Pixiv
Encyclopedia
Pixiv is a Japanese online community
for artist
s. It was first launched as a beta test on September 10, 2007 by Takahiro Kamitani. Pixiv Inc. is headquartered in Sendagaya
, Shibuya
, Tokyo
, Japan
. As of May 2010, the site consists of over 2 million members, over 11 million submissions, and receives over 20,000 submissions daily. As of January 2010, the website is visited approximately 34 million times daily, and about 1.5 billion times monthly as of May 2010. Pixiv aims to provide a place for artists to exhibit their illustrations and get feedback via a rating system and user comments. Works are organized in an extensive tag
structure which forms the backbone of the website.
Takahiro Kamitani, who is himself an artist known as Bakotsu on the website, launched Pixiv on September 10, 2007 as a beta test. After the number of users exceeded 10,000 only nineteen days after launch, it became difficult for Kamitani to maintain Pixiv on his own, leading him to establish Crooc Inc. on October 1, 2007. The website went under a renewal on December 18, 2007 into basically what is offered now. While the website was originally only available in Japanese, Chinese was the first additional language offered due to an increasing tendency of international registrants from Taiwan
and China
; there is also an increasing number of registrants from the United States
and South Korea
. In 2009, an English-language version was considered to be the lowest in terms of priority, but was later established in early 2011. Internationalization of the website continued with the addition of French, Korean, Russian and Thai. Certain European countries with a high number of hits on the website such as Germany and Italy will also be considered. The management company Crooc was renamed Pixiv Inc. on November 1, 2008. The CEO
of Pixiv Inc. is Takanori Katagiri.
, and creative writing
can also be submitted. Users can participate in a social network
where one can rate contributions, leave comments on art pieces, and change tags
on any entry. Due to the flexibility of tags, users can start impromptu user-generated participation events where users submit art related to a common specific subject. Each user has a personal bulletin board system
where other users can leave messages. One can also respond to images with another image, known as an "image response". Images intended for an adult audience, or other images not suitable for children such as grotesque images, are separated from the other content through a filter which can be turned on or off via the user's profile. The majority of contributions are of anime
, manga
, and video game fan art
, or of original art which resembles these art forms. The website's global policy includes protecting the privacy of all Pixiv users, and refraining from posting others' works, reprinting others' works without permission, and advertising for commerce.
, Christmas
, New Year
s, and Tanabata
. For a fixed period of time, a section of the website is dedicated to these seasonal submissions, and aspects of the website such as the logo design and star-rating system are altered; for example, the stars are pumpkins during the Halloween-tie in event. On and thereafter the Tanabata event in mid 2008, prizes are offered by either sponsors or from Pixiv itself for participants in the event whose art proves to be popular with the community. Other than during seasonal events, sponsors can also work with Pixiv on PR
events, again offering prizes to the users with the most popular works. Pixiv has held an event called "Doodle 4 Pixiv", an event inspired by Google
's Doodle4Google
competition where participating members take the Pixiv logo and modify it in some way.
Before the Comiket 73
convention in December 2007, users set up a "Pixiv Edition C73 Catalog" on the website via the tags
on the images, and following this Pixiv began setting up a section of the website for members participating at Comiket starting in preparation for Comiket 74 in August 2008. This enables users to search through a catalog by dōjin
circles and by username
which also includes information on where in the convention center a user's circle is located. Along the same lines, due to the high level of Touhou Project
fan art contributions to the website (about 5.8% of all submissions), Pixiv also sets up a similar catalog for the annual Reitaisai Touhou convention.
s with the image's title under them. A top-ten ranking of the most popular images per day is also shown, with the top three images previewed in smaller thumbnails. Finally, a set of tags from the most recent submissions is shown in a tag cloud
under the newest illustrations. When logged in, all of this can be viewed, plus additional content. A top-three weekly and monthly ranking of the most popular images can be viewed under the daily rankings. A set of tags showing the user-generated participation events getting the most attention is shown in a tag cloud, and beneath that, a random selection of a user's favorite artist's newest submissions previewed as thumbnails. A random selection of a user's favorite artists, linking to their user pages, can be viewed under the user's profile image on the left. Two links are available to a user to review their past evaluations and comments left on images. A link to go to the adult version of the top page is available as well, if enabled.
which the user, or anyone else, can write comments on with a limit of 140 characters, and only the 60 most-recent entries are available for viewing.
s, the image will appear as a 600-pixel length image on the image's page which, when clicked, will open up a new browser window
or tab
containing the full image. It is possible for a user to evaluate each submission once per 24-hour period with a scale of star-shaped icons from one to ten (low to high). The number of times an image has been evaluated, the sum score, and the number of times an image has been viewed are posted above the stars. A summary of the image written by the artist appears above the image with its title.
