Re: Images as alternatives to text instead of the reverse

>But traditional printing is not platform indendant. In the example you have

>spell checked. In other words, the computer has no idea that the graphic is
>REPRESENTING text, so it cannot do intelligent textual things with it. In
>books, this is obviously not a problem, but on the Web it is.
>

You're saying that the "display type" is representing text, and that needs
to be indexable and searchable. In that case, I am with you. If a graphic
were representing text, we should be able to do intelligent things like
searching for the textual content. That is one of the reasons I want to use
css, to eliminate the use of graphics for titles or text so they are
indexable. I think I misunderstood what Stephanos was proposing, as the
subject---using images instead of text---seemed contrary to the direction of
css.

>Alt text says: "the image is the 'real' version of the idea, the text is
>secondary." Because of this, alt text is not usually indexed (AFAIK). The

Okay. And the I can see the merits of being able to use tags in the alt text.

>proposal under discussion says the opposite. "This is really text...treat it
>like text...but graphic clients may want to use this stylzed version." Since
>they are opposites, they should have different HTML representations.
>

Then I agree, we do need a way of saying that the text is the real deal and
that the graphic is for presentation. At least for things like a graphical
cover-art or logo with textual content where you may want that text to be
indexed.

Now, that I've seen Stephanos <SPAN STYLE="altimage: url(images/ablogo.gif)
; align: center"> usage, I support the idea for logos and the like.

Steve
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
   _/     Steve Knoblock 
             knoblock@worldnet.att.net
   _/     City Gallery - History of Photography
             http://www.webcom.com/cityg  
   _/     Member:  National Stereoscopic Association
            http://www.tisco.com/3d-web/nsa/nsa.htm

Received on Wednesday, 21 August 1996 14:38:21 UTC