Images

They should not be used to make a page look interesting, or to break up large amounts of text. Research has shown that people find the overuse of images distracting. They also can consume necessary data on mobile devices and can render poorly on various devices.

Image example

Only use an image which reflects the topic you are talking about. A picture of a happy couple would not add to a page talking about applying for housing benefits. However, a picture of the museum might help them find the building more easily.

Image accessibility

We do not use images that contain text, unless it is a logo or a campaign promotional image. It is better to add the text to the page content. Visitors to our site who reply on screen reading software can find some pages difficult to access because important information is placed within an image. We use alternative text (alt text) on all images, which appears in place of an image if that images fails to load on a user's screen. This alt text helps screen reading tools to describe images to visually impaired readers. This allows images to be accessible to everyone, and allows search engines to better crawl content on our pages. 

Image size and format

Three main image sizes are utilised on our site. These are:

• Thumbnail size at 65 x 65 pixels
• Standard size at 375 x 235 pixels
• Large campaign size at 1905 x 528 pixels

We require all images to be in .jpg format, and logos to be .png.

Images on the website are resized to as smaller file as possible. This is to ensure that there is a better chance of the page loading instantaneously or with a very short wait time.

Image copyright

Images are only used when:

• Chichester District Council own the copyright.
• A licence has been purchased from the copyright holder.
• It is an Creative Commons license (opens new window) image.
• It is an Wikipedia - Open Government Licence (opens new window) image.

Using images containing people

If there is someone in a photograph who can be identified, then the photograph itself is considered personal data.

You must:

• Check with the copyright holder if a person in a photograph is happy for you to use it.
• Ensure you obtain written consent by anyone who is identifiable in a photograph which you have taken yourself, as well as note how long the consent is for.

Images on our homepage

On our homepage we have a campaign image slider. Within this banner we will display:

• Campaigns for internal services
• Campaigns for our third party websites
• Events within the district

We will not display:

• advertising;
• news; or 
• businesses unassociated with Chichester District Council

Any text on a campaign image will follow our website's writing style governance.