TV-Show artwork

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Home icon grey.png   ▶ Artwork ▶ TV-Show artwork


TV Show artwork are images directly related to a TV Show, preferably of high quality, that are displayed when viewing the entry in the library. The TV Show section in Kodi has the impressive ability to display up to 13 types of artwork. This page will describe the different types of artwork available in the TV Show category of Kodi.

It is important to note the following:

  • Artwork is totally skin dependent. This means that some skins display a small number of artwork types, while other skins will display most or all of the available artwork types.
  • In previous versions of Kodi and in older wiki pages, the term Thumbnails was used to describe Artwork. Kodi has now moved away from referring to thumbnails due to the amount of confusion and concern it caused users.
  • The base line for all artwork is the default skin Estuary. By default, Estuary displays the Basic artwork. Estuary can display the Extended artwork via additional add-ons.
  • While high resolution do look impressive on HDTV's it is important to be aware that the increased artwork size can negatively affect low powered hardware


Basic TV Show Artwork

The artwork in the Basic section is the minimum artwork displayed by the default skin Estuary with a standard install.

Note the following:

  • The following naming schemes apply only to the artwork you have manually sourced and saved. It does not apply to artwork downloaded by the Kodi scraper or any add-on processes.


Artwork-Banner01.jpg

Also known as Wide Banner Icons. The image to the right shows the Banner view. They are images that normally contain recognisable characters or moments in the show. The banner image normally displays the movie logo which is of a size that is clearly legible. There should be no written advertising of Actors, Studios etc.


Required file properties:
Note: The resolution may be increased but ensure the aspect ratio is maintained

File Type Aspect Ratio Resolution- recommended
*.jpg or png 1:0.185 1000x185


Naming and Saving conventions for your own manually sourced artwork:

The naming convention for Season banner is season01-banner.jpg where 01 is the season number and season-all-banner.jpg for the All season poster and season-specials-banner.jpg for the Specials season

Saved TV Show Episodes as File Name Save Location and example
BluRay & DVD Structure:
banner.jpg/png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\banner.jpg/png
One episode per directory in the TV Show:
banner.jpg/png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\banner.jpg/png
All episodes in TV Show directory: banner.jpg/png f:\TVShows\Dominion\banner.jpg/png

Poster- Main

Artwork-PosterView02.jpg

Also known as Cover Art and Folder Image. It normally includes the name of the TV Show, along with images of the main character or recognisable scenes from the show.

The image to the right is displaying Poster View of the shows in the Kodi library. They are portrait, high quality images which use a small portion of the screen allowing movie information or other items to be displayed alongside.

Required file properties:
Note: The resolution may be increased but ensure the aspect ratio is maintained

File Type Aspect Ratio Resolution- recommended
*.jpg or png 1:1.5 1000x1500


Naming and Saving conventions for your own manually sourced artwork:

Saved movies as File Name Save Location and example
BluRay & DVD Structure:
poster.jpg/png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\poster.jpg/png
One episode per directory in the TV Show:
poster.jpg/png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\poster.jpg/png
All episodes in TV Show directory: poster.jpg/png f:\TVShows\Dominion\poster.jpg/png


Poster- Season

Artwork-SeasonPoster01.jpg

The Season Poster has the same properties as the TV Show Poster. The season poster is used to display each season in the TV Show. The image to the right shows the Shift view in Estuary which displays the available seasons for the selected TV Show.

Required file properties:
Note: The resolution may be increased but ensure the aspect ratio is maintained

File Type Aspect Ratio Resolution- recommended
*.jpg or png 1:1.5 1000x1500


Naming and Saving conventions for your own manually sourced artwork:

The naming convention for Season posters is season01-poster.jpg where 01 is the season number and season-all-poster.jpg for the All season poster and season-specials-poster.jpg for the Specials season

Saved movies as File Name Save Location and example
BluRay & DVD Structure:
season01-poster.jpg/png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\season01-poster.jpg/png
One episode per directory in the TV Show:
season01-poster.jpg/png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\season01-poster.jpg/png
All episodes in TV Show directory: season01-poster.jpg/png f:\TVShows\Dominion\season01-poster.jpg/png


Fanart

Artwork-FanartView03.jpg

Fanart can be defined as images, depicting iconic scenes in a tv show, that have been created by fans. They are also known as Wallpapers or Backdrops.

For Kodi, it means digital images, of high quality, that are used as full screen displays to enhance the user experience.

The image to the right is a typical example of a TV Show fanart. It is specifically designed to match the 16:9 ratio of current generation televisions and monitors. This allows the screen to be completely filled by the image.

