Revision as of 21:00, 18 November 2016

The Art Library is the second tab of the Sidebar and is accessible to you for any game you GM for. This tab allows you to search, upload, and organize any JPG or PNG image file that you wish to use in your game.

Dev Note 11/17/2016: This Page is Currently Being Updated

Searching For Art Assets

The Art Asset Search

1. My Library: Any image you have personally uploaded to Roll20 and stored on your account's allotted image storage (quota)
   
   
2. Marketplace Purchases: Any available image from an art set you have bought off the Roll20 Marketplace
   
   
3. Pro Sets: When a user subscribes to a Roll20 Pro Subscription, index of Exclusive Token Sets becomes available in-app.
   
   
4. Free Assets: Images from art sets made available to the Roll20 community to use for free in their games. (Note: Not for commercial resale purposes)
   
   
5. Premium Assets: This initially lists a cross section of popular packs from the Roll20 Marketplace, highlighted in pale yellow. These assets have been created specifically for use in Roll20 by community members like you. Marketplace assets can be expanded by clicking on More Premium Assets » to show up to 100 different items and can be purchased directly by clicking on any image which opens up its pack's Marketplace listing in a new window.
   
   
6. From the Web This section is shaded in light blue and pulls images cached from various tRPG image resources around the web.
   
   

Note: Images found From the Web are using search results collected in the first year of Roll20's existence while the Google Search API was freely available. This list of search results are four+ years old at this point, so at times this makes search results occasionally archaic.

The Search Bar

This is where you run your search for art assets. An art search matches your keywords with image file names, tags, or the folder names your assets are stored in.

Roll20 Search Parameters

Searching with more than one keyword is exclusive, helping you refine your search to only assets that match both words.
ex.
red dragon

Inclusive Searches
Optionally, you can use the OR keyword to get an inclusive search, where results will be returned if either word matches any criteria.
ex.
water way or swamp

Exclusive Searches
You can also refine your search further by adding a "-" symbol before a word to exclude all results that keyword matches.
ex.
giant -fire

Image Search Type Drop-Down Menu

Above the search bar is a drop-down menu where you can choose the Image Search Type. This narrows the search to specific tags assigned to images on the Roll20 Marketplace, Pro & Free Assets, and collected resources from various tRPG image sites. This is broken down into four categories: Tokens, Maps, Tiles, Textures, Portraits, and Everything. If you want to cast the broadest net with your search, choose the Everything option.

Search Style Toggle

Also above the search bar is an expanding icon beside the word Search:. This is the Search Style toggle. Clicking on this icon will swap between small and large thumbnail display of the images found in the search results.

Premium Assets & My Library

When not searching for images, below the Search Bar is your image index. There are two indexes that you can swap between at any time are Premium Assets and My Library. Everything under Premium Assets are images that you have not uploaded to Roll20 nor do they count towards your account's image quota when you use them in your games. Folders for Marketplace Purchases, Pro Assets, and Free Assets are listed here.

Everything listed under My Library is content that you have personally uploaded into your games and stored on your Roll20 account. These images in My Library do count towards your image quota.

My Library

My Library View

Any and all image content you upload to Roll20 will be added to My Library. When you toggle to the My Library view in the Art Library, you'll first have two buttons for uploading images and for creation of folders. Underneath that is an area that shows the folder tree (if you have created any). Underneath that is the Recent Uploads image list.

Roll20 supports the following image file types: JPG, PNG, & PDF (upon upload, you'll be asked which page from the PDF will be converted to an image)

Roll20 doesn't fully support GIF files due to the inconsistencies and non-standardization of its file type. Some GIF images will upload to Roll20 with no issue, while others will outright fail. Animated GIFs do not work at all on Roll20.

Uploading Art

There are two methods for uploading art to Roll20. The first way is to click and drag a single image from your file explorer/computer to the Tabletop and it will upload as well as place the graphic where you designated on the Tabletop.