It is possible to make a short comment on an image with a limit of 140 characters; the 20 most-recent comments are posted, and it is possible for a user to delete their own comments. A set of tags
are attached to each image which can be edited by any Pixiv user, and any tag can be added, even overly specific tags containing full sentences; however, only ten tags per image is allowed. If a submission received an image response, the five most-recent image responses are previewed as thumbnails under the comment input line with a link to the full list of image responses. Previews of submissions can be embedded into other websites such as blog
s which link back to the image's page on Pixiv.
are an important feature of Pixiv which enable images to be grouped together in common themes and subjects. While each image is only allowed ten tags, the artist who posted a given image can choose which tags to lock or unlock; if a given tag is unlocked, any user can remove or alter the tag. Any user can add in additional tags, and it is possible to report any unpleasant or defamatory tags. A section of the website contains a list of the top 5000 used tags on the website, with the most-used tags at the top; the two most-used tags are "Touhou
" and "original". Another section of the website lists the number of users who have images with common tags; for example, the "original" tag is used the most by users. There used to be a feature to search for images via if they are 2D or 3D images drawn with a computer, or if they are analog images drawn without a computer program. For the former, the tags are of the program used, and for the latter, the tags are of the analog device, such as a pencil or pen.
per month to obtain an upgraded account known as Pixiv Premium. Users with premium accounts are given various special privileges, such as trying new services earlier than other members, and getting preferential treatment in the events organized through the website.
, or anything else Pixiv-related. Events can only be planned up to three months in advance, and each premium member can only organize one event at a time, though can join however many one wishes. Only Pixiv-related events can be organized in the event community, and if any event which is found to be unsuitable will be removed. Up to three people can be given co-managerial status on Pixiv for an event.
version of the website is available called Pixiv Mobile or for short.
on any entry. Participants were given a set of gold star-shaped stickers which they could place below any of the art pieces, showing their satisfaction or lack thereof by not placing any stars. Each of the art pieces was hung with a comment book that people could write anything they wanted in, critiquing the art pieces. Finally, participants were given a set of blank tags that they could write anything they wanted on, and attach below a given art piece; each art piece had ten spots to place tags on.
Further attractions included an area where participants could draw art pieces and get feedback from others, and a "Pixiv Zone" on the second floor which contained an exhibit chronicling the -year history of Pixiv. Each participant was also given a quiz sheet regarding Pixiv trivia whose answers could be found in the Pixiv Zone. People who completed the quiz, and got at least twenty-five of thirty questions correct would receive special gifts while supplies lasted. The second Pixiv Festa convention was held in the same place between July 11–12, 2009. For the third Pixiv Festa held between June 12–13, 2010, both the East and West Design Festa Galleries were used for the convention. The fourth Pixiv Festa will be held between October 16–17, 2010.
in Ariake, Tokyo
, Japan. The event was similar to Comiket
where participants were able to sell and distribute their works of art, whether they were single illustrations or entire dōjinshi
. The application period for Pixiv Premium members was held between July 31 and August 12, 2009, and the application period for regular Pixiv members was held between August 25 and September 10, 2009. About 200 booths were set up for the event.
-based system to enable users to draw art via a web application
. Other users can submit art replies to any art piece; there is no interface for text entry. Unlike Pixiv, there is no search feature as there are no tags
available, and it is not required to sign-up or login to Drawr to browse the entries. On Drawr, users can create threads where users submit art on a common theme, or add to the image which started the thread. In collaboration with Twitter
, Pixiv Inc. launched a web service
in July 2009 called DrawTwit, which anyone with a Twitter account can use and allows users to draw artwork and post them to Twitter. Others can comments on the artwork with either writing a 110-character
limit or drawing a 140-brush stroke limit image response (in the same spirit as Twitter's limit of 140 characters
per tweet). DrawTwit was originally a temporary service available during maintenance of the Pixiv website on July 16, 2009, but the service proved popular enough to develop into its own entity. In collaboration with Livedoor
, a blog
ing service called Pixiv Blog was launched on April 23, 2009, which anyone with a Pixiv account can use. A Pixiv wiki
called Pixiv Encyclopedia was launched on November 10, 2009 as a way to index and define the more than 1.6 million different tags used on Pixiv, which anyone with a Pixiv account can use. An English-language version of the encyclopedia and an English-language official Twitter account started in May 2011. An oekaki chat service called Pixiv Chat was launched on December 15, 2009 for users to draw oekaki art while in a chat room
.
