← E621 Wiki – Uploading
Contents: Good Things to Upload | Bad Things to Upload | Quality Standards | Humans and e621 | Advertisements

This is a short list of attributes we use to determine whether or not any given upload is fit for e621. Please note that the moderation team ultimately has the last word on this and that these guidelines do not encompass every possible upload.

This page is complementary to both our Avoid Posting List as well as the Code of Conduct, particularly the Posting Abuse section. Read them.

Any submission before 2015 has been grandfathered in and does not need to reflect our current or future guidelines. In fact, there is a substantial amount of old art that would be deleted under the current guidelines. The existence of those old submissions does not validate or invalidate anything on this list.
However, existing grandfathered posts are still eligible to be replaced with a superior version if one is discovered.

↑ Good Things to Upload:

• Any art or animations that are relevant to "furries", i.e. contain anthropomorphic characters or animals.
• Art you have created or commissioned.
• Art the original artist has given you permission to post here.
• High quality photographs (or scans) of traditional, drawn artwork on a paper canvas.
• Photo edits/manipulations are also okay as long as they're high quality.
• Image sets are allowed as long as they have an overarching story (i.e. comic) or otherwise a natural progression (i.e. transformation sequences) connecting the images.
• Webcomics are allowed as long as not the entire comic is mirrored here, meaning only up to a maximum of five (5) pages total.
• A webcomic counts as any comic that is exclusively hosted on their own page, exclusively hosted on a webcomic host, or monetized through ads.
• Image sets where a single "base" is reused multiple times with only minor edits (and no story or natural progression) are not allowed.
• Small excerpts (up to 10 at a time) are okay, though.

↑ Bad Things to Upload:

• Underage Human & Human-Like Characters: Any submissions containing underage human or human-like characters involved in explicit sexual activities, or featuring those characters nude with visible genitalia and / or anus, are not allowed.
• "Human-like" means all humanoid fantasy races, especially ones that have more skin than fur, and either no or only very minor animal features, like tails, ears, claws, etc.
• This includes, but is not limited to, elves, orcs, vampires, dwarves, gnomes, "human but has a tail and animal ears", stylized humans like The Simpsons, and similar content.
• Visual appearance counts for what is "young" first and foremost, but canonical age may also count for borderline depictions.
• If the young character is uninvolved in any ongoing explicit activities themselves, or is not nude themselves, that is allowed.
• Screen captures: Screenshots from games, still images from movies, video snippets from YouTube, etc.
• This includes all content created in sandboxes like Second Life, Minecraft, and similar.
• This also includes all ripped image files from visual novels and similar games.
• Exception: games and interactive media may have screen recordings captured by a developer. External UI elements such as cursors and recording software labels must be kept to a minimum, and captures including different characters using similar animations are subject to the normal base limit.
• Memes / Image macros: Any pre-existing image with some text slapped over it.
• Exception: If the image has been drawn specifically for that particular meme, then it's okay.
• Small images: Anything below 200px in either direction is likely to get deleted.
• Advertisements: Low quality ads or ads without artistic value.
• Images with only a small part advertising something (like a footer with a Patreon link) are very much welcome here.
• Adoptables/character auctions, YCH auctions, or any other types ads for auctions are not permitted.
• Irrelevant photographs: Any photograph that isn't of traditional artwork or manipulated to contain furry characters.
• Photos of fursuits, statues, plushies, dakimakura, tattoos, graffiti, painted plates, etc. are all irrelevant to us.
• Low quality submissions: Highly visible compression artifacts, scribbles, low-quality photographs of traditional media (invest in a scanner, people!), "1000h in MSPaint" images, computer generated mosaics, cropped images, anatomical diagrams, bad edits, screenshots, artificial upscales, AI/neural network edits, etc.
• Artificial upscales include anything like "normal" upscaling, waifu2x, neural network upscales, and similar.
• Sensible integer upscaling with nearest neighbor (a.k.a. without smoothing filters) is permitted for pixel artwork that would otherwise be too small to see well.
• AI Generated content: No AI generated, or AI assisted artwork.
• Exceptions are currently for backgrounds (treated like using a photo as a background, quality rules apply); for artwork that references, but does not directly use, AI generated content; for full paintovers; and for audio in WebM posts.
• Underage artists: Do not knowingly upload artwork from an artist who is under the age of 18. *
• This applies retroactively, so even if an artist is currently over the age of 18, artwork they made while under the age of 18 will still be deleted.
• Bases not coloured by the creator of the base; see Edits for posting bases coloured by the base creator.
• Images with third party watermarks (think iFunny, 9gag, etc.).
• Previously deleted content.
• DNP Content:
• Anything created by an artist or publisher on our Avoid Posting List. *
• If you have special permission to post something from an artist that is on our DNP list then please provide us with proof of said permission.
• Pay content (Patreon, art CDs, art packs sold through PayPal, etc.) *
• Pay-What-You-Want content (PWYW) that's allowed to be "bought" for $0.00 is DNP for the first two months after publication.
• Real-life pornography. No exceptions. *
• Traced images. *
• Referencing from something is fine, it just can't be a carbon copy.

