User talk:ArchNYArchives

Welcome to Wikimedia Commons, ArchNYArchives!

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-- Wikimedia Commons Welcome (talk) 19:55, 28 June 2017 (UTC)

Archdiocesan COA

Hello, and sorry for the delay in replying to your message on my Talk Page. It took me a while to notice it was there, since you created it in the very middle of the page for some reason.

In creating Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.svg, I purposely avoided drawing the SVG so that it would be confused with (let alone identical to) the official graphic used by your archdiocese. This is for two simple reasons: first, because if I traced or otherwise reproduced your official archdiocesan graphic it would probably be copyright infringement, and certainly not original work, which is how I've licensed the image in use here; and second, because the coat of arms is not a logo that demands precise graphical representation. In heraldry, any representation of a coat of arms (called a emblazonment) that matches its official heraldic description (called a blazon) is a "valid" representation of a coat of arms. This can lead to a wide variety of artistic representations of a single coat of arms (see here for an example of how heraldic depictions can vary within the prescribed guidelines), which is a major aspect of heraldry as an art and science. My SVG image on Commons is merely a heraldic representation, which makes no claim to being "official" in any way. It is artistic license.

So the aspects that you mentioned as being at odds with your official archdiocesan graphic can be explained as follows. The choice of grey instead of pure white is artistic license. The heraldic color is argent (i.e., silver), so that can be represented in various shades. Further, there are no "discrepancies" in the mitre, because how one draws the external elements of a heraldic achievement is governed by artistic license. My choice to include "striations" in the windmill is also artistic license. Some windmill arms have "striations"; there's no reason not to show them. Once again, artistic license. I am not trying to reproduce your logo.

You can review our policy on this matter at Commons:Coats of arms, which, "in a nutshell" is this: "Do not upload coats of arms or their derivatives directly from the web or official registries. Coats of arms drawn by users based solely on the definition (blazon) without any reference to the original drawing (representation) are usually safe for upload."

If you don't like my version of the archdiocesan coat of arms, feel free to upload your "official" version in its place. You'll also have to freely license that image for it to be hosted here on Wikimedia Commons, and you should preferably upload it in SVG. I would recommend reading up on Wikimedia's policies concerning copyright and free licensing, and, if you have the authority to license official archdiocesan images into the public domain, go ahead with the uploading and licensing.

Thanks for your understanding, and I hope this makes sense to you. If not please feel free to reply on my Talk Page, and please use the tab on the top of the page to create a new section at the end of the page so I'll notice that you commented there. — AJDS ^talk 07:00, 5 October 2017 (UTC)