How Boba.guide uses, creates, edits and credits visual material
Image and Photography Policy
Images on Boba.guide can serve very different purposes: documenting a real drink or shop, showing a submitted menu, illustrating a general boba concept, explaining texture or ingredients, or simply giving a reader a useful visual reference.
Those purposes should not be confused with one another. A generated illustration of brown sugar boba is not evidence of what a particular shop serves. A reader’s photograph of a menu may document what was displayed at a specific place and time, but it does not automatically establish what every branch sells today.
This policy explains how Boba.guide distinguishes documentary material from illustration, how images may be edited, how generated imagery is handled, what we expect from submitted photographs, and how rights, attribution and accessibility fit into the visual side of the site.
The visual integrity rule
The Image Should Not Claim More Than It Can Prove
A real photograph can document something that existed in front of the camera. An editorial illustration can help a reader understand an idea. A generated image can create a useful visual representation of a generic drink.
Those are not interchangeable forms of evidence.
Boba.guide aims to make the role of an image consistent with what the image actually is. We do not want an illustrative cup to be mistaken for a documented product, a staged composition to be treated as a spontaneous real-world scene, or a synthetic storefront to be read as proof that a business exists.
Not every image has the same editorial job
The Main Types of Visual Material We May Use
A real subject photographed in a real setting
This may include a drink, shop, ingredient, preparation process, menu board, event or other subject photographed directly.
When the image is being used as evidence of a particular place, product or event, captions and surrounding text should not extend the claim beyond what the image and supporting context establish.
A reader, business or contributor supplies an image
Submitted material can be extremely useful for local menus, unusual drinks, shops and regional practices, but the identity, date, rights and context may need verification before publication.
A visual record of published information
Screenshots can document a current menu, price, ingredient disclosure or ordering interface at a particular point in time. They are time-sensitive and should be interpreted in that context.
A visual created to explain rather than document
Illustrations, diagrams and constructed visual comparisons may help explain tea families, topping texture, a preparation process or another abstract idea.
They should not imply documentary specificity that they do not possess.
A synthetic visual representation
Generated images may be used to illustrate generic boba drinks, ingredients, concepts or editorial themes where a documentary photograph is not required.
They do not serve as proof of a real shop, menu, commercial product, person or historical event.
Before an image becomes evidence
Provenance Matters
When an image supports a factual claim rather than simply decorating a page, we care about where it came from and what it actually documents.
We may need to know whether the photograph came from our own work, a contributor, a shop, a manufacturer, a public source or another creator.
A menu photographed in Taipei should not silently become evidence about a branch in Toronto. Location may materially change what the image means.
Menus, prices, product packaging and shop interiors can change. Date matters when an image supports current commercial information.
We distinguish ordinary presentation adjustments from changes that modify the factual content of an image.
A photograph of one drink can establish that the photographed drink looked a particular way. It does not prove that every serving, every branch or every shop uses the same recipe or presentation.
Editing should not rewrite reality
How We Treat Photo Editing
Visual presentation may require ordinary technical adjustments. The boundary is whether an edit materially changes what the image represents.
Reasonable cropping, resizing, compression, exposure correction, white-balance adjustment, sharpening, dust removal and similar technical processing may be used when they improve reproduction without materially changing the subject.
Background cleanup, object removal, compositing or substantial color changes can alter editorial meaning. Such treatment should not be used on documentary imagery if it would make the scene materially different from what was photographed.
Adding pearls that were not present, removing a brand or ingredient in a way that changes meaning, replacing a real menu price, generating people into a shop scene or manufacturing a product configuration and then presenting the result as an unchanged photograph.
Synthetic visuals have a different role
How Boba.guide Uses AI-Generated Images
Boba.guide may use generated visual material as editorial illustration. This is especially useful for generic drink concepts where the page needs a clear visual reference but is not documenting a specific commercial product or location.
A generated cup is illustrative, not documentary
If a generated image shows jasmine milk tea with tapioca, it may illustrate that general drink concept. It does not establish how a named shop prepares jasmine milk tea.
We avoid fabricated real-world specificity
Generated imagery should not intentionally invent a believable real shop, fake street address, branded menu, commercial packaging or product label and then invite the reader to interpret it as genuine.
Visual plausibility still matters
Illustrative images should not knowingly show impossible ingredients, visibly broken cup geometry, duplicated objects or another material distortion that makes the subject misleading rather than useful.
Material synthetic context should not be disguised
Where the synthetic nature of an image materially affects how a reasonable reader would interpret it, the surrounding context or caption should make that distinction clear.
The broader rules for automated editorial tools are explained in our AI Use Policy.
Visual claims we do not manufacture
What We Do Not Use Images to Pretend
We do not present a generated shop exterior as evidence that a real shop exists at that location.
