A common and damaging shortcut.
THE PROBLEM
Text baked into an image cannot be read by a screen reader, cannot be enlarged without blurring, cannot be selected or copied, and cannot be translated.
WHERE IT HAPPENS
Banners with promotional text Infographics Menus saved as images Price lists Quotations styled in a design tool Contact details in a header image
THE MENU EXAMPLE
A restaurant menu as an image or PDF is unreadable to a screen reader user and awkward on a phone.
That is a real customer turned away.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD
Real text, styled with CSS. It scales, it can be read aloud, it can be searched.
Modern web typography can achieve almost any visual effect without baking text into an image.
WHEN AN IMAGE OF TEXT IS UNAVOIDABLE
A logo is acceptable, with alt text stating the business name.
For anything else, provide the text elsewhere on the page.
THE SEARCH CONSEQUENCE
Search engines cannot read text in images either. Content in an image is invisible to search.
TESTING
Try selecting the text with your cursor. If you cannot, it is an image.
