htmlcssimageimage-replacement

How to replace inline text with images using CSS


I'd like to replace the text ("Word 1 Word2 Word3 Word4") in the following HTML with images, using CSS. I'd like the images to appear in-line horizontally too, as the text would.

<div id="aSentence">
    <p>
        <span id="word1">Word1&nbsp </span>
        <span id="word2">Word2&nbsp </span>
        <span id="word3">Word3&nbsp </span>
        <span id="word4">Word4&nbsp </span>
    </p>                    
</div>

I've read through and tried a couple of the techniques from mezzoblue and some other sites, but I'm coming to the conclusion that those techniques seem to require that the text's span is surrounded by a or another element type that will make the words not line up horizontally.

Any ideas on how I can achieve this goal? I'd like to (if possible) make the solution 'accessible' to screenreaders etc.

Thanks very much,
Prembo.

PS: I tried to implement some of the techniques - none of them worked properly: TextReplacement.html

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html>
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
        <title>Text Replacement by Image using CSS</title>
        <style type="text/css" title="currentStyle" media="screen">
            @import "TextReplacement.css";
        </style>
    </head>

    <body id="bodyId">
        <div id="centerContainer">
            <h1><span>Comparison of Various Techniques</span></h1>
            <p class="noteText">(NOTE: only text "Word1" is being replaced by image)</p>
            <div id="mainBodyContainer">
                <div class="techniqueContainer">
                    <h2>Technique 1: FIR</h2>
                    <ul id="t1List">
                        <li id="t1w1"><span>Word1.&nbsp;</span></li>
                        <li id="t1w2"><span>Word2.&nbsp; </span></li>
                        <li id="t1w3"><span>Word3.&nbsp; </span></li>
                        <li id="t1w4"><span>Word4.&nbsp; </span></li>
                    </ul>                    
                    <p class="techniqueComment">Word 1 and corresponding image disappear completely.</p>
                </div>

                <div class="techniqueContainer">
                    <h2>Technique 2: Radu</h2>
                    <ul id="t2List">
                        <li id="t2w1"><span>Word1.&nbsp;</span></li>
                        <li id="t2w2"><span>Word2.&nbsp; </span></li>
                        <li id="t2w3"><span>Word3.&nbsp; </span></li>
                        <li id="t2w4"><span>Word4.&nbsp; </span></li>
                    </ul>                    
                    <p class="techniqueComment">All disapppear completely.</p>
                </div>                

                <div class="techniqueContainer">
                    <h2>Technique 3: Rundle</h2>
                    <ul id="t3List">
                        <li id="t3w1"><span>Word1.&nbsp;</span></li>
                        <li id="t3w2"><span>Word2.&nbsp; </span></li>
                        <li id="t3w3"><span>Word3.&nbsp; </span></li>
                        <li id="t3w4"><span>Word4.&nbsp; </span></li>
                    </ul>                    
                    <p class="techniqueComment">No effect - image and text visible.</p>
                </div>    

                <div class="techniqueContainer">
                    <h2>Technique 4: Leahy/Langridge</h2>
                    <ul id="t4List">
                        <li id="t4w1"><span>Word1.&nbsp;</span></li>
                        <li id="t4w2"><span>Word2.&nbsp; </span></li>
                        <li id="t4w3"><span>Word3.&nbsp; </span></li>
                        <li id="t4w4"><span>Word4.&nbsp; </span></li>
                    </ul>                    
                    <p class="techniqueComment">Image appears above Word1.</p>
                </div>    

                <div class="techniqueContainer">
                    <h2>Technique 5: Dwyer</h2>
                    <ul id="t5List">
                        <li id="t5w1"><span>Word1.&nbsp;</span></li>
                        <li id="t5w2"><span>Word2.&nbsp; </span></li>
                        <li id="t5w3"><span>Word3.&nbsp; </span></li>
                        <li id="t5w4"><span>Word4.&nbsp; </span></li>
                    </ul>                    
                    <p class="techniqueComment">Word 1 and corresponding image disappear completely.  Same as Technique 1.</p>
                </div>                        
                <div class="techniqueContainer">
                    <h2>Technique 6: Jason</h2>
                    <div id="t6List" class="borderContainer">
                        <span id="t6w1">Word1.&nbsp; </span>
                        <span id="t6w2">Word2.&nbsp; </span>
                        <span id="t6w3">Word3.&nbsp; </span>
                        <span id="t6w4">Word4.&nbsp; </span>
                    </div>                    
                    <p class="techniqueComment">Same as Technique 3 - Rundle.</p>
                </div>     
            </div>
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

And the CSS File: TextReplacement.css

* {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}

body {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0; 
    font-family: verdana, "trebuchet MS", helvetica, sans-serif; 
}

#centerContainer {
    margin-left: auto;     /* centres container */
    margin-right: auto; /* centres container */ 
    margin-top: 18px;
}

#mainBodyContainer {
    width: 900px;
    margin-left: auto; 
    margin-right: auto; 
    margin-bottom: 20px;
    font-size: 1.8em;
    font-weight: bold;    
}

#mainBodyContainer h2{
    font-size: 1.2em;
    font-weight: bold;    
    font-style: italic;    
    color: green;
}

div.techniqueContainer{
    text-align: center;
    margin-bottom: 30px;    
}

p.techniqueComment{
    font-size: 0.5em;
    font-weight: normal;    
    font-style: italic;    
    color: red;
}

p.noteText{
    font-size: 1em;
    font-weight: normal;    
    font-style: italic;    
    color: blue;
}

#mainBodyContainer ul{
    list-style: none;
    border: 1px solid #820000;
}

#mainBodyContainer ul li{
    display: inline;
}

/* TECHNIQUE 1: FIR */
li#t1w1 {
    width: 250px;
    height: 61px;
    background-image: url(http://stackoverflow.com/content/img/so/logo.png);
}

li#t1w1 span {
    display: none;
}

/* TECHNIQUE 2: Radu */
li#t2w1 {
    width: 2250px;
    height: 61px;
    background: url(http://stackoverflow.com/content/img/so/logo.png) top right;
    margin: 0 0 0 -2000px;
}

/* TECHNIQUE 3: Rundle */
li#t3w1 {
    width: 250px;
    height: 61px;
    background: url(http://stackoverflow.com/content/img/so/logo.png);
    text-indent: -9999px;
}

/*TECHNIQUE 4: Leahy/Langridge. */
li#t4w1 {
    width: 250px;
    padding: 61px 0 0 0;
    height: 0;
    background: url(http://stackoverflow.com/content/img/so/logo.png) no-repeat;
    overflow: hidden;
}

/*TECHNIQUE 5: Dwyer. */
#t5{

}

#t5List{
    list-style: none;
    border: 1px solid #820000;
}

#t5List li{
    display: inline;
}

li#t5w1 {
width: 250px;
    height: 61px;
    background-image: url(http://stackoverflow.com/content/img/so/logo.png);
}

li#t5w1 span{
    display: block;
    width: 0;
    height: 0;
    overflow: hidden;
}

/* TECHNIQUE 6: Jason */
li#t6w1 {

}

#t6w1{
    text-indent: -5000px; 
    background: url(http://stackoverflow.com/content/img/so/logo.png) no-repeat 0 0; 
    overflow: hidden;
}

Solution

  • Use jQuery to replace relevant element's text with the images. Images are inline, so they will go with the flow.