In collaboration with Enterbrain
, Pixiv began to produce an online magazine
entitled on April 20, 2009. The magazine contains information pertaining to the Pixiv community, and useful information for its users. This includes news articles on latest Pixiv news, how-to
articles, interviews with popular artists on the website, and columns
, including other things. Also, the magazine covers proactive activities artists on the website are doing related to the website such as the holding of art exhibitions. Also in collaboration with Enterbrain, a magazine titled Quarterly Pixiv will begin publication on May 28, 2010 containing material similar to that in Pixiv Tsūshin.
Group" was suspected of collaborating with top level management at Pixiv, though Pixiv later denied any connection to the group. Takanori Katagiri and Chaos Lounge deliberately used art solicited from a Pixiv contest in their own "modern art" collages. In these collages, visitors to the gallery were encouraged to "slowly trample upon" the images strewn out around the floor. When Pixiv users complained that their work was being used inappropriately, Pixiv took no action to punish or suspend the accounts of Chaos Lounge or Takanori Katagiri. The controversy has created a mass exodus of frustrated artists from Pixiv to alternative art-centric sites such as Tinami and Pixa. Traffic from the influx of frustrated Pixiv users has increased by as much as 50 times the normal rate for these sites, causing many of them to buckle under the weight of new users and go offline for maintenance. On July 27, 2011 Pixiv formally apologized on their website, promising to improve their management practices in the future.
Virtual community
A virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals...
for artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
s. It was first launched as a beta test on September 10, 2007 by Takahiro Kamitani. Pixiv Inc. is headquartered in Sendagaya
Sendagaya
Sendagaya is an area within Shibuya ward 渋谷区), one of Tokyo , Japan's special 23 wards.-Introduction:...
, Shibuya
Shibuya, Tokyo
is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. As of 2008, it has an estimated population of 208,371 and a population density of 13,540 persons per km². The total area is 15.11 km²....
, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. As of May 2010, the site consists of over 2 million members, over 11 million submissions, and receives over 20,000 submissions daily. As of January 2010, the website is visited approximately 34 million times daily, and about 1.5 billion times monthly as of May 2010. Pixiv aims to provide a place for artists to exhibit their illustrations and get feedback via a rating system and user comments. Works are organized in an extensive tag
Tag (metadata)
In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...
structure which forms the backbone of the website.
History
Starting as the idea of the programmerProgrammer
A programmer, computer programmer or coder is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to...
Takahiro Kamitani, who is himself an artist known as Bakotsu on the website, launched Pixiv on September 10, 2007 as a beta test. After the number of users exceeded 10,000 only nineteen days after launch, it became difficult for Kamitani to maintain Pixiv on his own, leading him to establish Crooc Inc. on October 1, 2007. The website went under a renewal on December 18, 2007 into basically what is offered now. While the website was originally only available in Japanese, Chinese was the first additional language offered due to an increasing tendency of international registrants from Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
; there is also an increasing number of registrants from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
. In 2009, an English-language version was considered to be the lowest in terms of priority, but was later established in early 2011. Internationalization of the website continued with the addition of French, Korean, Russian and Thai. Certain European countries with a high number of hits on the website such as Germany and Italy will also be considered. The management company Crooc was renamed Pixiv Inc. on November 1, 2008. The CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
of Pixiv Inc. is Takanori Katagiri.
Characteristics
In order to browse the website, one must register free of charge to become a member; an invitation from an existing member is not required. Pixiv's main concept is for users to submit their own art illustrations, which excludes most forms of photographyPhotography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, and creative writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
can also be submitted. Users can participate in a social network
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
where one can rate contributions, leave comments on art pieces, and change tags
Tag (metadata)
In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...
on any entry. Due to the flexibility of tags, users can start impromptu user-generated participation events where users submit art related to a common specific subject. Each user has a personal bulletin board system
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
where other users can leave messages. One can also respond to images with another image, known as an "image response". Images intended for an adult audience, or other images not suitable for children such as grotesque images, are separated from the other content through a filter which can be turned on or off via the user's profile. The majority of contributions are of anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
, manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
, and video game fan art
Fan art
Fan art or fanart is artwork that is based on a character, costume, collage, item, or story that was created by someone other than the artist, such as a fan, from which the word is derived from. The term, while it can apply to art done by fans of characters from books, is usually used to refer to...