Required file properties:
Note: The resolution may be increased but ensure the aspect ratio is maintained

File Type Aspect Ratio Resolution- recommended
*.jpg or png 16:9 1920x1080


Naming and Saving conventions for your own manually sourced artwork:

The naming convention for Season fanart is season01-fanart.jpg where 01 is the season number and season-all-fanart.jpg for the All season fanart and season-specials-fanart jpg for the Specials season

Saved movies as File Name Save Location and example
BluRay & DVD Structure:
fanart.jpg/png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\fanart.jpg/png
One episode per directory in the TV Show:
fanart.jpg/png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\fanart.jpg/png
All episodes in TV Show directory: fanart.jpg/png f:\TVShows\Dominion\fanart.jpg/png


Episode Thumbnail

Artwork-EpisodeThumb01.jpg

The Episode Thumbnail is an individual and specific image to a particular episode. It usually is a snapshot of a memorable scene in that particular episode.
The image to the right shows the episode listing using the Episode Thumb view.

Required file properties:
Note: The resolution may be increased but ensure the aspect ratio is maintained

File Type Aspect Ratio Resolution- recommended
*.jpg 16:9 1920x1080


Naming and Saving conventions for your own manually sourced artwork:

Saved movies as File Name Save Location and example
BluRay & DVD Structure:
thumb.jpg
f:\TVShows\Dominion\Dominion S01E01\thumb.jpg
One episode per directory in the TV Show: thumb.jpg f:\TVShows\Dominion\Dominion S01E01\thumb.jpg
also:
<EpisodeFileName>-thumb.jpg
f:\TVShows\Dominion\Dominion S01E01\Dominion S01E01-thumb.jpg
All episodes in TV Show directory: <EpisodeFileName>-thumb.jpg f:\TVShows\Dominion\Dominion S01E01-thumb.jpg


Actor Image

Artwork-Actors01.jpg

The Actor artwork is a portrait of an actor for easy identification.

The image to the right is displaying the Actor images of five actors along the top row. They are portrait, medium to high quality images.

It is important to note the following limitation with actor artwork. Kodi cannot download actor images for every listed actor in the show. This is due to a limitation with the TMDB and TVDB scraper sites. Those sites list only biographical data and images for the main cast actors only. Episode actors (those actors that appear in only one or two episodes) are only line entries at the scraper sites, which means that the actor has no profile page or image attached to them- unless that episode actor is a main cast actor in another tv show listed at the site. When viewing the actors for a tv show in Kodi, it is normal to see missing actor artwork. These limitations are being worked on and once the relevant sites and their API's are updated, it will be possible to link episode actors to their profile pages on IMDB.

Required file properties:
Note: The resolution may be increased but ensure the aspect ratio is maintained

File Type Aspect Ratio Resolution- recommended
*.jpg 1:1.5 1000x1500


Naming conventions for your own manually sourced artwork:

Saved movies as File Name Save Location
BluRay & DVD Structure: <FirstName>_<LastName>.jpg f:\TVShows\Dominion\.actors\Amy_Adams.jpg
One episode per directory in the TV Show: <FirstName>_<LastName>.jpg f:\TVShows\Dominion\.actors\Amy_Adams.jpg
All episodes in TV Show directory: <FirstName>_<LastName>.jpg f:\TVShows\Dominion\.actors\Amy_Adams.jpg


Source Folder Artwork

Artwork-VideoFolder01.jpg

The Folder Artwork, also known as Source Folder thumb, are landscape images that can be used to replace the standard folder icons when browsing your tv show sources in the Video menu. You will not see this artwork in the TV Show menu. This image file is saved directly within the Source directory.

To enable the image, navigate to Videos>Files in the menu system. Highlight a source and call up the Context Menu. Select Choose Thumbnail. If you have saved the image in the correct location, it will be available to select immediately. If not, you will need to navigate to locate and select it. The image must remain in its original location once selected as it will not be cached. Deleting the image will remove it from view in the folder icon.

You are able to also apply the folder thumb by modifying the \userdata\sources.xml as follows

<source>
   <name>tv show</name>
   <path>xbms://192.168.1.100:1400/tv show/</path>
   <thumbnail>F:\My TV Shows\folder.jpg</thumbnail>
</source>

Required file properties:
Note: The resolution may be increased but ensure the aspect ratio is maintained

File Type Aspect Ratio Resolution- recommended
*.jpg 16:9 640x360


Naming conventions for your own manually sourced artwork:

Saved movies as File Name Save Location
Folder Artwork: folder.jpg f:\TVShows\folder.jpg
Alternative name: <foldername>.jpg f:\TVShows\MyMovies.jpg


Extended TV Show Artwork

To display the Extended artwork, an add-on will need to be installed to extend the image handling capabilities of Kodi and the skins. Once this is installed, it will insert extra artwork fields which become available to use in the Skins. The add-on can then be used to either automatically scrape the extra artwork or, due to the newly available artwork fields, you can manually search and insert your own local artwork. One example is The Artwork Downloader add-on which can be installed from the official Kodi repository.

Note the following:

  • The following naming schemes apply only to the artwork you have manually sourced and saved. It does not apply to artwork downloaded by the Kodi scraper or any add-on processes.
  • If using the Artwork Downloader add-on, it is important to note the following
    • The add-on has the option to use local artwork (if correctly named and saved) or online artwork. This can be selected in the settings page of the add-on
    • If you have more than one episode in a single directory, the add-on will scrape the online and also the local artwork if correctly named and saved.
    • Using the Kodi scraper will not download extended artwork. The artwork downloader is required to be run after the Kodi scrape process. i.e. you are performing two scrapes.


