# Understanding Images of Text (No Exception)

## In brief

Goal
  Users can always adjust how text is presented.
What to do
  Do not use pictures of text unless there is no other way to present information.
Why it's important
  People cannot alter how text looks in images.

## Intent of Images of Text (No Exception)

The intent of this Success Criterion is to enable people who require a particular visual presentation of text to be able to adjust the text presentation as required. This includes people who require the text in a particular font size, foreground and background color, font family, line spacing or alignment.

This means implementing the text in a manner that allows its presentation to be changed or providing a mechanism by which users can select an alternate presentation. Using images of text is an example of an implementation that does not allow users to alter the presentation of the text within it.

In some situations, a particular visual presentation of the text is essential to the information being conveyed. This means that information would be lost without that particular visual presentation. In this case implementing the text in a manner that allows its presentation to be changed is not required. This includes text that demonstrates a particular visual aspect of the text, such as a particular font family, or text that conveys an identity, such as text within a company logo.

Text that is decorative does not require implementing the text in a manner that allows its presentation to be changed.

The definition of image of text contains the note: Note: This does not include text that is part of a picture that contains significant other visual content. Examples of such pictures include graphs, screenshots, and diagrams which visually convey important information through more than just text.

## Benefits of Images of Text (No Exception)

- People with low vision (who may have trouble reading the text with the authored font family, size and/or color).
- People with visual tracking problems (who may have trouble reading the text with the authored line spacing and/or alignment).
- People with cognitive disabilities that affect reading.

## Examples of Images of Text (No Exception)

A quote
  A Web page contains a quote. The quote itself is presented as italicized text, indented from the left margin. The name of the person to whom the quote is attributed is below the quote with 1.5x the line space and further indented from the left margin. CSS is used to position the text; set the spacing between lines; as well as display the text's font family, size, color and decoration.
Navigation items
  A Web page contains a menu of navigation links that have both an icon and text to describe their target. CSS is used to display the text's font family, size and foreground and background colors; as well as the spacing between the navigation links.
A logo containing text
  A Web site contains the organization's logo in the top left corner of each Web page. The logo contains logotype (text as part, or all, of the logo). The visual presentation of the text is essential to the identity of the logo and is included as a gif image which does not allow the text characteristics to be changed. The image has a text alternative.
Representation of a font family
  A Web page contains information about a particular font family. Substituting the font family with another font would defeat the purpose of the representation. The representation is included as a jpeg image which does not allow the text characteristics to be changed. The image has a text alternative.
A representation of a letter
  A Web page contains a representation of an original letter. The depiction of the letter in its original format is essential to information being conveyed about the time period in which it was written. The letter is included as a gif image which does not allow the text characteristics to be changed. The image has a text alternative.
Symbolic text characters
  A form allows users to enter blocks of text. The form provides a number of buttons, including functions to style the text and check spelling. Some of the buttons use text characters that do not form a sequence that expresses something in human language. For example "B" to increase font weight, "I" to italicize the text and "ABC" to check the spelling. The symbolic text characters are included as gif images which do not allow the text characteristics to be changed. The buttons have text alternatives.

## Resources for Images of Text (No Exception)

- CSS Web fonts
- Weblog comments: WebKit now supports CSS @font-face rules
- Creating Cross Browser Compatible CSS Text Shadows
- CSS and text

## Techniques for Images of Text (No Exception)

### Sufficient Techniques for Images of Text (No Exception)

- Using CSS to control visual presentation of text
- Using CSS to replace text with images of text and providing user interface controls to switch
- Separating information and structure from presentation so that Web pages can be presented different ways without losing information

### Additional Techniques (Advisory) for Images of Text (No Exception)

#### CSS Techniques

- Using percent for font sizes
- Using named font sizes
- Using em units for font sizes
- Using CSS letter-spacing to control spacing within a word
- Positioning content based on structural markup

### Failures for Images of Text (No Exception)