For an image to be successful, it is important that it is designed effectively. Even mainstream images need to be made as accessible as possible, as they have a broad audience.
To help make an image as accessible as possible, there are a number of factors that need to be considered:
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Being clear about the purpose of the image - is the image decorative or does it convey information?
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Being clear about how the image is going to be used and what the intended audience is, for example, an informative health leaflet will need to be understood by a wide audience including people with sight problems and the elderly.
To make an image as accessible to as wide an audience as possible, there are a number of tips you can follow:
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Ensure images are crisp and clear - not blurred.
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Ensure there is good colour contrast, so that people with colour vision deficiency can identify parts of the image easily.
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Ensure there is good tonal contrast; using dark colours against light colours will enable features within an image to be identified easily.
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Print images in as high a resolution as possible. Some people can only access images by using a CCTV or magnifier. Using too low a resolution can mean that images become pixelated when magnified. A minimum of 300dpi should be used.
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Avoid images that are too small as they will be difficult to see.
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Avoid cropping images as this can make some features difficult to understand, for example cropping part of a person's face can make their expression difficult to interpret.
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If an image conveys a difficult idea then add a caption explaining what the image is portraying.
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Avoid laying text out over an image, as this can be very difficult to read.
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Avoid laying different images closely together, to avoid them being read as one image.
There are many different eye conditions and people generally vary in their ability to read an image. By making an image as clear as possible, it will be accessible to as many people as possible.