Visual content	Issues for visual content	Image production	Image acquisition	Image manipulation	Image creation

Images may be used in web pages as backgrounds, template elements such as banners and navigation buttons, or as illustrative content.

Images are placed into web pages, using a WYSIWYG web editor such as Dreamweaver, in a similar fashion to placing images into a text document, using the 'insert: image' or similar command.

There are some specific considerations in using images in a web page:

• The image should not be resized inside the web page - the quality will deteriorate considerably, and in the interests of efficient web pages, the image should be created or exported at the size you wish to use it.

• The image should be accompanied in the HTML by an 'ALT' tag, which is text describing the image for the benefit of users browsing without access to images. Dreamweaver, and most other web editors, provide a tool for inserting ALT tags.

• The image should be accompanied in the HTML by its pixel dimensions - this will allow the web page to begin to display before images are completely downloaded. Dreamweaver, and most other web editors, do this automatically.

• Web page layout is controlled by layout tables or layers. Fireworks and Imageready will automatically generate a table when exporting HTML, but in the code behind the page this may create an unnecessarily complex table layout, slowing page download, inhibiting accessibility and increasing the potential for browser conflicts. It is advisable to create your own layout table or layers in Dreamweaver before you place images.