Alt text for any image. Short, accurate, ready to paste.

What alt text is for

Alt text is the description a screen reader announces in place of an image. It is also what appears when an image fails to load, and it gives search engines a plain-language read of the picture. Most people only think about it when a platform asks for it, but it decides whether someone who cannot see your image gets your point or nothing at all.

The W3C's images tutorial sorts images by what they do. Informative images need at least a short description of the key information. Decorative images that add nothing to the meaning get empty alt text, so screen readers skip them. Images of text should carry the same words. Complex images like charts need a full text version of the data.

How long should alt text be?

Shorter than most people think. WebAIM says a few words are usually enough, and only rarely a short sentence or two. It sets no character limit, so aim for the shortest text that carries the same meaning as the image in its context. Platforms set their own caps: Twitter allows up to 1,000 characters in an image description.

That is why this alt text generator gives you two lengths. Use the short one by default. Reach for the detailed one when the image holds information that is nowhere else in the post, like the numbers in a chart or the steps in a screenshot.

Five rules this alt text generator follows

• No "image of". Screen readers already announce that it is an image, so WebAIM advises against opening with "image of" or "graphic of".

• Meaning first. Lead with what the image shows that matters to your post, not every color and shape.

• Text in the image, word for word. A quote card or a slide gets its exact words in the alt text.

• No repeating the caption. If your post already says what the image shows, the alt text adds what it does not.

• People described, not identified. It describes what is visible and never guesses who someone is.

Then read it once yourself. You know what the image is for; the tool only sees pixels.

Adding alt text on LinkedIn and Twitter

On LinkedIn, upload the image to a post, select ALT below it, paste the text and save. According to Accessible Social, you can edit it later from the post on desktop, but not in the mobile app after publishing. On Twitter, select +ALT after you add the image, paste and select Done. For a longer read of an image, try the image description generator, and for the post that goes with it, the image caption generator.

Accessible images, content that sounds like you

Alt text is one small habit that shows you post with care. The bigger habit is posting consistently, in a voice people recognize. That is what VoiceMoat is for: audenAI learns from your own content, drafts posts, threads, replies and comments in your voice, and checks drafts so they sound like you. The LinkedIn post generator gives you a taste, and Studio is the full thing.