{"course":{"slug":"ai-images","title":"Image Generation, in Practice","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-images","level":"beginner","track":"create"},"lesson":{"slug":"type-over-an-image","title":"Making words readable on a photograph","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-images/type-over-an-image","position":65,"of":69,"minutes":8,"answer":"Type over a photograph fails on contrast rather than on typeface, and the fixes are all about creating a controlled surface for the words rather than about choosing better fonts.","keyIdea":"Type over a photograph fails on contrast rather than on typeface, and the fixes are all about creating a controlled surface for the words rather than about choosing better fonts."},"body":{"format":"markdown","text":"## The problem, precisely\n\nA headline over a photograph is legible only where it has enough contrast against what is behind it. A photograph has varying tone, so a single-colour headline is high-contrast in some places and invisible in others: typically the light letters that pass over a bright cloud.\n\nThis is a measurable property, not a matter of taste. The accessibility threshold widely used for text is a contrast ratio of **4.5:1** for normal text and **3:1** for large text, where large means roughly 24px or 19px bold and up. Below those, a meaningful share of readers cannot read it, including anyone in bright sunlight on a phone.\n\n## Generate the surface first\n\nThe cheapest fix happens before the image exists, and the brief block set it up: prompt for quiet space where the type goes. A plain overcast sky, a wall, a dark background, a shallow depth of field that reduces the background to smooth tone.\n\nAn image generated with a place for the headline needs none of the remedies below. Most images are not, which is what the rest of this lesson is for.\n\n## The remedies, in order of preference\n\n**1. Move the type.** Look for the quietest area of the frame and put the words there. Free, and usually improves the composition.\n\n**2. A gradient scrim.** A soft black-to-transparent gradient over the region behind the type, at 40 to 70% opacity. Nearly invisible as a device and it works. This is what most well-designed posters and streaming thumbnails do.\n\n**3. Darken or lighten the whole image behind.** A global exposure change to the area, which reads as a deliberate grade rather than an overlay.\n\n**4. A solid or semi-transparent panel.** Explicit, very legible, and a design decision: it will look like a panel, so it should look deliberate.\n\n**5. Blur the region behind.** A strong blur on the area under the type. Reads naturally as depth of field if the rest of the image supports it.\n\n**6. Outline or drop shadow on the type.** Last resort. A tight, subtle shadow can work; a hard outline reads as amateur work and is the most common mistake in this whole area.\n\n## Measuring rather than guessing\n\nDo not judge contrast by eye: the eye adapts and you have been staring at the image.\n\nSample the *brightest* pixel behind light type and the *darkest* behind dark type; those are where it fails. Any free web contrast checker takes two hex values and returns the ratio. If the worst point clears 4.5:1, the headline clears everywhere.\n\nFor type over a photograph, this takes thirty seconds and settles an argument that otherwise runs on opinion.\n\n## Choices that help\n\n- **Weight over size.** A medium or bold weight is far more legible over a busy background than a light weight at a larger size.\n- **Avoid thin and high-contrast typefaces** over photographs. A Didone with hairline strokes disappears into any texture.\n- **Fewer words.** A six-word headline can be set large enough to survive. A sentence cannot.\n- **Test at the delivered size.** Type that reads on your monitor at 100% may be unreadable as a 400-pixel feed thumbnail.\n\n## Where the type is set\n\nNot in the generator, as the repair block established. Inkscape for anything going to print, GIMP or Krita for raster work, Scribus for multi-page layout, Photopea in a browser. All free, all with proper typographic control over tracking, leading and alignment.\n\nDeliver the layered file as well as the flattened image so the headline can be changed later without regenerating anything.\n\n## The judgement this does not replace\n\nContrast ratios tell you whether words can be *read*. They say nothing about whether the type belongs to the picture: whether its weight suits the image's weight, whether it sits where the composition wants it, whether the whole thing is any good.\n\nThat is design, and the design-foundations course in this catalogue covers hierarchy, spacing and alignment properly. What this lesson gives you is the floor: a headline that clears 4.5:1 at its worst point is legible, and one that does not is broken regardless of how attractive it looks on your screen in a dim room."