> > The title is there to provide supplementary/additional information, > over and above what the image expresses. > > Whether there is a link around the image or not has no bearing on > this. alt is required on images and title is optional but often > useful. A title on the link should provide additional information > about the link, not the image. > > So for example: > > <a href="me-and-my-cat_lge.jpg" title="hi-res version of the > image"><img src="me-and-my-cat_sml.jpg" alt="Mark and his cat sitting > happily by the sea" title="photo taken in Sydney on the 12th March > 2004"></a> > > Mark Stanton > Gruden Pty Ltd > http://www.gruden.com
I guess we all agree that the title attribute for an image is quite useful and should not be forgotten. It seems our interpretation of what should be in that title differs slightly, but I think discussing over that is like discussing over what is written in a book - there is no one way to deliver information. Personally, I wouldn't use the title as in the example above, because I want to provide the user with specific information on what the image is about. We are talking about a picture of a man and his cat. As a user I might want to know what exactly is on this picture. It's like the title of a painting: how does the author capture the essence of the image in one short sentence? "Mark and his cat sitting happily by the sea" gives me the information I want. It explains the image quite well and even though I can see the image straight infront of me it is still useful for me to know the title. It tells me: this is Mark and his cat. The name of the cat doesn't seem to be important, nor the name of the sea. "Photo taken in Sydney on the 12th March 2004" on the other hand is information I would rather put into the content of the site, as it is describing the image, but it is not really the "title" of the image. But that's just me and other people might do it differently. I'd be interested to see what people would do with an image of Yves Klein "Monochrome Blue": http://www.artzine-journal.com/3rd_Issue/Source/arabsten.html I would love to see the ALT tag and TITLE of that one. :) ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