We do not create a fake menu or price board and present it as current commercial evidence.
We do not invent packaging, product labels, nutritional information or ingredient statements and attribute them to a real brand.
We do not use synthetic imagery to create a fictional event, shop visit, interview or tasting and then describe it as first-hand reporting.
We do not materially alter documentary photography in a way that changes the underlying factual scene while continuing to describe it as an ordinary unaltered photograph.
Reader photography can reveal what generic images cannot
Submitted Photos, Menus and Local Visual Contributions
A good reader photograph can reveal a topping name, local shop format, current price, unusual drink or regional variation that might otherwise be difficult to discover.
Include the shop or subject, city or country, approximate date and any context needed to understand what the image shows.
Please do not submit someone else’s photograph as your own. If you are not the creator or rights holder, explain the source and permission situation.
Heavy filters, screenshots of screenshots and repeated compression can make verification and useful publication more difficult.
If a menu, product or photo has been materially altered, tell us. Do not edit a price or ingredient line and then submit the result as an authentic record.
Sending an image gives us something to review; it does not guarantee publication, attribution in a specific format or acceptance of the associated factual claim.
For broader contribution rules, see our Community and Submission Guidelines.
Real people deserve context and care
People, Privacy and Sensitive Situations
Photography can contain more than a drink. A restaurant scene may include customers, staff, children, license plates, screens, receipts or other identifying information.
Where an identifiable person is central to a photograph, the circumstances of publication matter. We consider whether the image was supplied with appropriate rights or permission, whether the context could create a misleading implication, and whether unnecessary private information is visible.
Images involving children require additional care. A photograph being technically obtainable does not automatically make publication appropriate.
Where a person is incidental to a broad public scene, the privacy considerations may differ from a photograph in which that person is the identifiable subject. We evaluate context rather than treating every visual situation as identical.
If an image on Boba.guide raises a privacy concern about you or another identifiable person, contact us with the page URL and the specific image.
Being useful does not erase ownership
Copyright, Permission and Attribution
Images created for Boba.guide remain subject to the site’s applicable copyright and usage terms unless another arrangement is explicitly stated.
A contributor should have the rights or permission necessary to provide an image for the proposed use. Attribution arrangements may depend on the nature of the contribution and the rights granted.
Finding an image on a website, social network or search engine does not by itself make the image free to republish.
If you believe visual material on Boba.guide infringes your copyright, use the process described in our Copyright Policy.
A screenshot can be evidence and still become outdated
Menus, Screenshots, Packaging and Product Images
Commercial visual material can be highly useful because it captures exactly what a business communicated at a particular time. It also requires careful scope.
A menu photograph or screenshot can support a claim about what the menu displayed when the image was captured. Prices, products and customization may later change.
A product package may document ingredients, serving information or marketing statements for that product version. We distinguish manufacturer claims from independent conclusions.
An app or kiosk screenshot can show available customization in a specific market and at a specific time. It does not establish that another market or branch uses the same configuration.
Where a visual is supporting a time-sensitive factual claim, we may need to recheck the underlying commercial information rather than relying indefinitely on an old screenshot.
Images should not lock information away from readers
Alternative Text and Accessibility
Alt text is intended to help communicate the relevant purpose or information of an image when the image itself cannot be seen.
Where a photograph or illustration contributes information to the page, the text alternative should describe the useful content rather than simply repeat the filename.
The same image may need different alt text depending on why it appears on the page. A drink used to demonstrate tapioca texture may need different emphasis from the same drink used in an article about milk-tea color.
Alternative text is not a place to force unrelated search terms, production notes or promotional language.
Important instructions or article information should not exist only as text embedded inside an image where a reader cannot access it in ordinary page copy.
The wider site-access principles are described in our Accessibility Statement.
Visual mistakes can require corrections too
Corrections, Replacements and Removed Images
An image can create a factual problem just as text can.
We may correct a caption, replace an outdated menu screenshot, remove an image with an unresolved rights problem, correct attribution, replace a misleading illustration or revise surrounding text if the original image created an inaccurate impression.
If the visual issue materially affected the factual meaning of a page, the change may also fall under our broader Corrections Policy.
We do not preserve a misleading visual merely because it is aesthetically attractive.
The wider editorial framework
Where This Policy Fits
How visual material fits into Boba.guide’s broader rules for evidence, uncertainty and editorial judgment.
How generated and automated tools are treated outside image production as well.
For questions that do not require a formal copyright process, contact the editorial team directly.
Questions about an image on Boba.guide
Contact the Editorial Team
If you believe an image is incorrectly attributed, misleading, outdated, improperly generated, missing important context, creating a privacy concern or otherwise needs review, send us the exact page URL and identify the image involved.
info@boba.guide