},"check":{"question":"Light type over a photograph is legible across most of the frame but disappears over a bright cloud. What is the right first response?","options":[{"text":"Add a hard outline to the type so that it retains a defined edge against any background it passes over.","correct":false,"tempting":"The last-resort remedy applied first; a hard outline is the most visible amateur tell and there are five better options ahead of it."},{"text":"Increase the type size, since larger text clears the 3:1 threshold rather than the 4.5:1 one and is therefore easier to make legible.","correct":false,"tempting":"Larger text does have a lower threshold, but zero contrast against a bright cloud stays zero at any size."},{"text":"Move the type to the quietest part of the frame, or place a soft gradient scrim behind it.","correct":true},{"text":"Convert the type to a darker colour, which will contrast against the bright cloud rather than disappearing into it.","correct":false,"tempting":"Solves the cloud and breaks everywhere else, since the same dark type will now vanish into the darker regions the light type handled."}]},"prev":{"slug":"colour-for-the-medium","title":"The blue on your screen is not going on the press","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-images/colour-for-the-medium"},"next":{"slug":"the-qa-pass","title":"Twelve things to check before you send","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-images/the-qa-pass"},"authorship":"Founder and series editor: Dr Mustafa Mun. Written by AI models to a written standard. Exam keys checked blind by a second model: 3,665 of 3,666 agreed. Academic review invited.","review":{"status":"Draft, open for academic review"},"cite":"Addaly (2026) 'Making words readable on a photograph', in Image Generation, in Practice. Edited by M. Mun. Addaly. Available at: https://addaly.com/learn/ai-images/type-over-an-image (Accessed: 13 October 2026).","licence":{"name":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"},"reader":{"schema":1,"title":"Making words readable on a photograph","courseTitle":"Image Generation, in Practice","module":{"index":7,"slug":"finishing","title":"Finishing and handing over"},"answer":null,"keyIdea":"Type over a photograph fails on contrast rather than on typeface, and the fixes are all about creating a controlled surface for the words rather than about choosing better fonts.","hero":{"kind":"plate","image":null,"alt":null,"caption":null},"blocks":[{"t":"h2","id":"the-problem-precisely","runs":[{"text":"The problem, precisely"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"A headline over a photograph is legible only where it has enough contrast against what is behind it. A photograph has varying tone, so a single-colour headline is high-contrast in some places and invisible in others: typically the light letters that pass over a bright cloud."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"This is a measurable property, not a matter of taste. The accessibility threshold widely used for text is a contrast ratio of "},{"text":"4.5:1","b":true},{"text":" for normal text and "},{"text":"3:1","b":true},{"text":" for large text, where large means roughly 24px or 19px bold and up. Below those, a meaningful share of readers cannot read it, including anyone in bright sunlight on a phone."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"generate-the-surface-first","runs":[{"text":"Generate the surface first"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The cheapest fix happens before the image exists, and the brief block set it up: prompt for quiet space where the type goes. A plain overcast sky, a wall, a dark background, a shallow depth of field that reduces the background to smooth tone."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"An image generated with a place for the headline needs none of the remedies below. Most images are not, which is what the rest of this lesson is for."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-remedies-in-order-of-preference","runs":[{"text":"The remedies, in order of preference"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"1. Move the type.","b":true},{"text":" Look for the quietest area of the frame and put the words there. Free, and usually improves the composition."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"2. A gradient scrim.","b":true},{"text":" A soft black-to-transparent gradient over the region behind the type, at 40 to 70% opacity. Nearly invisible as a device and it works. This is what most well-designed posters and streaming thumbnails do."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"3. Darken or lighten the whole image behind.","b":true},{"text":" A global exposure change to the area, which reads as a deliberate grade rather than an overlay."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"4. A solid or semi-transparent panel.","b":true},{"text":" Explicit, very legible, and a design decision: it will look like a panel, so it should look deliberate."