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Web Image Guidelines

UHD Website Image Guidelines

  • UHD has a library of logos and images available online.
  • If you need additional imagery, please contact digitalmedia@uhd.edu.
  • All images visible to users should have meaningful, descriptive alt tags to comply with Section 508 Standards regarding accessibility guidelines. Alt tags are critical to ensure ADA compliance and to assist screen readers in describing what is in the image. Images that are purely decorative should have null alt tags.
  • When adding an image to any web page, ensure you are adding an alt tag that is unique to the image and not the raw file name such as DSC_123.
  • The description should be descriptive yet concise.
  • Use only non-copyrighted images. If copyrighted images are used with permission, a photo credit needs to be displayed with the image.
  • Images should be sized appropriately, not stretched or squashed.  Additionally, do not use the website to resize the image for you; upload the image at the proper size for the template you are using.

File size

  • Optimize the file to the smallest file size that looks good. We recommend a file size of 100 kilobytes or smaller. It is critical to upload optimize images as it speeds up the web page loading. A slow page load will impact the entire UHD website and ultimately hurts our search engine ranking. 
  • There are several free resources online to help resize images such as Pixlr and CompressJPG. If you use Adobe, Photoshop is an excellent tool as well.
  • If you want to review the sizes of your existing images on your site, please review the policies under Siteimprove. If you need access to Siteimprove, please contact University Relations, digitalmedia@uhd.edu.

File formats

The primary image file formats for the web are JPEG and PNG.

JPG

  • This file format is best for photographic images
  • Maintains greater number of colors in compression
  • Should be avoided for logos, screenshots, and graphics as edges degrade with compression and artifacts can distort the image

PNG

  • Should be used for logos, screenshots, and other non-photographic images;
  • Supports multiple levels of transparency and most number of colors