HTML & XHTML: The Complete Reference (Osborne Complete Reference Series)

Inline images are truly what helped popularize the Web. However, just because images can be used to improve the look and feel of a Web page doesn't mean that they should be used without concern. Although presentation is important, the Web is still fundamentally about the communication of information, some of which does well in image form and some of which does not. Adding images to a Web page is accomplished using an <img> tag, which has numerous attributes. Many of the attributes of the img element ”including alt , height , width , and lowsrc ”are useful in improving the accessibility and usability of Web pages. As always, the eternal struggle between nice-looking pages and download time continues, and knowledge of markup features is helpful to combat excessive wait time. Many of the other attributes for the img element were developed with layout in mind, particularly align . However, layout and image formatting are truly better performed using style sheets.