A suggestion for alt text.

• From: Daniel N. Wood <dwood@cory.eecs.berkeley.edu>
• Date: Sat, 15 Apr 1995 15:05:01 -0700 (PDT)
• To: www-html@www10.w3.org
• Message-Id: <199504152205.PAA07871@cory.EECS.Berkeley.EDU>

I would like to suggestion an addition to the FIG tag.  (And perhaps
the IMG tag.)

It seems to me that there are two common scenarios for alt text.

1) The alt text is a perfect substitute for the image.  For example:

          Replace IBM's logo with the word IBM.
          Alt text for some sort of fancy graphical title or headline.
          A set of hyperlinks which duplicate the function of an image
            map.

2) The alt text describes the image.  For example:

         A photo of me.
         An image map that is a _real_ map.
         Charts or figures.

Wouldn't it be valuable to distinguish between these two cases?

This would allow a more advanced `delayed image loading' for people on
slow links or strange hardware.  I am sure there are other uses as well.

Of course, most people who use fancy graphical titles probably think
delayed image loading is an abomination anyway.

Thanks.
Daniel.

Received on Saturday, 15 April 1995 18:05:09 UTC