Figures and images often contain critical information in a PDF – from charts and graphs to product photos and scanned documents. But without an alternate description, this content is invisible to people using screen readers. To comply with PDF/UA and accessibility requirements, every Figure tag should include an alternate description. In our latest video tutorial, we show you exactly how to add alt text in PDFix – both manually and automatically.
Why Alternate Desctiption Matters
- Clarity & context – Well-written descriptions make complex charts or diagrams understandable.
- Accessibility compliance – Required by PDF/UA, WCAG, Section 508, and EN 301 549.
- Better user experience – Screen reader users can understand figures without relying on visuals.
Options in PDFix for Adding Alt Text
In the video, we demonstrate several approaches:
1. Built-in Set Alternate Description
- Enter a custom description manually.
- Reuse text from closest tags (captions, headings, nearby paragraphs).
- Extract text from behind the figure’s bounding box.
2. External AI Actions
PDFix supports external AI-driven actions for generating alt text automatically.
- Choose different AI models, such as OpenAI or VisionAI
- AI suggests meaningful descriptions based on the figure’s content.
- Review and refine results as needed.
3. Batch Processing
- Select multiple files in Application View
- Run a built-in or external action to add descriptions to all figures at once.
- Filter which tags to handle (e.g., only Figures larger than 40×40 px).
- Save results with custom output names or directories.
Continuous AI Model Integration
In PDFix, we don’t limit you to a single AI model for alternate descriptions.
We are continuously adding state-of-the-art AI engines to deliver the best possible results. Let us know your preferred model, and we can integrate it into the PDFix pipeline.
Watch the Video Tutorial
👉 How to Add an Alternate Description to PDF Figure Tags
The video walks you step by step through manual, AI-assisted, and batch workflows so you can ensure every figure in your PDFs is properly described.
Best Practices for Alt Text
- Keep descriptions short and meaningful.
- Don’t duplicate captions – instead, complement them.
- Skip purely decorative images.
- Always review AI-generated alt text before publishing.
Conclusion
Adding alternate descriptions to figures is one of the fastest ways to improve PDF accessibility. With PDFix, you can do it manually for precision, use AI for efficiency, or process entire batches of documents in one go.
Alt text ensures that your documents are not only compliant but also usable and inclusive for everyone.