The second way is to click on the Upload button underneath My Library. This pops open a dialog box called Upload Files.... This dialog box has a dashed-border rectangle where you can drag a batch of ten or less images at a time to upload them all at once. You can also select an image one at a time with the Choose a file... button this brings up a file selection menu to browse for files on your computer/device. There is a size cap for image uploads. If you have a base account, no single image or batch upload can exceed 5MB. For Plus or Pro subscribers, this cap is raised to 10MB.

Note: While your image or batch of images might not reach 5/10MB exactly, if the total file size is very close to the cap, the upload may not process. This is because a small percentage of extra bytes is required to process the upload, which can make you hit or exceed the cap.

All uploaded art, regardless of upload method, is automatically placed into Recent Uploads in chronological order with the most recently uploaded image added to the top of the list.

Recent Uploads

Organizing My Art

There are two different ways to help organize the images in My Library: Folders and Tags.

Folders

Folder View

Tags

Tags are keywords that you can assign to various objects in Roll20, images included. When you run an image search, it will try to match your keywords with any tags you've added to your images.

Optimal Organization Method

We recommend this methodology every time you upload artwork:

1. Upload your art for a given game/page/system
2. Tag your images
3. Sort your images into sub-folders

If you stay on top of this process each time you upload new images, you'll have an easier time maintaining your art library and your storage quota.

Image Storage Quota

Your storage quota is the amount of art assets that you can upload. It doesn't include art that you use from built-in sets or from web searches, it only includes the space used by images you upload from your computer. Roll20 allows a 100MB quota of art assets to be stored on a base account (the default account type). Roll20 Subscribers are granted larger storage quotas; Plus accounts have a 1,000MB quota and Pro accounts get 2,000MB.

You can check your Storage Quota usage on your My Account page underneath the Account Type & Subscription section on the right side of the page. You can also see it at the top of the Recent Uploads Folder View Window, directly above the first row of image thumbnails and below the red deletion warning message.

Freeing Up Storage Space

Once you hit your storage quota capacity, Roll20 will disallow any further uploads until room is made for them. This is either done by deleting some of your art assets from My Library or upgrade your account to Plus or Pro subscriber status for a larger storage quota.

To delete art assets, you can right click on an image in the Recent Uploads list or Folder Tree and choose Delete Item. This will permanently remove that art asset from My Library and any game that is currently using it. With that in mind, you will want to make certain that the images you are deleting are not necessary for current game content you're actively playing with.

Note: Need more storage? Plus and Pro subscriptions offer more space. Visit our Supporter

BELOW THIS IS OUTDATED INFORMATION (11/17/2016)

Accessing the Art Library

To find assets, just type a keyword into the searchbox, making sure to use the dropdown menu to select the type of item. You can choose from 'Tokens', 'Maps, Tiles, Textures', 'Portraits', and 'Everything'. Roll20 will automatically search through any files you’ve uploaded, popular RPG forums and sites on the web, and the Roll20 Marketplace. A cross section of popular packs from the Roll20 Marketplace will be displayed and highlighted in yellow. These assets have been created specifically for use in Roll20 by community members like you. Marketplace assets can be expanded to show up to 100 different items and can be purchased directly from the Art Library tab. No Set Marketplace assets are considered purchased and can also be found and used through this search. Once you’ve found or purchased an asset you’d like to use, simply drag and drop it from the Art Library area onto your Virtual Tabletop to add it to your Game.

Favorites

By clicking the star next to any result, you can add the image to Your Library. The image will automatically appear at the top of the results the next time you search for the same keyword.

Your Library

If you select the star icon next to the search box, you access Your Library. Your Library includes images you have uploaded, images you have starred from search results, and assets you have purchased in the Roll20 Marketplace. You can add multiple tags to any asset in Your Library, and it will appear in search results for that tag in the future. You can also click the "Upload" tab at the top to upload images to Your Library by dragging and dropping or choosing them from your file system. You can upload ten images at a time in a batch. There is a 5MB maximum limit to an image upload (this is for a singular graphic or for a batch of them).

Tutorial Video

This is a tutorial on the Art Library in Roll20.