, or of original art which resembles these art forms. The website's global policy includes protecting the privacy of all Pixiv users, and refraining from posting others' works, reprinting others' works without permission, and advertising for commerce.
Formal events
Formal events are periodically held on Pixiv to gather participation in formal events revolving around a common theme depending on the time of year; these events revolve around the user-submitted artwork. Throughout the year, seasonal events occur, such as tie-ins with the holidays HalloweenHalloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
, Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, New Year
New Year
The New Year is the day that marks the time of the beginning of a new calendar year, and is the day on which the year count of the specific calendar used is incremented. For many cultures, the event is celebrated in some manner....
s, and Tanabata
Tanabata
is a Japanese star festival, originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi . According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the...
. For a fixed period of time, a section of the website is dedicated to these seasonal submissions, and aspects of the website such as the logo design and star-rating system are altered; for example, the stars are pumpkins during the Halloween-tie in event. On and thereafter the Tanabata event in mid 2008, prizes are offered by either sponsors or from Pixiv itself for participants in the event whose art proves to be popular with the community. Other than during seasonal events, sponsors can also work with Pixiv on PR
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
events, again offering prizes to the users with the most popular works. Pixiv has held an event called "Doodle 4 Pixiv", an event inspired by Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
's Doodle4Google
Doodle4Google
Doodle4Google is an annual competition held by Google to have children create a logo that will be featured on the Google homepage. In 2008 there was a competition in Sweden.-History:Google features logos on their homepage, usually for public holidays...
competition where participating members take the Pixiv logo and modify it in some way.
Before the Comiket 73
Comiket
, otherwise known as the , is the world's largest self-published comic book fair, held twice a year in Tokyo, Japan. The first Comiket was held on December 21, 1975, with only about 32 participating circles and an estimated 600 attendees. Attendance has since swelled to over a half million people....
convention in December 2007, users set up a "Pixiv Edition C73 Catalog" on the website via the tags
Tag (metadata)
In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...
on the images, and following this Pixiv began setting up a section of the website for members participating at Comiket starting in preparation for Comiket 74 in August 2008. This enables users to search through a catalog by dōjin
Dojin
, often romanized as doujin, is a general Japanese term for a group of people or friends who share an interest, activity, hobbies, or achievement...
circles and by username
User (computing)
A user is an agent, either a human agent or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username , screen name , nickname , or handle, which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.Users are...
which also includes information on where in the convention center a user's circle is located. Along the same lines, due to the high level of Touhou Project
Touhou Project
The , also known as Toho Project or Project Shrine Maiden, is a Japanese dōjin game series focused on bullet hell shooters made by the one-man developer Team Shanghai Alice, whose sole member, known as ZUN, is responsible for all the graphics, music, and programming for the most part...
fan art contributions to the website (about 5.8% of all submissions), Pixiv also sets up a similar catalog for the annual Reitaisai Touhou convention.
Top page
When the top page of Pixiv is viewed when not logged in, six random contributions to the website are previewed as thumbnailThumbnail
Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words...
s with the image's title under them. A top-ten ranking of the most popular images per day is also shown, with the top three images previewed in smaller thumbnails. Finally, a set of tags from the most recent submissions is shown in a tag cloud
Tag cloud
A tag cloud is a visual representation for text data, typically used to depict keyword metadata on websites, or to visualize free form text. 'Tags' are usually single words, and the importance of each tag is shown with font size or color...
under the newest illustrations. When logged in, all of this can be viewed, plus additional content. A top-three weekly and monthly ranking of the most popular images can be viewed under the daily rankings. A set of tags showing the user-generated participation events getting the most attention is shown in a tag cloud, and beneath that, a random selection of a user's favorite artist's newest submissions previewed as thumbnails. A random selection of a user's favorite artists, linking to their user pages, can be viewed under the user's profile image on the left. Two links are available to a user to review their past evaluations and comments left on images. A link to go to the adult version of the top page is available as well, if enabled.
