Level AA · WCAG 2.0
1.4.5 Images of Text
Use real text rather than a picture of text, unless the presentation genuinely cannot be achieved any other way.
Manual only No automated check says anything useful.
How it fails in practice
A campaign banner where the offer and the discount code exist only inside a JPEG — unsearchable, untranslatable, blurred at zoom.
How to fix it
Set the text in HTML and CSS over the image. Logos are the exception the criterion actually allows; your pricing table is not.
At a glance
- Level
- Level AA — the level EN 301 549 requires, and therefore the level the BFSG and the EAA are measured against.
- Principle
- Perceivable
- Guideline
- 1.4 Distinguishable
- Added in
- WCAG 2.0
- EN 301 549
- 9.1.4.5
- Automated check
- Manual only
Manual only
How far an automated check gets
Nothing automatic decides this. A scanner that reports it as passing is reporting that it did not look. It stays untested until a person tests it and records what they did — which is exactly how we treat it: as untested, not as passed.
Related criteria
Other criteria under the same guideline.
Find out which criteria your site fails
We scan up to 100 pages against WCAG 2.2 AA, run the agent protocol on one key journey and send you the report — free, once, no strings.