Cameron Adams wrote: > It reminded me as to a point I'd thought about > regarding background image replacement. Sure, using a > ul with visually hidden text and background images for > navigation is semantically correct, but wasn't it much > better in the old days when you used an actual image > with alt text and you knew what something was even > before it loaded. Especially important for navigation items.
Interesting, I'd never thought of the drawbacks of the various image replacement techniques in regards to showing text while images load. Personally, I *hate* having images as navigation items, mostly because if (when) the navigation changes, you'll need to create new graphics for it. I usually have a generic background image, with the text part of the nav item as actual text. Obviously this isn't really an option for headers etc. when the client wants some particular font for branding purposes or whatever. As a complete aside - what the hell ever happened to embedded fonts? AFAIK it's still part of the CSS spec, and IE & NS4 implemented it pretty well, but Moz seems to have dropped it completely. It seems (to me, anyway) to be the perfect answer - create a downloadable version of whatever crazy font you need, control the letter spacing etc. with CSS, add your gradient/picture of a cat/whatever as a background image, and voila! no need for any of this other text-hiding craziness. Anyway, I think you are probably quite right: if you have a dire need for a bunch of images-as-nav-items, then they would be more usable as images - definitely less semantically correct, possibly even less accessible, but more usable nonetheless. > I'm aware of image replacement techniques that also > allow you to see text when the image isn't there, but > they seem very clumsy, so I'm asking whether the old > skool method's usability outweighs its unfashionable > unsemanticness. What are some of these techniques? I don't think I've seen any that do that around (not that I've looked very hard, mind you :) -- Lindsay Evans. Developer, Red Square Productions. [p] 8596.4000 [f] 8596.4001 [w] www.redsquare.com.au ***************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ *****************************************************
