Image syntax

[John Gruber]

A. Pagaltzis <pagaltzis at gmx.de> wrote on 07/27/05 at 11:14 pm:


> > I strongly disagree with that. I use alt attributes to provide

> > a description of the image, for those who can't or aren't

> > viewing images. That's not the same thing as a caption at all

> > -- captions are something that's appropriate even if you can

> > see the image.

> 

> That is exactly what is `title`, not `alt`, is for. See the gist

> of Matthew Thomas’ argument over at Wikipedia over their `alt`

> guidelines.


I disagree with that completely. I think it's exactly what `alt` is
meant for. Joe Clark knows much more about accessibility than I do,
and that's how he uses the `alt` attribute on his weblog:

<http://blog.fawny.org/2005/07/27/shamrock/>



> All this considered, if your use of `alt` was appropriate, then

> what purpose would `title` serve at all, semantically? It would

> merely be a presentational doodad.


My understanding is that the `title` attribute should be something
that's appropriate whether you see the image or not. Whereas the
`alt` attribute is a more complete description.

-J.G.