Note that file extensions are just the last few characters of what's usually a long, opaque, mysterious, foreign-language blob of text.

Raw page titles of files can't really be relied on to be user-readable and probably shouldn't be presented at all except as low-level metadata.

If we want a more informative title, some images have an explicit title field in the information template (e.g. [1]), for the others we can try to get the first sentence or line of the description. This seems to give a nice result for most files, and it can be localized.

[1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Allegoria_sacra_02.jpg

I'm now using something very similar to stockPhoto.js in MMV. See the upcoming patch.

Change 92476 had a related patch set uploaded by MarkTraceur:
Add "use this file" link and dialog

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/92476

Thanks, you guys!

Great suggestions all around.

I agree with Brion that current file names are pretty opaque and not particularly useful to readers. I have recommended to our designer Pau Giner that we de-emphasize these file names, perhaps moving them down below the image in the next versions of the Media Viewer.

Eventually, I believe these file names should be replaced by nicer 'titles', which would be written in plain english, as short captions that could be used below thumbnails, etc. This would be done concurrently with a move to more standard numeric file names, as large multimedia sites like YouTube and Flickr do, so we could retire these bizarre file names in the long run. All this could be done when we start implementing structured data on Commons, which we hope to do with WikiData in 2014.

For now, we have agreed to address this need by adding a simple 'Use this file' link at the bottom of the right hand column, which would open up a modal window where editors can grab the file name for inclusion in their articles or web sites. My hope is that this will evolve to become a nice 'Use this file' panel like the one cited by Gergo above, which would embed the author and source names into the code, as required by the file's license.

I have also asked Pau if he could create an icon for this new feature, that is consistent with the other icons on the lower right. Next, he will work on design solutions that could address these needs in future versions of Media Viewer.

I am giving this feature a high priority for the first release, because I think the community will want to have this solution in place as soon as possible, based on conversations we've had so far.

Thank you all for moving this feature along so effectively!

I dunno what the block was on this, but it's wrong. I think you meant to block the deploy tracking bug. The info links aren't blocked by this patch at all.

Change 92476 merged by jenkins-bot:
Add "use this file" link and dialog

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/92476