Help talk:Title screenshots

For Bedrock Edition screenshots, the guide states that it should always be taken with the Steve username and skin, which were default when not signed in, but since a few months (idk when it changed), the default username got changed to "Player" and the default skin is now a random character. Should this be updated with the "Player" gamertag and a random default skin? It makes no sense to me to manually change it to a non-default setting. MinecraftBedrockPlayer7 (talk) (contribs) 👁 Image
15:34, 30 June 2025 (UTC)

Oh, and I also think this should be moved to the Help: or Minecraft Wiki: namespace since this is important for new contibutors. MinecraftBedrockPlayer7 (talk) (contribs) 👁 Image
15:40, 30 June 2025 (UTC)

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 Agree How about both, with a redirect? -- Simanelix ^(T|C) 15:55, 30 June 2025 (UTC)

Moving it to Minecraft Wiki namespace is likely gonna have higher precedent/status than the Help namespace, since the first namespace is more commonly used for enforceable guidelines, like the Minecraft Wiki:Style guide. I would support this, but the page needs a bit of tidying up before being moved. Outrowed (talk) 16:12, 30 June 2025 (UTC)

I was following the general consistency for the previous Bedrock Edition title screens before 1.21.92, they have mostly used "Steve" username and the Steve skin as the common choice for the title screen (common, sometimes they use the Alex skin). Regardless, if the default options got updated, the article should be properly reflected with them. Outrowed (talk) 15:45, 30 June 2025 (UTC)

I think it changed to Player in 1.21.73 though I'm not 100% sure. I could try to reupload title screenshots from 1.21.73 onward with the Player name. MinecraftBedrockPlayer7 (talk) (contribs) 👁 Image
19:27, 30 June 2025 (UTC)

From my (painful hours of) testing, using an unofficial Bedrock version manager and a clean user data, this goes even further back somewhere in 1.19.70:

• Versions before 1.19.70 always makes the default player username "Steve" with a random default character skin (Zuri, Ari, Steve, Alex, etc.)
• Versions after 1.19.70 (including .70 itself) hides the player's username temporarily until it's randomly chosen from one of the default characters (Zuri, Ari, Steve, Alex, etc.), alongside the character's skin.
• Then, somewhere between 1.19.70 to 1.21.XX (incl. versions before 1.21.73), the player's username is set to "Player", until the player clicks the "Open main menu" or "More options" in the initial Get Started title screen, which the game then selects the username from one of the default characters, alongside the character's skin.
  • This is a bit inconsistent though, sometime the game sets it after the user opened a menu after the title screen.

In conclusion, the "Player" username being the default is true initially, but the game sets it to a random default character's name for a while, and with the default character's skin. For simplicity, I suggest keeping the username and skin to the Steve character. This would also benefit being consistent with the older title screen images long before 1.21.92. Outrowed (talk) 07:25, 1 July 2025 (UTC)

Okay, that's also easier because we don't need to reupload all those screenshots. MinecraftBedrockPlayer7 (talk) (contribs) 👁 Image
09:14, 1 July 2025 (UTC)

I actually think it's not very reasonable to use a custom player name while we have a default one. The default settings are always "Player" with a random default skin, so I'd say for consistency we use only the Steve skin but any other options just the default. If it changes sometimes, our title screenshots also need to change with totally makes sense.

Also, @Outrowed seems to be inactive so I'll update this page with his draft and move it to the Help namespace to encourage other users for improving it. I think it should be in the Help namespace instead of MCW because it is a "helping guide" rather than a set of rules IMO. For visibility it can just have a redirect and shortcut in the MCW namespace. MinecraftBedrockPlayer7 (talk) (contribs) 👁 Image
11:48, 4 September 2025 (UTC)

Yes, clearly that goes in help. Not to be confused with tutorial. -- Simanelix ^(T|C) 13:21, 4 September 2025 (UTC)

