically superior image of a given subject, lower quality may sometimes be allowed.
2. Is of high resolution.
   • It is of sufficiently highresolution to allow quality print reproduction. Still images should be aminimum of1500pixels in width and height (1500×1500px); larger sizes are generally preferred. The size of animated images is judged less strictly, though larger is still preferred (further information on image size).
     • Exceptions to this rule may be made where justified on a case-by-case basis, such as for historical, technically difficult or otherwise unique images, if no higher resolution could realistically be acquired. This should be explained in the nomination so that it can be taken into consideration.
     • Note thatvector graphics inSVG format omit any requirement for any pixel count.
     • Animations and video may be somewhat smaller.
3. Is among Wikipedia's best work.
   • It is a photograph, diagram, image or animation which is among the best examples of a given subject that the encyclopedia has to offer.
   • It illustrates the subject in a compelling way, making the viewer want to know more. A photograph has appropriatelighting to maximize visible detail; diagrams and other illustrations are clear and informative.
   • A featured picture is not always required to be aesthetically pleasing; it might be shocking, impressive, or just highly informative. Highly graphic, historical and otherwise unique images may not have to be classically beautiful at all. Seethese examples for a basic guide.
   • commons:Help:Scanning offers advice on preparing non-photographic media (engravings, illustrations from books, etc) in your possession for Wikipedia.
4. Has a free license.It is available in thepublic domain or under a free license.Fair use images arenot allowed. To check which category a particular image tag falls under, see the list atWikipedia:File copyright tags.
5. Adds significant encyclopedic value to an articleand helps readers to understand an article.
   • The image is used in one or more articles. It is preferable to wait a reasonable period of time (at least 7 days) after the image is added to the article before nominating it, though this may be ignored in obvious cases, such as replacing a low-resolution version of an image with a higher resolution of the same image.
   • A picture's encyclopedic value (referred to as "EV") is given priority over its artistic value.
6. Isverifiable.It is supported by facts in the article or references cited on the image page, or is from a source noted for its accuracy. It is not created topropose new original research, such as unpublished ideas or arguments.
7. Has a descriptive, informative and complete file description in English.A complete file description:
   • Properly identifies the main subject, including Latin and technical names where applicable.
   • Describes the context of the photograph, painting, or other medium.Geotagging photographs of identifiable places is encouraged. This entails providing the coordinates of where the camera was when the medium was recorded to an appropriate degree of precision no less than ~10 km² (seeCommons:Geocoding, orTemplate:Coord if the image is hosted on the English Wikipedia).
   • States the most relevant meta-detail (such as date, location, event, version, etc). It is suggested that additional relevant information that becomes known during the course of the nomination be subsequently included in the file description.
   • May include languages other than English but there must be an English version available that meets this criterion. The file name may be in a language other than English.
8. Avoids inappropriate digital manipulation.
   • Digital manipulation for the purpose of correcting flaws in a photographic image is generally acceptable provided it is limited, well-done, and not deceptive.
   • Typical acceptable manipulation includes cropping, perspective correction, sharpening/blurring, and colour/exposure correction.
   • More extensive manipulation should be clearly described in the image text.
   • Any manipulation which causes the main subject to be misrepresented is unacceptable.
   • Note that this criterion is not relevant to vector-based SVG images, as the entire image is a digital construction.

1. Well-written:
   1. the prose is clear, concise, andunderstandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct; and
   2. it complies with theManual of Style guidelines forlead sections,layout,words to watch,fiction, andlist incorporation.
2. Verifiable withno original research:
   1. it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance withthe layout style guideline;
   2. reliable sources arecited inline. All content thatcould reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose);
   3. it containsno original research; and
   4. it contains nocopyright violations orplagiarism.
3. Broad in its coverage:
   1. it addresses themain aspects of the topic; and
   2. it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (seesummary style).
4. Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.
5. Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoingedit war or content dispute.
6. Illustrated, if possible, bymedia such asimages,video, oraudio:
   1. media aretagged with theircopyright statuses, andvalid non-free use rationales are provided fornon-free content; and
   2. media arerelevant to the topic, and havesuitable captions.

1. The article issuitably referenced, withinline citations. It hasreliable sources, and any important or controversial material which islikely to be challenged is cited. Any format of inline citation is acceptable: the use of<ref> tags andcitation templates such as{{cite web}} is optional.
2. The article reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain obvious omissions or inaccuracies. It contains a large proportion of the material necessary for anA-Class article, although some sections may need expansion, and some less important topics may be missing.
3. The article has a defined structure. Content should be organized into groups of related material, including alead section and all the sections that can reasonably be included in an article of its kind.
4. The article is reasonably well-written. The prose contains no major grammatical errors and flows sensibly, but does not need to beof the standard of featured articles. TheManual of Style does not need to be followed rigorously.
5. The article contains supporting materials where appropriate. Illustrations are encouraged, though not required. Diagrams, aninfobox etc. should be included where they are relevant and useful to the content.
6. The article presents its content in anappropriately understandable way. It is written with as broad an audience in mind as possible. The article should not assume unnecessary technical background andtechnical terms should be explained or avoided where possible.

• A useful picture or graphic
• Multiple links that help explain or illustrate the topic
• A subheading that fully treats an element of the topic
• Multiple subheadings that indicate material that could be added to complete the article