Looking for info on image "alt" tags 3

[Tina2002]

Hi

Would anyone know if there is a character max one should stick to when using image alt tags?

I haven't found much on the max for them.
I know title tag max is round 60 characters including spaces, and description tag is 874 according to scrub the web.

Thanks!

 

[ChrisHirst]

A general rule of thumb is, if you can't read it all while it's visible it's too long.



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?

http://www.candsdesign.co.uk

A website that proves the cobblers kids adage.

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[ChrisHirst]

and BTW they are alt attributes



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?

http://www.candsdesign.co.uk

A website that proves the cobblers kids adage.

http://www.cram-system.com

Nightclub counting systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[hotfusion]

Interesting question.
I assume there must be a recommended maximum, but initial tests in IE 5.5 came up with this:
2378 characters (including spaces) displayed just fine, but double that number failed to display correctly, with repeated failed attempts to display the alt. text box.

It looks like, from the browser's point of view anyhow, that the maximum will be somewhere between these two numbers.

Do you have the capability to test this further? If not, I can try to pin it down to an exact number for the future reference of anyone interested.

Regards, Andy.
**************************************
My pathetic attempts at learning HTML can be laughed at here:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/andyspatch/index.htm

 

[hotfusion]

Further to my post: I've done some tests and it appears to be related to the displaying screen height, and the position of the image with the alt text on the page. If when the mouse is moved over the image, the alt box has room to display fully either upwards or downwards it will display correctly; However, if there is insufficient room, if for example the image is in the middle of the page rather than at the top or bottom, a long alt box would fail to display.

I'm interested as to why you would want to attach so much alt text to an image, or was this question asked purely out of interest?

Regards, Andy.
**************************************
My pathetic attempts at learning HTML can be laughed at here:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/andyspatch/index.htm

 

[DaRNCaT]

Please also remember alt attributes "hover and show" effect are browser specific, and most mozilla browsers don't show alt attributes unless the images are turned off.

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Sometimes, when my code just won't behave, I take it outside and make it listen to britney spears music, and when it comes back it's really well behaved. I wonder if it's suffering from post tramatic stress syndrome now..

 

[Tina2002]

Thanks for your replies!

I was just curious whether a couple of sentences in alt attributes might make my pages unfriendly to the search engines, that's all. (One of my alt tags, although a couple of sentences was 71 characters)

 

[ChrisHirst]

BTW SEs only use alt attribute text if the image is a link. It should be considered the same as anchor text as it should describe the target page.
Screen readers and text browsers use it on all images.



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?

http://www.candsdesign.co.uk

A website that proves the cobblers kids adage.

http://www.cram-system.com

Nightclub counting systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.