Important: Anything above marked with a * might result in a record when posted. If you're unsure, check our rules on Posting Abuse or ask one of our administrators.

↑ Quality standards:

• All submissions need to display a solid grasp of artistic principles.
• All submissions need to be presented in a legible / readable format.
• The chosen medium (image, video, flash) needs to be of a high quality.
• Traditional media needs to be either scanned in properly or photographed with impeccable lighting and contrast.

If you wish to ensure to upload the best version possible have a look at our How To: Sites and Sources pages. Helpful users list all the known tips and tricks on how to get the best version from every page.

Edits

• Edits of images need to be at least on the same level of quality as the original.
• Low effort edits (adding stories, changing text, bucket fill coloring, cutting out parts, etc.) are not allowed.
• Translating speech bubbles from any language into English is permitted, however.
• We only accept an English translation and the original language; we will not host additional translations.
• Coloring "bases" (template images) are not permitted if they haven't been performed by the original artist of the base.
• We will only accept up to ten (10) versions of any given base.
• Neural network and AI edits are not permitted, regardless of type of edit (uncensoring, coloring, denoise, etc.).
• Rotoscoping and photomorphs are only permitted if they completely transform the entire reference so that no part of the original remains visible.

If you feel an image of yours has been deleted unfairly, do not hesitate to contact us and ask for clarification.

↑ Humans and e621:

Pure¹ humans are only allowed as long as they are part of an otherwise furry-centric image. If a page, or an image, of an otherwise furry-centric comic contains only humans, then those pages will also be kept to keep the comic complete.

As such:

• Anything that does not contain anthropomorphic characters or animals as part of their focus will be deleted.
• If it appears like a human it counts as a human, regardless of what in-universe lore specifies.
• The things that make humans not-human under our rules are visible, anatomical deviations from the standard human.
• Examples are the presence of animal body parts (dog ears, cat tail, pig snout, horse penis, etc.), alien body parts, plant body parts, etc.
• This means that orcs, elves, plant-people, humanoid aliens, are all fine.
• A different skin color does not make a human relevant.
• Costumes, clothes, accessories, etc. do not make a human relevant.

_{¹ If any sort of non-human traits are present, the character in question is no longer a pure human, but a humanoid for tagging purposes.}

↑ Advertisements:

Acceptable advertisements are those with artistic and entertainment value that far outweighs their nature to sell goods or services. Advertisements that only advertise goods and services are not acceptable and the uploader or artist will need to purchase advertisement space here instead.

• 'Your Character Here' auctions, adoptables, censored Patreon images, or other censored paysite previews are almost always unacceptable. Expect these to be deleted.
• Advertising your Patreon or paysite in the form of a signature on an image is perfectly fine.
• Advertising your Patreon or paysite in the description of art you have created or commissioned is also perfectly fine.