Best Practice for Media
Media items
Media such as images, documents and video are used as supporting content. When used in context media items can supplement the information provided in the text on a page. Media items should not be used as a replacement for text.
Copyright
Images and other illustrations are usually protected by copyright. Before you add a media item to your website do check the terms and conditions for use. Don't assume that an item is not covered by copyright. Learn more about copyright protection.
The owner of a media item may ask to be credited for the item or require payment of a reproduction fee. Using a media item without permission can result in a request for a media item to be removed from the website.
Images
Use only high-quality images. Images should not be:
- blurry
- stretched
- pixelated
Good quality University images are available in our photo library (University login required). Always preview your image to check the quality before publishing.
Images of text and complex images, like flowcharts or graphs, can present a barrier for users accessing your content. This content is effectively invisible to users of screen readers and anyone viewing the text-only version of your site, for example, a mobile user with images turned off. It is also impossible for search engines to index this content.
If you must include a complex image in your page a text alternative is required. The text should describe the essential information contained in the image.
Some T4 components have the option to display an image. Our components use landscape images. Each image should be cropped to the size specified for the component. Check out our table of components and the required image sizes.
You may need to do some basic editing of an image to get it ready to publish on your website.
We recommend the browser-based editing tool Photopea. Use our basic Photopea guide and templates to hep you prepare images for your web pages.
File format
Save images as a jpeg
File size
File size of less than 500KB for images that display full width (page header, promo banner, full-size image)
File size no greater than 50KB for images that display half-width or smaller (key messages, carousel images, dual panels)
File names
File names should:
- be short and meaningful
- be lower case
- use hyphens to separate words
To help you organise your images on your computer and in the Media Library, we recommend that you also include:
- a prefix for the content type the image has been cropped for, eg header background
- University Photo Library ID (if the image is from the University's Photo Library)
The ideal file name will look like this: header-careers-40602.jpg
Alt text
Alt text provides an alternative, textual content when an image cannot be displayed or for users of screen readers. It should be descriptive, but not necessarily a literal description of the image. Think about describing what the image represents.
Documents
We recommend that documents for upload to T4 are saved in PDF format and that the file size is kept under 500KB. You can use a PDF optimisation tool such as ilovepdf.com to reduce the size of PDF files whilst maintaining the quality.
Videos
To ensure consistency across your video content follow the University's video brand guidelines.
Upload videos to a hosting service such as YouTube. T4 components such as Dual Column (text/text) or Video carousel can be used to add a video to your page.
Create a YouTube account and channel to host your School/Unit video content for use on your site. Find out how to get started with YouTube.