How does Minecraft Education handle the default character though? And how should we handle them? Outrowed (talk) 15:52, 30 June 2025 (UTC)

I was able to try out Minecraft Education with a demo lesson, which is available to the public upon launching the game for free. It seems to set the username to "Player", and the skin to the older Alex skin (before it was updated). Looking at the skin selection menu (which is the previous incarnation of the Character Creator menu), the game only has the Steve and Alex skin. I suggest keeping the guideline for Minecraft Education. Outrowed (talk) 16:07, 30 June 2025 (UTC)

I know this is a bit of a late response, but, when I was in middle school, my school had Education Edition, and I couldnt set my name to anything custom, it was "[Lastname][First initial]" (like ExampleA). 👁 Image
amethyst_hhh👁 Image
08:11, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Yeah, I think you cannot change your name unless if you have bought Minecraft Education individual license officially from the website (it ain't cheap though), or perhaps using the demo and changing some of the options.txt values (which I haven't tested yet). Outrowed (talk) 12:08, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

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 Strong support 👁 Bepis
21:17, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

16:9 is a standard ratio and what most computer monitors follow after. 427×240 ratio is ≈1.779, while 16:9 ratio is 1.777, so changing it to 16:9 would not make that difference to the previous images, and would help simplifying the process. Outrowed (talk) 04:33, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Also I want to add: the 854×480 pixels resolution might be a very old mistake a long time ago when the first few title screen screenshots are published, a person might have accidentally screenshot only a "window" part when Minecraft game was windowed (and maximized) and not actually take a fullscreen (non-windowed mode) Minecraft. This causes some space of the screen taken by the Windows task bar on the bottom, or something else. Other people followed afterward for the sake of consistency. Though, I don't know how much this is true. Nope. Outrowed (talk) 04:42, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

My computer is 2560×1600, which is 16:10, so it would be difficult for me to get 16:9 image. Default resolution for Java Edition is 854×480, so I, as the page creator, intend to write 854×480 here. 👁 Image
Wilf233_zhMCW（论·功） 04:47, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Ah, that's the size from the initial launch of the game. Outrowed (talk) 04:52, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Yeah, that's pretty easy, isn't it? 👁 Image
Wilf233_zhMCW（论·功） 04:55, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

It is. I thought it was some kind of mistake being so close to the 16:9 ratio, but I take that back. Though, I'm bit worried of being able to upload a high definition screenshot (i.e. more than 854×480 pixels resolution), but if the screenshots are used for demonstration purposes and clear enough for most people, then I suppose that wouldn't matter. Outrowed (talk) 04:58, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

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 Oppose this change per Wilf233's edit summary and reply. My monitor is nowhere close to being a perfect 16:9 ratio monitor, so this would complicate things. -Rert 04:51, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

In comparison, there's no enforced resolution for Bedrock Edition because the phone resolution is so different and default resolution is full screen. Adjusting resolution isn't easy. 👁 Image
Wilf233_zhMCW（论·功） 04:58, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

I would agree with you if it were resizing the window, but for fullscreen mode, you can easily set your resolution from 16:9 ratio resolutions in Windows and Linux systems, since it's a common resolution, unlike 427×240 ratio. Outrowed (talk) 05:06, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

There is an enforced aspect ratio because we don't want mobile screenshots because of that. MinecraftBedrockPlayer7 (talk) (contribs) 👁 Image
07:56, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

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 Oppose, as this is technically inconsistent with all previous uploaded title screenshots.

