Content Images

Those sprinkled throughout the center column of your site.

(If you do not have photo editing software, try one of these image editors.)

Step 1: Prepare Your Images

Crop and save images to your computer. We recommend .jpg for all photos and for graphics without a transparency. For graphics with transparency, we recommend .png.

Only use text-free graphics and photos to communicate in images unless it is a logo or similar brand mark that is not trying to convey content. This ensures that the text can be resized, read by screen readers, and adapted to different user needs. For more on our specific guidelines, review the Web Accessibility help page.

Content images do not have a required size, but for most use cases, they are approximately 100-300 pixels wide, depending on the right column and the desired visual effect on the page. A content image should never be wider than 920 px (the widest view of the center column with no right column in place).

Step 2: Upload Images to Cascade

Please review the Upload Images help page for instructions on uploading images to Cascade.

Alt Text & Decorative Images

All images uploaded to Cascade must include default alt text, which is added using the required Display Name field. This ensures images are accessible when first added to a page.

For content images, the Image Description field in the Insert/Edit Image dialog box serves as the image's alt text on the page. This field automatically fills in from the image’s Display Name when the image is inserted and can be edited to describe the image in context better.

If a short description clearly explains the image, use it as the alt text. If a short description is not enough (such as for charts, graphs or diagrams), use brief alt text and include a longer explanation in the nearby page content.

• Images that are decorative should be marked as decorative in the Insert/Edit Image dialog box. Decorative images are used only for visual style or layout, or they repeat information already provided in text. Marking an image as decorative removes the need for alt text and keeps the image compliant.
• All non-decorative images must include meaningful alt text. Images should only have an empty alt attribute when they are intentionally marked as decorative. This helps ensure accurate accessibility scans and reduces false positives during manual review.

This guidance supports the related accessibility rule to avoid images of text whenever possible.

Step 3: Add Images to a Page

1. Edit the page on which you want the image to appear. Place your cursor where the image should be inserted.
2. Click Insert/edit image () on the toolbar.
3. Click Choose File to select the image uploaded in Cascade.
4. Update the Image Description field with custom descriptive text. This will also serve as alt text for screen readers. The field will auto-populate with your image's Display Name default alt text to get you started.
5. Optional: Adjust the displayed image dimensions if necessary. Since images should be cropped before uploading to Cascade, the dimension adjustments in this step should be minimal.
6. Optional: Use the Class dropdown to align the photo. If you'd like the text of your page to wrap around an image, choose photo-left or photo-right. If you also wish to caption your image, choose photo-left-with-caption or photo-right-with-caption. If you want your photo to be centered without text wrapping, choose photo-center or photo-center-with-caption. Select photo-with-caption if you would like your photo left-aligned (this happens by default), with no text wrapping and a caption. The caption will come from the Image Description field you previously entered.

Alternate Method to Align/Caption Images

Once you have inserted your image on the page, you can set your alignment and caption preferences.

1. If you'd like your page's text to wrap around an image, select the image and choose photo-left or photo-right from the Formats >> Custom menu.
2. If you wish to caption your image, select the image and choose photo-left-with-caption or photo-right-with-caption from the Formats >> Custom menu. The caption will come from the Image Description field in the Insert/Edit Image dialog box.
3. If you would like to center your image, select photo-center or photo-center-with-caption.
4. If you want your photo to be left-aligned (the default) and have a caption, select photo-with-caption.
5. To change the format applied to an image, first clear the current formatting (select the image and then Format >> Clear Formatting) and then apply the new format.

Note: Image captions may not preview correctly in Cascade - you may need to publish the page to see your caption.