User pages
On a given user's user page, the user's three most-recent submissions are previewed as thumbnails, along with the user's three most recently bookmarked images, and the three most-recent image responses by the user who responded to another user's submissions. A selection of a user's favorite artists is available, with links to the full lists of artists divided between "favorite users" and "my picks". A short profile detailing the artist's basic information, such as nickname, birthday, sex, and location, is available, along with a short self-introduction. An additional profile detailing an artist's computer workspace is also available. Each user has a profile image used to distinguish the artist which appears above their username on their user page. Each user is given a simple, personal BBSBulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
which the user, or anyone else, can write comments on with a limit of 140 characters, and only the 60 most-recent entries are available for viewing.
Submissions
A user can submit an unlimited number of images, though a user must wait five minutes between submissions. When searching for contributions, the number of users who bookmarked a given image will appear under the thumbnail as "# users" in blue, and the number of users who gave an image response to a given image will also appear under the thumbnail as "# res" in red. If a submitted image is larger than 600x600 pixelPixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
s, the image will appear as a 600-pixel length image on the image's page which, when clicked, will open up a new browser window
Window (computing)
In computing, a window is a visual area containing some kind of user interface. It usually has a rectangular shape that can overlap with the area of other windows...
or tab
Tab (GUI)
In the area of graphical user interfaces , a tabbed document interface is one that allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window, using tabs as a navigational widget for switching between sets of documents...
containing the full image. It is possible for a user to evaluate each submission once per 24-hour period with a scale of star-shaped icons from one to ten (low to high). The number of times an image has been evaluated, the sum score, and the number of times an image has been viewed are posted above the stars. A summary of the image written by the artist appears above the image with its title.
It is possible to make a short comment on an image with a limit of 140 characters; the 20 most-recent comments are posted, and it is possible for a user to delete their own comments. A set of tags
Tag (metadata)
In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...
are attached to each image which can be edited by any Pixiv user, and any tag can be added, even overly specific tags containing full sentences; however, only ten tags per image is allowed. If a submission received an image response, the five most-recent image responses are previewed as thumbnails under the comment input line with a link to the full list of image responses. Previews of submissions can be embedded into other websites such as blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s which link back to the image's page on Pixiv.
Tags
TagsTag (metadata)
In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...
are an important feature of Pixiv which enable images to be grouped together in common themes and subjects. While each image is only allowed ten tags, the artist who posted a given image can choose which tags to lock or unlock; if a given tag is unlocked, any user can remove or alter the tag. Any user can add in additional tags, and it is possible to report any unpleasant or defamatory tags. A section of the website contains a list of the top 5000 used tags on the website, with the most-used tags at the top; the two most-used tags are "Touhou
Touhou Project
The , also known as Toho Project or Project Shrine Maiden, is a Japanese dōjin game series focused on bullet hell shooters made by the one-man developer Team Shanghai Alice, whose sole member, known as ZUN, is responsible for all the graphics, music, and programming for the most part...
" and "original". Another section of the website lists the number of users who have images with common tags; for example, the "original" tag is used the most by users. There used to be a feature to search for images via if they are 2D or 3D images drawn with a computer, or if they are analog images drawn without a computer program. For the former, the tags are of the program used, and for the latter, the tags are of the analog device, such as a pencil or pen.
Favorites
It is possible to bookmark favorite images and have them easily available for viewing via a user's user page. The bookmarks are organized by tags, and a short comment on the image can be added by the bookmarker. The number of images one can bookmark is unrestricted, and the images are listed by either newest-first or oldest-first. The images bookmarked by a user are available for any user to view. A user can add other users to their "favorite users", which can either be public or private, and are listed by most-recently added. A user can add their friends as "my picks" (or "my Pixiv") which is shown in a public listing organized by the order in which the members joined Pixiv starting with the earliest.Pixiv Premium
Launched on April 1, 2009, users can pay a fee of 525 yenJapanese yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
per month to obtain an upgraded account known as Pixiv Premium. Users with premium accounts are given various special privileges, such as trying new services earlier than other members, and getting preferential treatment in the events organized through the website.