My proposal is to allow exact multiples of 854x480 resolution (with GUI scale set to Auto, which will scale the GUI to match), so as to allow higher fidelity without compromising the validity of several hundred existing title screenshots. 👁 align=top
Sightnado ( talk / contribs ) 04:58, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

That wouldn't make sense as you can't easily resize the default window of the game to a specific size without some third party program, unless there is something I don't know about. Outrowed (talk) 05:01, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

As far as I'm aware, the official launcher has fields in the launch options that allow you to change the default windowed resolution 👁 align=top
Sightnado ( talk / contribs ) 05:03, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

File:Java Edition 1.21.10.png, for example, in my opinion, is not blurry at all. Any higher resolution is not necessary. 👁 Image
Wilf233_zhMCW（论·功） 05:07, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

There is a practice of intentionally uploading a very low quality images on Wikipedia to respect fair use and copyright laws. While I don't like they're not really crisp images, people have generally found it acceptable for the low quality quirk. I think images used for demonstration purposes have to be clear of sending their message, not their resolutions. For title screenshots, I think it's very clear there are elements of the title screen UI that we can see, and of course, the Minecraft logo itself shown. Outrowed (talk) 05:21, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

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 Very strong support for both consistency with BE screenshots and quality. It's as simple as this: higher resolution = higher quality, and shouldn't we upload with the highest quality. Also, the current low resolution makes the image appear very small in the wiki image previewer, while a 1920x1080 image always fills either the horizontal or vertical side (even on 4K or weird aspect ratios). The argument of "we should do how we did it before" makes no sense to me, we can always change guidelines if we want. Furthermore, yes, there are users who can no longer upload title screenshots like this, but there are always users who can (just look at the BE screenshots, it works). MinecraftBedrockPlayer7 (talk) (contribs) 👁 Image
07:56, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

For users who don't have 16:9 aspect ratio monitor, they can still change their resolution with built-in OS settings. It's actually a pretty easy setting to change: in Windows, they would just have to go to their "Display" settings, and set it to 1920×1080 or 2560×1440. The screen could end up with black bars on top or the sides, but they are still very readable and can be restored later when the screenshot is done. Another way is to change them via the launch options as stated by Sightnado.

Also, I found something interesting: 854×480 is apparently called the "FWVGA" resolution, being closely tied to the 16:9 aspect ratio. This further indicate that it was intended for low resolution televisions and mobile phones to support widescreen resolution at the time, and I think it makes no sense to use it now especially since we have higher quality monitors. Outrowed (talk) 12:33, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

This page currently forces users to upload a 854x480 image for title screenshots, reducing the quality of the image and making it small.

I propose removing this restriction because it simply does not have a reason to be there.

Consistency is utterly useless in this scenario because it does not change the appearance of the image in the info box, and a larger image is purely better in image previewer and when viewing original image. The format of the menus is also practically identical when GUI scale is matched. Essentially: consistency in this area has no benefit or consequence. So please provide some more interesting arguments.

At most, enforce a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio (the currently enforced standard is 16:9, as the entire internet will tell you, but people here think otherwise so we’ll say 16:10 as well), but enforcing this small size is useless and a rule for the sake of a rule.

Some notice blurriness when looking at larger images in image previewer, but I’d argue this isn’t as bad as the literal quality reduction that can be seen clearly on the splash text and logo especially. I’d also argue that if people truly deeply cared about this, they’d want this small image enforcement on all game screenshots, or even just bedrock title screenshots, but they don’t. - Harri / Talk 👁 Image
15:22, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

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 Support enforce 16:9 ratio, though I don't think we need to create a new thread for this. Outrowed (talk) 15:38, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

People seem to think that the currently enforced resolution is 16:10, and I mostly don’t care aspect ratio because any absurd cases will naturally get replaced, I just want the restriction removed. - Harri / Talk 👁 Image
15:43, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

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 Support. I don't think anyone really cares about these screenshots. Enforcing aspect ratio to be 16:9, and keeping the GUI scale somewhat similar makes sense. Anything more than that just causes extra work for no benefit. | violine1101 ^(talk) 16:07, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