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"5. Blur the region behind.","b":true},{"text":" A strong blur on the area under the type. Reads naturally as depth of field if the rest of the image supports it."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"6. Outline or drop shadow on the type.","b":true},{"text":" Last resort. A tight, subtle shadow can work; a hard outline reads as amateur work and is the most common mistake in this whole area."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"measuring-rather-than-guessing","runs":[{"text":"Measuring rather than guessing"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Do not judge contrast by eye: the eye adapts and you have been staring at the image."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Sample the "},{"text":"brightest","i":true},{"text":" pixel behind light type and the "},{"text":"darkest","i":true},{"text":" behind dark type; those are where it fails. Any free web contrast checker takes two hex values and returns the ratio. If the worst point clears 4.5:1, the headline clears everywhere."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"For type over a photograph, this takes thirty seconds and settles an argument that otherwise runs on opinion."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"choices-that-help","runs":[{"text":"Choices that help"}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"Weight over size.","b":true},{"text":" A medium or bold weight is far more legible over a busy background than a light weight at a larger size."}],[{"text":"Avoid thin and high-contrast typefaces","b":true},{"text":" over photographs. A Didone with hairline strokes disappears into any texture."}],[{"text":"Fewer words.","b":true},{"text":" A six-word headline can be set large enough to survive. A sentence cannot."}],[{"text":"Test at the delivered size.","b":true},{"text":" Type that reads on your monitor at 100% may be unreadable as a 400-pixel feed thumbnail."}]]},{"t":"h2","id":"where-the-type-is-set","runs":[{"text":"Where the type is set"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Not in the generator, as the repair block established. Inkscape for anything going to print, GIMP or Krita for raster work, Scribus for multi-page layout, Photopea in a browser. All free, all with proper typographic control over tracking, leading and alignment."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Deliver the layered file as well as the flattened image so the headline can be changed later without regenerating anything."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-judgement-this-does-not-replace","runs":[{"text":"The judgement this does not replace"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Contrast ratios tell you whether words can be "},{"text":"read","i":true},{"text":". They say nothing about whether the type belongs to the picture: whether its weight suits the image’s weight, whether it sits where the composition wants it, whether the whole thing is any good."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"That is design, and the design-foundations course in this catalogue covers hierarchy, spacing and alignment properly. What this lesson gives you is the floor: a headline that clears 4.5:1 at its worst point is legible, and one that does not is broken regardless of how attractive it looks on your screen in a dim room."}]}],"check":{"question":[{"text":"Light type over a photograph is legible across most of the frame but disappears over a bright cloud. What is the right first response?"}],"options":[{"text":[{"text":"Add a hard outline to the type so that it retains a defined edge against any background it passes over."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"The last-resort remedy applied first; a hard outline is the most visible amateur tell and there are five better options ahead of it."}]},{"text":[{"text":"Increase the type size, since larger text clears the 3:1 threshold rather than the 4.5:1 one and is therefore easier to make legible."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Larger text does have a lower threshold, but zero contrast against a bright cloud stays zero at any size."}]},{"text":[{"text":"Move the type to the quietest part of the frame, or place a soft gradient scrim behind it."}],"correct":true,"tempting":null},{"text":[{"text":"Convert the type to a darker colour, which will contrast against the bright cloud rather than disappearing into it."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Solves the cloud and breaks everywhere else, since the same dark type will now vanish into the darker regions the light type handled."}]}],"order":[1,0,3,2],"why":null},"prev":{"slug":"colour-for-the-medium","title":"The blue on your screen is not going on the press","minutes":8},"next":{"slug":"the-qa-pass","title":"Twelve things to check before you send","minutes":8}}}