Signature Graphic Rules and Guidelines

Updated May 16 04

Rules for Requesting a Signature Graphic

1. You must be a member in good standing of the Frost Knights Clan. This means that you have not been disciplined for any reason within your first 30 posts.

2. You must be a registered EZBoards user. To do this simply click the "Sign me up!" button at the top of any forum screen and register.

3. You must have a minimum number of 30 non-spam posts. Spamming to meet the post requirement will result in an increase in your required post number. (Exception: if you have a specific artist in mind, they may waive the 30-post requirement at their discretion. This does not happen much.)

4. You must sign up in the Request Room or in one artist's workshop in The Gallery. Please, include a short (but reasonable) description of what you would like your signature to look like. Note that more complicated requests will take longer to complete, or may even prove impossible. Collect your signature in your artist's workshop when it is complete.

5. You must wait a minimum of three (3) months before requesting a new signature. Those who constantly and consistently ask for new signatures will be cut off after 4 signatures, if not sooner.

6. Original signatures artists can specify additional conditions in their workshop. These signatures are to be requested directly in the artist's workshop.

7. If you provide a picture for a sig, we want to see a copy of the necessary permission to use it from the original artist.

Signature Guidelines:

If you want to try drawing your own sig, check out Sabia's Tutorials post. There is lots of good information there.

1. Signatures are not to exceed 350 pixels in height or 400 pixels in width. The other dimension may not exceed 300 pixels (that means, you can have a 350x300 or a 300x400 sig, but not a 350x400 one).

They also may not exceed 60 K in size. Also, please, try to keep the amount of other graphics, especially animated gifs in your signature to a minimum.

Please optimize them. Here is a free tool that you can use if your graphics program doesn't have this feature.

2. Signature graphics must be free of vulgar content or edited to improve/remove said content.

3. Titles included in signature files should be approved by the Clan.

4. Signatures should include either the Frost Knights logo, or the words Frost Knights, somewhere on them, to be hosted on the Frost Knights server.

5. Every effort must be made to respect copyright issues, and to credit artists for their work.
Some artists allow the use of their work for non-commercial purposes and will state so on their webpage, others may grant permission if e-mailed. If the artist specifies conditions for use of their work, you need to meet these conditions.
Edits should be kept to a minimum and not change the look of the original image (i.e. proportional resizing, cropping or adding text or border is fine, hair colour is not)

Unfortunately, many cannot or are unwilling to give permission. It is not only courtesy to respect their wishes, but also law and a clan rule.

Please get permission from the original artist for any art that you did not draw yourself.
Gallery sites usually do not have the right to grant that permission even if they say they do. Only the original artist or the company that owns the rights can grant that permission.
Many misinformed gallery site owners claim that everything on their site is free. In reality, most of it has been "borrowed" from other similarily misinformed sites or scanned from books.  This does not make them freeware. 

If you cannot get the artist's permission to use an image, please do not use it at all.

We welcome pictures you have drawn yourself, but please do not claim to have drawn something that you found, copied ,were given or otherwise did not draw the original of yourself. That is plagiarism which will destroy your credibility and reputation when you are caught.

NOTICE: If you are not an artist in the Gallery, please do not offer to make signatures for members. Making your own is fine; however, specific artists and specific rules for very specific reasons.