ClearArt

Artwork-ClearArt02.jpg

ClearArt are images that are saved on a transparent background. This allows the image to be overlayed on another image or playing video. The images normally include the tv show name or logo, along with an iconic prop or scene from the tv show, or an actors image.

The image to the right is displaying ClearArt at the bottom right corner of the image.

Required file properties:
Note: The resolution may be increased but ensure the aspect ratio is maintained

File Type Aspect Ratio Resolution- recommended
*.png 1:0.562 500*281


Naming and Saving conventions for your own manually sourced artwork:

Saved movies as File Name Save Location and example
BluRay & DVD Structure:
clearart.png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\clearart.png
One episode per directory in the TV Show:
clearart.png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\clearart.png
All episodes in TV Show directory: clearart.png f:\TVShows\Dominion\clearart.png


Artwork-ClearLogo02.jpg

This is the basic tv show logo or name on a transparent background. The logo uses the distinctive font of the tv show and is uncluttered by images from the show or actors. The transparent background allows it to be overlayed on other images or video with minimal impact.

The image on the right is displaying the tv show listing using the Logo view in the Aeon Nox skin.

Required file properties:
Note: The resolution may be increased but ensure the aspect ratio is maintained

File Type Aspect Ratio Resolution- recommended
*.png 1:0.388 400x155


Naming and Saving conventions for your own manually sourced artwork:

Saved movies as File Name Save Location and example
BluRay & DVD Structure:
clearlogo.png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\clearlogo.png
One episode per directory in the TV Show:
clearlogo.png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\clearlogo.png
All episodes in TV Show directory: clearlogo.png f:\TVShows\Dominion\clearlogo.png


Character Art

Artwork-CharacterArt01.jpg

Character Art, also known simply as Character, is an image of the main or prominent character in a tv show. It uses a transparent background in a similar fashion to Clear Logo and Clear Art. There are very few skins that display this artwork.

The image to the right displays the Clear Logo and Character Art in the top right corner.

Required file properties:
Note: The resolution may be increased but ensure the aspect ratio is maintained

File Type Aspect Ratio Resolution- recommended
*.png 16:9 800x310


Naming and Saving conventions for your own manually sourced artwork:

Saved movies as File Name Save Location and example
BluRay & DVD Structure:
characterart.png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\characterart.png
One episode per directory in the TV Show:
characterart.png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\characterart.png
All episodes in TV Show directory: characterart.png f:\TVShows\Dominion\characterart.png


Landscape

Artwork-Landscape01.jpg

Landscape, also known as TV Show Thumbs (as distinct from Episode Thumbs), are specially made small fanart images. The main differences between Landscape and Fanart images is that Landscape image contains the tv show logo. They are used in certain page layouts for movie browsing. The original intent of this artwork has blurred over the years so if you have no Landscape images, it is safe to use your Fanart or Extrafanart images.

The image to the right displays the Landscape view in Aeon Nox skin.

Required file properties:
Note: The resolution may be increased but ensure the aspect ratio is maintained

File Type Aspect Ratio Resolution- recommended
*.jpg 16:9 1000x562


Naming and Saving conventions for your own manually sourced artwork:

Saved movies as File Name Save Location and example
BluRay & DVD Structure:
landscape.jpg
f:\TVShows\Dominion\landscape.jpg
One episode per directory in the TV Show:
landscape.jpg
f:\TVShows\Dominion\landscape.jpg
All episodes in TV Show directory: landscape.jpg f:\TVShows\Dominion\landscape.jpg


Skin Dependent & Other Artwork

The following artwork requires a skin that supports that type of artwork.

See also: Add-on Search


Disc

Artwork-DiscArt01.jpg

DiscArt requires the use of a supporting skin. It replicates the picture on the physical DVD and Bluray disc. Although the disc artwork is round, the image itself is square and the disc image is placed on a transparent background.

Required file properties:
Note: The resolution may be increased but ensure the aspect ratio is maintained

File Type Aspect Ratio Resolution- recommended
*.png 1:1 1000x1000


Naming and Saving conventions for your own manually sourced artwork:

Saved movies as File Name Save Location and example
BluRay & DVD Structure:
disc.png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\disc.png
One episode per directory in the TV Show:
disc.png
f:\TVShows\Dominion\disc.png
All episodes in TV Show directory: disc.png f:\TVShows\Dominion\disc.png


The Logo has the same qualities and properties as the ClearLogo. These two items can be easily interchanged. Although, there are logo's with a solid background rather than a transparent background and these should not be used to replace the ClearLogo.


Extra fanart & thumbs

Extra fanart is reliant on a supporting skin and have exactly the same properties as the standard Fanart.

It is possible to download and save additional high quality Fanart which the skin can display, usually in a slideshow.


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Karellen (talk) 01:57, 29 June 2017 (EDT)