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 Oppose. First, Mojang sets 854×480 as default resolution for Java Edition. If anyone wants to upload a title screenshot, this resolution is the most convenient because you don't need to adjust anything. It faithfully displays what the start menu of Minecraft is. Second, the relative position of game elements is important. For example, in default resolution for 1.21.11, the moon is close to the Minecraft logo. However, when you adjust it to other resolutions, the moon may be far away or even gone. If Mojang changes the relative position of any text or element, it would be super easy to find out when all title screenshots are consistent in resolution (what if MC-297907 is fixed?). Third, the purpose of title screenshots is to demonstrate in version introduction pages, so the most usage is as a thumb instead of original resolution. Fourth, default resolution is sharper, while others are blurrier, which is no good reading experience to readers who take a closer look. Fifth, any other enforced resolution or ratio will bring trouble because it's not easy to adjust them. For example, my computer is 2560×1600 (16:10). How can I make 16:9 ratio images? Sixth, the current practice is that most of them are in 854×480 before and after this help page, so a general consensus has already reached before this topic. Seventh, larger image doesn't mean better quality. The default resolution is already clear enough to display every key information. If the larger is, the better is, then why don't we upload 85400×48000? Larger image is actually wasting people's time and computer or site memory. To summarize, wiki editors pursue consistency when it's very easy to be. Therefore, I oppose the removal. 👁 Image
Wilf233_zhMCW（论·功） 16:39, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

1. Faithfully displaying the first resolution is irrelevant and does not matter, you are aware of this already. You are arguing that people should be forced to use the most convenient quick option even though it does not affect the output. Invalid arguments.

2. Your point about the bug being fixed is so obviously irrelevant to wiki screenshots that I have no idea why you mentioned it, please don't. Consistency doesn't matter when the differences are extremely miniscule, the panorama is already going to different between screenshots, which you already know, yet you mention the moon anyway, why?

3. No attempt to explain why this is relevant to the discussion, invalid argument.

4. By, what, a miniscule unnoticeable amount that you need to zoom in for? I can make the same argument against the small screenshots, the logo and splash text are obviously blurry and low quality. Invalid argument.

5. I literally said enforce 16:9 OR 16:10, the difference is so small that it doesn't matter. Invalid argument.

6. Are you just saying this to pad out your list of arguments or something? What? Invalid argument.

7. I mean, it kinda does actually, but I'm not enforcing larger images I'm enforcing freedom of resolution. Trying to talk about time and computer site memory is also really hilarious. Invalid argument. - Harri / Talk 👁 Image
18:42, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

Partially 👁 Image
 Oppose; the position of game UI elements is not perfectly matched unless the game resolution is multiplied exactly. I instead propose either mandating exact multiples of 427x240 resolution with GUI scale set to "Auto" instead of mandating exactly 854x480, as this allows for higher quality images without compromising consistency in all other fields, or mandating 1920x1080 like we do for Bedrock Edition title screenshots. 👁 Image
Sightnado ^{t | c} 19:00, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

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 Strong oppose per Wilf233. 👁 Bepis
21:22, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

Wilf233's argument has been fully refuted by Harri; do you have any other reasons to oppose, or is your opposition equally invalid? 👁 Image
Sightnado ^{t | c} 21:32, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

Can you please debate respectfully.  Nixinova  T ⁄ C  01:20, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

I agree that's it's an overly harsh requirement. I agree with Wilf's comments on cross-version comparison, but I think overall it's not a requirement that needs to be this extreme. Support just enforcing a 16:9 ratio at a consistent gui scale. As long as people don't go through and reupload all previous version screenshots.  Nixinova  T ⁄ C  01:22, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

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 Support How is 854x480 default resolution? Without adjusting any settings, I can get 2940x1846 with fullscreen and 1708x960 in windowed mode. When 854x480 image and 1708x960 image are compared, main menu and panorama have exactly same positions. I don't see any reason to force "default resolution". 👁 Image
Miner (👁 Image
talk 👁 Image
contributions) 10:32, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

Its the res the launcher defaults to for the unfullscreened game.  Nixinova  T ⁄ C  10:38, 3 June 2026 (UTC)