[Back: howto:index]

This page attempts to list websites that most likely host content relevant to e621, along with each site's advantages, restrictions, and other features.
Feel free to correct incorrect and/or outdated information and add in other sites that are commonly used as sources here. Note that "unfavorable sources" can still be used if they are the only source available.

Source favorability

Unfavorable sources

• Amino
• Posted non-GIF images are always heavily recompressed JPEGs.
• Maximum resolution is 1024px in width and height.
• ArtStation
• Images are almost always recompressed JPEGs at 90% quality.
• Only GIFs are not recompressed.
• Bluesky
• Images are heavily recompressed upon upload.
• Images under 2000px in their largest dimensions are artificially upscaled.
• Cara
• Although the site does have PNG files, most of them are converted to JPEG format even if they maintain their original file type in their file name.
• Only animated GIFs and certain less detailed images maintain their original format.
• Facebook
• Posted images are always recompressed JPEGs, even the high-quality images uploaded to albums.
• Fur Affinity (uploads prior to November 26, 2022)
• If the image's resolution is 1280px in either dimension and contains JPEG compression regardless of stated file type, it is most likely downscaled by FA.
• If the image is smaller (site doesn't handle it) or larger (submitter used the "change submission file" trick to bypass handling), then it is most likely the original/best version available.
• Gfycat
• Even though the site serves WebM files, it always recompresses material heavily. See this site's section on the a to h subpage for more information.
• Instagram
• Images are always recompressed JPEGs with a maximum width of 1080px.
• There are other size restrictions as detailed here.
• Ko-fi
• Images are downscaled to 720px width, and animation and transparency are not supported.
• Images cannot be viewed directly.
• Pillowfort
• Pillowfort changes the color spaces of images to sRGB, thus affecting the quality of the original image if it is not saved in that color space. The site also adds additional metadata to images. e.g. Compare post #2349805 to the image in its Pillowfort source.^{[two-frame animation]}
• Transfur
• While its content policy requires its artists to have a basic understanding of anatomy and artistic skill, and have their images be presentable enough for public display, the site's maximum resolution is 1500 by 1500px. Any images larger than that are downscaled to be 1500 pixels at its longest dimension.
• Images that are smaller than the maximum resolution are likely the original/best version, provided the artist did not downscale the image themselves. However, this might apply more to more recent images due to the site's age.
• Since most artists on the site have other galleries elsewhere due to the site's limited scope, it's recommended to either check those galleries (which may be linked on the artist's userpage) or use reverse image searches to find the originals.
• Virink
• Images are converted to 90 quality JPEG files. There are no PNGs or animated GIFs.
• VK
• Images in photo posts are converted to 96 quality JPEG files.
• Maximum resolution is 2560x2048 px.
• Oddly, PNG files are allowed in comments.
• X (formerly Twitter)
• PNG files and untouched JPEG files posted after December 10, 2019 are preferred. JPEG-compressed PNG files and JPEG files prior to this date are not preferred unless they are a much higher resolution than other sources.
• GIF files are always converted to compressed MP4s.
• Most third-party boorus, chans, image galleries, etc.
• There are plenty of reasons to avoid using these sites for finding content, a few being: content may have been (re)compressed, leaked from a paysite (which is DNP on e621) or edited without disclosure.
• Some do have official sources listed, in which case it's advised to take the content from there instead.
• Exceptions are sites where the artist is known to post on or ones mirroring content from drawing threads.

