accessibility-guidelines

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Images of text

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Summary

Use real text rather than images of text.

Text must not be presented as part of an image because it cannot be resized, and it deteriorates in quality when magnified.


Requirements

Common mistakes

Why?

This is so that everyone is able to read and access information presented in text.

Images are an inflexible way to present text information. The text can blur when magnified or enlarged, is difficult to adapt for users wishing to change the colour, language or spacing, and is not available to assistive technology such as screen readers. Additionally, images can be slow to download and require more data.

Official wording in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

1.4.5 Images of Text: If the technologies being used can achieve the visual presentation, text is used to convey information rather than images of text except for the following: (Level AA)

See the W3C’s detailed explanation of this guideline with techniques and examples.


More info

Sources

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This document is in beta. Help us by reporting issues via Github or email