Pixiv Points
Pixiv Points (abbreviated pp) are points given by users to other users they like and support via a "goodP" button visible on each user's user page. It is possible to send anywhere between 10 and 500 points at a time. A third party not related to the exchange of points between two users will not be aware any points were exchanged; they are meant as a private feature between two users to show thanks or gratitude. There are two ways in gaining more points. Either one user receives them from another user, or if a member has a premium account, they receive 2,000 Pixiv Points per month. If any points gained within any thirty-day period are not used in one year's time, the points expire. There are plans to use the points to exchange them for original Pixiv goods.Event community
Premium members can make use of the event community portion of the website which allows users to organize events off-site. Only premium users can organize the events, but any Pixiv member can view the events in a public calendar, and any member can join any of the events. All of the events are for members of Pixiv to meet offline in user-organized events to show case art, dōjinshiDojinshi
is the Japanese term for self-published works, usually magazines, manga or novels. Dōjinshi are often the work of amateurs, though some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular industry. The term dōjinshi is derived from and . Dōjinshi are part of a wider...
, or anything else Pixiv-related. Events can only be planned up to three months in advance, and each premium member can only organize one event at a time, though can join however many one wishes. Only Pixiv-related events can be organized in the event community, and if any event which is found to be unsuitable will be removed. Up to three people can be given co-managerial status on Pixiv for an event.
Other
The search feature on the website enables a user to search for images via their tags, or by their titles and captions. A random-tag search feature is available, which excludes the adult images, where a set of forty images are displayed as thumbnails. Users can be found via a specific search feature which searches for matches with users' profiles. It is possible to message other users with a 10-10,000 character limit. A mobile phoneMobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
version of the website is available called Pixiv Mobile or for short.
Pixiv Festa
Between February 27 and March 1, 2009, Pixiv held their first convention, Pixiv Festa, at the East Design Festa Gallery in Omotesandō, Tokyo, Japan. The event consisted of several exhibitions by 145 different artists. Participants could freely interact with the art exhibits in the three ways one can interact on the website: via rating an image from one to ten (low to high) stars, making comments about an image, or having the ability to change tagsTag (metadata)
In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...
on any entry. Participants were given a set of gold star-shaped stickers which they could place below any of the art pieces, showing their satisfaction or lack thereof by not placing any stars. Each of the art pieces was hung with a comment book that people could write anything they wanted in, critiquing the art pieces. Finally, participants were given a set of blank tags that they could write anything they wanted on, and attach below a given art piece; each art piece had ten spots to place tags on.
Further attractions included an area where participants could draw art pieces and get feedback from others, and a "Pixiv Zone" on the second floor which contained an exhibit chronicling the -year history of Pixiv. Each participant was also given a quiz sheet regarding Pixiv trivia whose answers could be found in the Pixiv Zone. People who completed the quiz, and got at least twenty-five of thirty questions correct would receive special gifts while supplies lasted. The second Pixiv Festa convention was held in the same place between July 11–12, 2009. For the third Pixiv Festa held between June 12–13, 2010, both the East and West Design Festa Galleries were used for the convention. The fourth Pixiv Festa will be held between October 16–17, 2010.
Pixiv Market
Pixiv held an event called Pixiv Market on November 15, 2009 at the Tokyo Big SightTokyo Big Sight
is the popular nickname for the , a Japanese convention center that opened in April 1996. Located in Odaiba, Tokyo Bay, the center is one of the largest convention venues within the city, and its most iconic representation is the visually distinctive Conference Tower.-Construction:Contracted by the...
in Ariake, Tokyo
Ariake, Tokyo
is a location within Kōtō, Tokyo, Japan. It is best known as the region adjacent to and directly east of Odaiba. Airake is subdivided into four chome and comprises part of the Tokyo Bay Landfill #10 and Tokyo Rinkai Satellite City Center....
, Japan. The event was similar to Comiket
Comiket
, otherwise known as the , is the world's largest self-published comic book fair, held twice a year in Tokyo, Japan. The first Comiket was held on December 21, 1975, with only about 32 participating circles and an estimated 600 attendees. Attendance has since swelled to over a half million people....
where participants were able to sell and distribute their works of art, whether they were single illustrations or entire dōjinshi
Dojinshi
is the Japanese term for self-published works, usually magazines, manga or novels. Dōjinshi are often the work of amateurs, though some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular industry. The term dōjinshi is derived from and . Dōjinshi are part of a wider...
. The application period for Pixiv Premium members was held between July 31 and August 12, 2009, and the application period for regular Pixiv members was held between August 25 and September 10, 2009. About 200 booths were set up for the event.
