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Re: Characters in Alt attribute

for

From: Christian Heilmann
Date: Aug 17, 2005 8:20AM

> Does anyone know the maximum length of characters to be specific in alt
> attribute? In addition, what number of characters do you suggest should be
> ideal keeping accessibility and usability in mind?
> Are there any guidelines specifying the number of characters considered
> ideal for alt attribute?

Quoting Joe Clark
http://www.joeclark.org/book/sashay/serialization/Chapter06.html :

Keep the alt text short. There is no set limit on the length of an alt
text, but as we shall see shortly, a very long alt may not be fully
displayed when image-loading is turned off or when the browser cannot
locate the image file. By convention, limit alt texts to 1,024
characters (1 K) or less.

When it comes to writing the actual text, remember that alt takes the
place of the graphic. Tell us what the picture is or represents or sum
up its function, but don't tell us that it's a picture. I'll give you
actual examples in a moment, but steer clear of writing a sort of
metaalt text, like "Picture of sunset over Darling Harbour" or
"Picture of company logo."

endquote

Read on how you can add more information via title or if needed via longdesc.

The alt is the image replacement, no need to tell stories, unless your
image is a story, then image replacement might be the better idea
anyway.