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How to name and size image files for an open call

Name each image Surname_Title_Year_01.jpg, with no spaces, accents or special characters, and numbers with a leading zero so the files sort in order. Unless the call says otherwise, send JPEGs in sRGB of about 2,000 pixels on the long edge, and check the total size against the call's limit.

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If you would like the open calls closing next as well, Collected is a short letter every other Tuesday.

The evening before a deadline is when file names start to matter. A jury opens a folder of forty applications. Files called IMG_4471.jpg, final_FINAL2.jpg and a title with an accented letter that the upload form has turned into symbols are hard to match with a caption, and some of them will not upload at all.

This guide gives one naming pattern that works for almost any call, the characters to leave out, and the sizes to export. It applies to the copies you send, never to your originals. Keep the camera files untouched, and make every application copy from them.

How to use it

  • Read the call first. If it has its own naming rule, its own size or its own format, that wins over everything here.
  • Choose one pattern and keep it. A naming rule decided once and applied to everything is worth more than a clever one.
  • Number the files in the order the jury will see them, with a leading zero, so 02 comes before 10.
  • Use the same name in the artwork list, so each row and each image can always be matched.
  • Check the total size before you upload, against the application checklist.

The rules on characters and dates come from library guidance on file naming, which deals with the same problem across thousands of files. The sizes are working defaults, not a standard, and the call's own rules always come first.

How to take the photographs in the first place is covered in how to photograph your artwork properly.

Samlio keeps the images of each work with its record, so the title, year and measurements no longer have to live in the file name for you to find them again.

The template

Image file naming and sizing guide

1. The pattern

For an application:

Surname_Title_Year_01.jpg

Laurent_HarbourAtLowWater_2025_01.jpg
Laurent_HarbourAtLowWater_2025_02-detail.jpg
Laurent_TwoTides_2024_03.jpg

(Examples with a fictional artist and fictional works.)

  • Surname first, then the title written without spaces, then the year, then the position in the portfolio.
  • The number is the order the jury sees the images, with a leading zero: 01, 02 ... 10.
  • A detail or installation view keeps the work's name and adds one word after the number: -detail, -install, -verso.
  • The same name appears in the image file name column of your artwork list.

For your own archive, add the date you exported the copy, so versions sort by date:

Surname_Title_Year_view_YYYYMMDD.jpg

Laurent_HarbourAtLowWater_2025_front_20251014.jpg

2. Characters

Use:

  • Letters a to z and A to Z, without accents
  • Numbers 0 to 9
  • Underscores (_) between parts, hyphens (-) inside a part

Leave out:

  • Spaces
  • / \ : * ? " < > [ ] & $ # % and other symbols
  • Accented and special letters (å, é, ø, ü, ß). Write them plainly: Hoegberg, Bjoerk, Mueller, or as you write your name in English
  • Words like final, new, v2 in the name. Use the date instead

Keep names short enough to read in full in a folder list.

3. Sizes, when the call gives none

UseLong edgeFormatColour
Single image uploadabout 2,000 pxJPEGsRGB
Image placed in a PDF portfolioabout 2,000 px, reduced before placingJPEG inside the PDFsRGB
Website or emailabout 1,200 to 1,600 pxJPEGsRGB
Print or catalogueAsk the printerTIFF or as askedAs asked
Your originalNever reducedAs shotAs shot

These are working defaults, not a standard. The call's own numbers always come first.

4. Before you upload

  • Every file follows the call's naming rule, or the pattern above.
  • Files are numbered in portfolio order, with leading zeros.
  • Every file name matches its caption and its row in the artwork list.
  • Every file is exported in sRGB.
  • Each file is within the size the call allows.
  • The total of all files is under the call's upload limit.
  • The originals are untouched and backed up somewhere other than this computer.

From samlio.com/resources/image-file-naming-guide

Questions people ask

How should I name image files for an application?
Follow the call's own rule if it has one. If not, use your surname, the title, the year and a two-digit number in the order the jury will see them, separated by underscores: Surname_Title_2025_01.jpg. Every file then sorts in order and matches its caption.
Why avoid spaces and special characters in file names?
Not all software reads them the same way. Spaces can be replaced or misread, and characters such as / \ : * ? " < > [ ] & $ have their own meaning in some systems, so an upload can fail or a file can be renamed. Letters without accents are the safest choice for the same reason.
What size should images be for an open call?
The size the call states. Where it states none, a JPEG of about 2,000 pixels on the long edge is a sound default: sharp on a screen, small enough to upload. That is a working default, not a standard.
Which colour profile should I export in?
sRGB. It is the colour space screens and browsers assume when a file says nothing else, so an image exported in sRGB looks on the jury's screen much as it does on yours. Keep your original files in whatever profile you edit in.
What does a total upload limit mean?
That every file in the application counts together. The Villa Medici states that the whole online application must not exceed 20 MB. Add up the sizes before you upload, and reduce the images, not the texts, if you are over.

Sources