Additional services and media
In addition to the website Pixiv, Pixiv Inc. began to develop the idea of expanding Pixiv beyond its website's boundaries while being able to use a user's Pixiv account for other peripheral services. In October 2008, Pixiv Inc. launched an oekaki Internet forum called Drawr, which anyone with a Pixiv account can use. The website uses a FlashAdobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
-based system to enable users to draw art via a web application
Web application
A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...
. Other users can submit art replies to any art piece; there is no interface for text entry. Unlike Pixiv, there is no search feature as there are no tags
Tag (metadata)
In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...
available, and it is not required to sign-up or login to Drawr to browse the entries. On Drawr, users can create threads where users submit art on a common theme, or add to the image which started the thread. In collaboration with Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, Pixiv Inc. launched a web service
Web service
A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...
in July 2009 called DrawTwit, which anyone with a Twitter account can use and allows users to draw artwork and post them to Twitter. Others can comments on the artwork with either writing a 110-character
Character (computing)
In computer and machine-based telecommunications terminology, a character is a unit of information that roughly corresponds to a grapheme, grapheme-like unit, or symbol, such as in an alphabet or syllabary in the written form of a natural language....
limit or drawing a 140-brush stroke limit image response (in the same spirit as Twitter's limit of 140 characters
Character (computing)
In computer and machine-based telecommunications terminology, a character is a unit of information that roughly corresponds to a grapheme, grapheme-like unit, or symbol, such as in an alphabet or syllabary in the written form of a natural language....
per tweet). DrawTwit was originally a temporary service available during maintenance of the Pixiv website on July 16, 2009, but the service proved popular enough to develop into its own entity. In collaboration with Livedoor
Livedoor
is an Internet service provider based in Tokyo, Japan, that runs a web portal and numerous other businesses. The company was founded and led in its first 10 years by Takafumi Horie, known as "Horiemon" in Japan...
, a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ing service called Pixiv Blog was launched on April 23, 2009, which anyone with a Pixiv account can use. A Pixiv wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
called Pixiv Encyclopedia was launched on November 10, 2009 as a way to index and define the more than 1.6 million different tags used on Pixiv, which anyone with a Pixiv account can use. An English-language version of the encyclopedia and an English-language official Twitter account started in May 2011. An oekaki chat service called Pixiv Chat was launched on December 15, 2009 for users to draw oekaki art while in a chat room
Chat room
The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing...
.
In collaboration with Enterbrain
Enterbrain
is a Japanese magazine publisher established on April 1, 2000. Enterbrain magazines are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strategy guides. In addition, the company publishes a small selection of anime artbooks. Enterbrain is based in Tokyo, Japan...
, Pixiv began to produce an online magazine
Online magazine
An online magazine shares some features with a blog and also with online newspapers, but can usually be distinguished by its approach to editorial control...
entitled on April 20, 2009. The magazine contains information pertaining to the Pixiv community, and useful information for its users. This includes news articles on latest Pixiv news, how-to
How-to
A how-to or a how to is an informal, often short, description of how to accomplish some specific task. A how-to is usually meant to help non-experts, may leave out details that are only important to experts, and may also be greatly simplified from an overall discussion of the topic...
articles, interviews with popular artists on the website, and columns
Column (newspaper)
A column is a recurring piece or article in a newspaper, magazine or other publication. Columns are written by columnists.What differentiates a column from other forms of journalism is that it meets each of the following criteria:...
, including other things. Also, the magazine covers proactive activities artists on the website are doing related to the website such as the holding of art exhibitions. Also in collaboration with Enterbrain, a magazine titled Quarterly Pixiv will begin publication on May 28, 2010 containing material similar to that in Pixiv Tsūshin.
Chaos Lounge controversy
The self-styled "Modern ArtModern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
Group" was suspected of collaborating with top level management at Pixiv, though Pixiv later denied any connection to the group. Takanori Katagiri and Chaos Lounge deliberately used art solicited from a Pixiv contest in their own "modern art" collages. In these collages, visitors to the gallery were encouraged to "slowly trample upon" the images strewn out around the floor. When Pixiv users complained that their work was being used inappropriately, Pixiv took no action to punish or suspend the accounts of Chaos Lounge or Takanori Katagiri. The controversy has created a mass exodus of frustrated artists from Pixiv to alternative art-centric sites such as Tinami and Pixa. Traffic from the influx of frustrated Pixiv users has increased by as much as 50 times the normal rate for these sites, causing many of them to buckle under the weight of new users and go offline for maintenance. On July 27, 2011 Pixiv formally apologized on their website, promising to improve their management practices in the future.