Alt text is the written description a browser shows when an image cannot load, and the description a screen reader reads aloud. It also gives search engines something to index for each image. FotoGrids makes sure every item in a Gallery ships with a meaningful alt attribute — by carrying over the alt text you have already written, and by falling back to the item Title when nothing else is set, so no image is ever left without a description.
Location Gallery Editor → Edit Item → Details
Setting alt text for an item #
Each item in a Gallery has its own Alt Text field. Open the Gallery editor, click an item to open the item editor, and the Alt Text field sits on the Details tab, directly below Title.
| Setting | Alt Text |
| Default | Empty |
Write a short, accurate description of what the image shows. Aim for a sentence that would make sense to someone who cannot see the image — for example, a wedding photo might read “Bride and groom under an oak tree at sunset” rather than “IMG_4821”. The text is saved to that item and used wherever the image appears in the Gallery and the Lightbox.
FotoGrids stores its alt text separately from the WordPress Media Library alt field, so editing an item’s Alt Text here does not overwrite the alt text used by other parts of your site.
How automatic alt tags work #
You do not have to fill in the Alt Text field for every item. FotoGrids resolves the alt attribute automatically using a clear order of preference, so each image always renders with a non-empty description.
Carried over from the Media Library
When you add an item to a Gallery, FotoGrids checks whether you have already written alt text for that image in the WordPress Media Library. If you have, and the item’s FotoGrids Alt Text field is still empty, that Media Library alt text is copied across as the item’s starting alt text.
This means images you have already described elsewhere on your site arrive in your Gallery already described — you do not have to retype anything. From that point on, the item keeps its own copy, so later changes in the Media Library will not silently alter what your Gallery shows.
Falls back to the Title
If no alt text is set in either place, FotoGrids uses the item’s Title as the alt attribute when the image is rendered. The result is the resolution order below.
| Setting | Resolved alt attribute |
| Options | Item Alt Text Media Library alt text Item Title |
FotoGrids works down this list and uses the first value that is set:
| Order | Source | When it is used |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Item Alt Text | Whenever you have typed alt text on the Details tab. |
| 2 | Media Library alt text | Carried over automatically when the item is added, if the item’s Alt Text is empty. |
| 3 | Item Title | Used at render time when no alt text exists in either place. |
Because of this fallback, every image FotoGrids outputs carries an alt attribute — there are no blank descriptions left behind, which is better for both accessibility and search indexing.
A descriptive item Title does double duty: it labels the item in the editor and acts as the last-resort alt text. Giving items meaningful titles is an easy way to keep your Gallery accessible even before you write dedicated alt text.
Why alt text matters #
Good alt text helps in three ways at once. For visitors using a screen reader, it is how the image is described aloud. For anyone on a slow or broken connection, it is the text shown in place of an image that did not load. And for search engines, it is one of the few signals they have for understanding what an image contains, which feeds image search results.
Writing a clear sentence per item is a small effort that improves accessibility and image SEO together, with no separate plugin required.
Coming in Pro: AI-powered alt text #
Writing alt text for hundreds of items by hand takes time. FotoGrids Pro adds AI-powered alt text that generates a description for each image automatically using a vision model, with a per-image override so you can fine-tune any result. It is built to help with both accessibility and search ranking across large libraries — so a full shoot can be described in the time it takes to make a coffee.
