Images

Images are used in a variety of ways on Web pages. Some serve as backgrounds, some as icons or buttons, and some simply to enhance the appearance of the page.

Image tags are used to provide text to accompany images for people who cannot see the image. When used correctly, this text provides information which allows you to gain a better understanding of the images and what purpose they serve.

For those using a mouse, the image tags can be seen for a short time after moving the mouse curser over the image.

Image of a Jaws installation disk. It is blue with white letters.

The following is an example of a poorly labled image. Which of the following reasons do you think explain why the image tag is not adequate.

The description does not provide information that it is a banner.
The description does not indicate that it is located at the top of the page (originally).
The description does not associate the group as part of a larger organization.
The description does not describe what it looks like; colors, font, size.
All of the above.

Think about the benefits and drawbacks of the following image tag.

Below are examples using graphics to express an idea.

Think about how well the image tag describes the ideas shown in the image.

A girl

An artist's impression of a woman eating ice-cream

Two young girls posing while eating large ice-cream cones. One girl is white, with straight brown hair and a purple head band and one girl is African-American, with pig-tails with blue hair-bands. The picture is colorful, but purpil is dominant.

Below is a series of pictures telling a story.

Do the image tags tell the same story as the images?

A brown and black dog is sliding on its stomach slowly up to a fallen drumstick ice-cream cone.

The dog, standing, is trying to figure out how to eat the cold ice-cream, but the cone moves along the brick sidewalk leaving a trail of chocolate.

Now, the dog is really getting into eating the ice-cream by chomping on it with its teeth.

The cone is moving across the brick sidewalk as the dog is trying to lick all of the chocolate off of the ice-cream.

The cone is now totally off the sidewalk into the flower bed, but the dog continues to eat it up rapidly.

The hardest part of the cone to eat for the dog is what is left deep inside the cones paper wrapper, but the dog uses its tongue well.

Advance to the next activity

Go to the main activity page.

Some of the images on this page have been taken from the Freedom Scientific website online training.