Flyers & posters: Create a web version of text-heavy image files
In addition to uploading a flyer, convert its content to web-based text and images.
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If your group has a flyer or poster to promote a program or upcoming event, it can be tempting to simply upload the flyer or poster to your website.
However, uploading a flyer — particularly as a jpg, png, or other image file — makes it difficult or even impossible for some people to read the content. In addition, though the text in a PDF may be readable and searchable, it still requires people on mobile devices to pinch and zoom to read it.
It’s best to convert your file into web-based text and images.
For example, let’s look at this flyer for a symposium:
The problem: Image-based text is invisible to search engines and screen readers, and it’s difficult to read
Since the flyer above was embedded as an image file, it is not text based. As far as computers are concerned, none of the words in the flyer exist on this page.
Because it is not text-based, the flyer’s content:
- Cannot be found through search engines like Google
- Cannot be found through your website’s search bar
- Cannot be read or heard by people with visual impairments who rely on assistive technologies like screen readers
- Cannot be read on a mobile phone without pinching and zooming — regardless of how large the file is on a desktop computer
These inconveniences may annoy users or even prevent them from finding this information in the first place.
(To learn more about the importance of providing text-based content, read our guide to accessibility.)
The solution: Convert the flyer to web-based text
Now, let’s look at an example of how this flyer could be converted into web-based text.
To achieve this, we pasted the flyer text below, styled it with section headings, bold text and links, and added the headshot of Dr. Atkinson.
Below the event information, we also added a standalone link so people can download or print the original flyer.
Voilà! Web-based text. Your readers will thank you!
SAMPLE SOLUTION:
Symposium Honoring
John P. Atkinson, MD
Sponsored by the John T. Milliken Department of Medicine in honor of John P. Atkinson, MD.
Monday, November 12, 2018
12 – 5 p.m.
Eric P. Newman Education Center
See parking map »
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Nalini S. Bora, PhD
Bernice Y. Jones Professor of Ophthalmology
Vice Chair for Research, Ophthalmology Director of Research, Pat & Willard Walker Eye Research Center
Jones Eye Institute, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
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V. Michael Holers, MD
Scoville Professor and Head, Division of Rheumatology
Professor of Medicine and Immunology
University of Colorado School of Medicine
“The Multiple Roles of Complement in the Initiation and Evolution of Rheumatoid Arthritis”
Claudia Kemper, PhD
Senior Investigator, Immunology Center
Chief, Complement and Inflammation Research Section
DIR, NHLBI, NIH
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James Verbsky, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology/Immunology, Medical College of Wisconsin
“Investigating Immune Deficiencies…What Does This Teach Us and What Does This Have to do With Complement?”