Automatic alt text generation
Release date: 6th November 2024
This release introduces automatic alt text generation for images, helping to ensure all images you publish go live with text descriptions that can be read by screen readers. Alt text can be generated in multiple languages for use across multiple locales and can be configured to adhere to your brand rules.
Automatic alt text generation eliminates the time-consuming task of manually writing image descriptions, helping you to:
- Improve accessibility of your Web content by enabling screen-reader users to comprehend images
- Enhance your SEO by including descriptive text with images
- Adhere to accessibility laws such as "The European Accessibility Act" in the European Union and the "Websites and Software Applications Accessibility Act" in the US
Also in this release, A new Alt text template in Content Studio lets you generate alt text for your chosen brand and locale, with the option to export the generated descriptions to a file. See Content Studio Alt text template.
This feature requires Amplience credits for generating alt text at a rate of 2 credits per image per locale. More about Amplience credits.
Setting up alt text generationLink copied!
To start generating alt text automatically, you'll need to reach out to Amplience Support, who will configure the service for your chosen asset stores. You'll need to provide the default locale to use for image descriptions, and any additional locales you would like to use.
If you're already using Content Studio and have set up brand rules, such as words to substitute, these can be included when configuring the service.
Automatically generating alt textLink copied!
Once set up, alt text will be automatically generated using any of the following upload methods:
- The GraphQL Asset Management API
- Automated bulk upload
- Manual upload using Content Hub
- Manual upload using the Asset Tab in Dynamic Content
Alt text will also be generated when you edit images with Image Studio through Dynamic Content. See Editing images as part of your workflow.
For help with generating alt text for previously uploaded images, please contact your Amplience account director for more information.
Generated image alt textLink copied!
You can view and update generated alt text using the Content Hub properties pane. The text for the default locale will be shown in its own field and also in the list of any additional locales that have been set up for generation.
Updating generated alt text from the properties pane in Content Hub, updates the image metadata.
You can also view generated image alt text from Dynamic Content, through our Next Generation Authoring experience. To view alt text, click "ALT" on the media card.
If alt text has been generated for multiple locales, you can select which localized version of alt text you want to use in your content item.
Using Dynamic Content, you can adjust image alt text to fit the context of the content for your audience. Image alt text applied in this way is local to the content item you are editing, and does not override the metadata saved in Content Hub.
Using Amplience creditsLink copied!
When you manually upload images to Amplience, we first check your Amplience credit balance to ensure you have enough credits before generating the alt text.
If you run out of credits while generating alt text during a bulk upload, alt text will continue to be created until all credits are used up.
Credit usage and pricing may vary according to the plan agreed when the service is provisioned.