Semi-favorable sources

• Art Fight
• Maintains the original quality, but has a low file size limit of 5 MB.
• Mainly active during July, when its titular annual event is held.
• Must be a logged-in user to view images.
• DeviantArt
• Usually maintains the original quality, but direct images on the site (primarily JPEGs and PNGs that don't use the automated DA watermark that artists can add) are no longer accessible (except when using the discontinued extension Viewhance). Original versions of JPEGs and PNGs are normally downloaded to a client device via prompts, provided the artist(s) permit downloads of them. However, some images can be viewed and downloaded in their original resolution and quality even if the artist(s) didn't allow downloads, either because the image's original resolution was too low to be affected or the artist(s) permitted the full size to be viewed on the page anyway (or forgot to restrict them).
• Must be a logged-in user of DeviantArt to download images via the prompt method.
• JPEG images shown to users on "deviation" (submission) pages are now normally downscaled, often highly recompressed previews. It is possible to increase the quality of the resample, however, including being able to restore its PNG format if the original image was uploaded as a PNG.
• Old direct images now redirect to the current format. If the original submission was removed or deleted by the artist since, even if it was linked before elsewhere on the Internet, it's possible that they now may have been deleted for good.
• Fur Affinity (uploads after November 26, 2022)
• Fur Affinity has now raised default image uploads to be larger than 1280 pixels in width or height. However, there is now a maximum resolution (more accurately, pixel count) of 3.7 megapixels (2560 by 1440 pixels, a.k.a. 1440p or 2K) for free users and 8.3 megapixels (3840 by 2160 pixels, a.k.a. 2160p or 4K) for FA+ users. Images that are larger than the maximum resolutions will still be downscaled as before, although PNGs are no longer converted to JPEGs and will keep their alpha transparency.
• The previous "change submission file" workaround has been closed, and maximum image dimensions are 6000px in either dimension regardless of user status.
• Toyhouse
• Maintains the original quality, but has a low file size limit of 4 MB.
• Tumblr
• Tumblr maintains the original (a.k.a. "_raw") files on their servers but doesn't show the originals to viewers.
• Direct images before October 21, 2019 are resized to 1280px on the longer side. Newer direct images are not affected by this but are still resampled.
• A complex method involving Tumblr's backup system must be followed to get the original images; see the method here.
• Images are converted to JPEG (original files as retrieved by the backup method are not affected), and recompressed if uploaded in JPEG format.
• As of December 17, 2018, all sexual illustrated content (photos, videos, GIFs, and artwork) were no longer allowed on Tumblr, with pre-existing adult content being privatized. (See forum #265854.) The CEO of Tumblr's current owner, Automattic (the operator of WordPress), has stated upon purchase of the site that their company will not reverse the anti-adult content policy that Verizon implemented. However, as of November 2022, nudity, mature subject matter, and sexual themes are permitted again, but they must be appropriately labeled, and sexually explicit imagery will remain prohibited.

Favorable sources

• Artconomy, Blogger, Buzzly.art, Cohost, Derpibooru, Furbooru, Furry Network, Eka's Portal, HicceArs, ImgBB, Inkbunny, Itaku, Patreon, Piczel, Sheezy.Art, SoFurry, and Weasyl
• These sites keep the original upload or an optimized version of the original, which is always the most preferred version to have on e621.
• Newgrounds
• Newgrounds has always been a favorable source for movies and singular images. However, prior to July 2024, all images after the first on posts that contain multiple images were reduced to half of their original resolution and were often displayed as WebP files.
• As of July 1, 2024, the site has been updated to have full resolution images for all uploads, including multiple image posts. They are still displayed as WebP files upon first display, but changing the file extension from .webp to either .png or .jpg on the direct image's URL will work to bring up the original, whichever file type it is.
• Older multiple image posts remain unaffected.
• Pixiv
• Also stores original file, however artists are required to censor sexual body parts from their artwork, which may result in an uncensored version being posted elsewhere.
• Not preferred for animations.
• Discord
• As long as the artist used the desktop client, the quality should stay at the original.
• Because of the nature of the service, please make sure to provide all necessary URLs into the source field.

Formats, file types, and restrictions

This is a table that shows what kind of support and restrictions sites have in place for content.

Click on a site's name to go to its section for further information and instructions.

Sites to seek out

e621

Homepage - Wiki page

Curated booru-style image board dedicated to furry artwork (you are here)

No need to use us as a source

No need to whitelist ourselves

• By default, a downscaled and recompressed sample is on the page. Press Download to get the best version.

https://e621.net/posts/<ID>

https://static1.e621.net/data/<First 2 digits of MD5>/<Second 2 digits of MD5>/<MD5>.<filetype>

More sites

Because of the large number of sites that can be found as sources, the how to's for all other sites listed in the table above can be found on the following wiki pages:

• A to H
• I to P
• Q to Z

Please head over to one of those three wiki pages to see the other sites.

Other sites and ripping multimedia content

Essentially any website can host content that is relevant to e621. Sometimes creators just post their content elsewhere or occasionally it's simply unavailable anywhere else, e.g. if the original source is on a dead site. Even if the site is not on the list, there are still several ways you can ensure you are getting the best variation.

• Seek out a link that says Download or filename.filetype.
• Try searching for a link or button that says full, zoom, size, original, scale or something similar, which will toggle the image on page from a preview to its full size.
• If anything like this is nowhere to be found, simply right click and save the content embedded on the site.

With multimedia content, especially Flash, things can get a bit more difficult.

