1.4.5
Andrew Hick edited this page Jul 25, 2023
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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:
Customizable: The image of text can be visually customized to the user's requirements;
Essential: A particular presentation of text is essential to the information being conveyed.
Always.
Check:
- there are no images of text - if there are, the text must be repeated somewhere close (this counts as a "conforming alternate version")
If you're unsure if something is an image of text, keep in mind:
- if you can highlight the text character by character, it is not an image (except text in SVGs can also be highlighted but that is fine and counts as text)
- text within links cannot easily be highlighted - try highlighting that text from outside of the link
- if you cannot highlight text, it might still be text, so try to check another way
- inspect the code to see how the text appears in there
- logos, unless they are used for headings
- photos
- inline SVGs using
textelement can be considered an exception - the image is customisable
- symbolic text characters where the text characters themselves are not the information but represent an idea - for example a 'B' on a button for bold, or a key legend on a map
- images that are not primarily about the text, such as screenshots, diagrams and graphs, or photos that include objects with text like street signs
- Never use images of text, as it might not be clear to users that the text underneath says the same
- If using an image of text is unavoidable, the text should be repeated immediately above or below it
Use the Web Developer extension to disable images to find out what are images, but be aware this will not disable certain types of images such as background images and icon fonts.
Use the browser's inspection tool to look at the code. See the 'Other ways to test' section for 1.1.1.
No difference