• See if the content itself has a download button in some format.
• Try right clicking to see if the context menu gives an option to download.
• Either open the web page's source code (Usually hotkey CTRL+U) and search for the file type you are looking for, e.g. .webm, or open up your browser's network activity (Usually hotkey F12) and look out for media content type.
• If these do not work, try searching for tools made specifically for the site you are trying to get content from or general download managers; see below for examples.

Tools

YouTube-DL

Homepage and download

• Despite the name, extremely powerful tool for downloading video and music content from many websites, including YouTube, Twitter / X, Tumblr and Newgrounds.
• Allows selecting quality and stream, meaning that e.g. getting WebM stream from YouTube is possible and there's no in-between conversions happening.

cobalt.tools

Homepage

• Easy-to-use, online-only tool allowing for video and audio downloads from many websites, including YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Twitter / X, and more.
• Can download videos at several resolutions including those above 4K.
• YouTube videos can be downloaded in three different codecs: h.264, AV1, and VP9. Choose the "vp9 (webm)" option to download the WebM stream. (The settings button is at the foot of the webpage.)

Jdownloader2

Homepage and download

• Compatible with most download sites including MEGA, MediaFire, etc. but also works similarly to YouTube-DL with video and multimedia sites with more user friendly graphical interface.

PixivUtil2

Homepage on GitHub and Download

• Software dedicated for downloading content from Pixiv as well as doing other Pixiv-related actions.

Idem's Sourcing Suite

Homepage on GitHub - Download - eSix forum page

• Note: This tool is outdated and is now broken for some sites. There are forks available that fix some of these issues; check the linked GitHub or eSix forum pages for these.
• Userscript featuring "a bundle of tools designed to make sourcing posts and images easy for e621." It includes an image comparison tool, "on-site plans" that include an automatic image hash checker, and an image replacement tool for replacing posts that have better versions at their source. Read the homepage on GitHub or the forum thread for more information.
• The "on-site plans" feature provides direct links to all possible variants of an image on its submission page, which might make it easier for some users to directly access the best quality images. The sites supported by this feature include:
• DeviantArt ("Download" quality images require users to be logged in to DA.) (Broken.)
• Fur Affinity
• FurryNetwork
• Inkbunny
• Pixiv (Requires a reload for the script to take effect and will not work on images that have a spoiler warning.)
• SoFurry
• Twitter / X (See the tool's homepage for notes relating to issues with Twitter / X.) (Broken after the domain name change to x.com.)
• Weasyl

Undesired third-party websites

https://bsky.app/profile/<username>

https://bsky.app/profile/<username>/post/<post-id>

https://av-cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/<decentralized identifier>/<IPFS content identifier>@jpeg

https://av-cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/<decentralized identifier>/<IPFS content identifier>@jpeg

https://bsky.social/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=<decentralized identifier>&cid=<IPFS content identifier>

https://<CDN server name>.<geographical location>.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=<decentralized identifier>&cid=<IPFS content identifier>

// ==UserScript==
// @name         BSky Redirect
// @namespace    https://tampermonkey.net/
// @version      2024-05-26
// @description  Redirect you to the best version available from Bluesky
// @author       You
// @match        https://cdn.bsky.app/*
// @icon         https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?sz=64&domain=bsky.app
// @grant        none
// ==/UserScript==

(async function () {
  'use strict';

  let url = window.location.pathname.split("/");

  if (url.length < 6) return;

  const did = url[4];
  const cid = url[5].slice(0, url[5].lastIndexOf("@"));

  if (did && cid) {
    window.location.href = `https://bsky.social/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=${did}&cid=${cid}`;
  }
})();

https://www.instagram.com/<username>/

https://www.instagram.com/p/<submission ID>/

https://scontent-<server ID>.cdninstagram.com/vp/<MD5?>/<eight base-16 characters>/t51.2885-15/e35/<"small" assortment of numbers>_<"medium" assortment of numbers>_<"large" assortment of numbers>_n.jpg

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/<pin ID number>/

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/<first two characters of MD5>/<third and fourth characters of MD5>/<fifth and sixth characters of MD5>/<MD5>.<file extension>

See also

• howto:source

• forum #169987 - Saving images properly, a public service announcement. (Aug. 2015)
• forum #181740 - Direct upload whitelist requests (to suggest additions to eSix's direct file upload whitelist)
• forum #235250 - Obtaining the highest-resolution images from Tumblr (June 2017)

[Back: howto:index]