Image Guidelines

Navigate to our DX Training Video guide for further visual guidance on how to add images to the media library.

Images can help make a website more engaging, but they can also be a distraction. Poor quality images detract from the trustworthiness of Iowa.gov. Use high quality images on your site, and choose photography reflective of Iowa constituents and communities. 

Best practices

  • Prioritize text. The text content of your page is your first priority. Images are supplemental. Content must make sense and be usable without the image.
  • Accessibility. All images require descriptive alternative text. Alt text is read by screen readers or displayed on the screen when an image is not available. Alt text should be short, describing the content or function of the image. Images of text are not accessible. Use plain text instead. Data and charts should have full text explanations of their content. Never use images that scroll, blink, or flash.  Decorative images alt text should be "" (double quotation marks) to allow the screen reader to skip over the image.  Learn more about writing good alternate text descriptions and what the law requires in this ServiceNow Knowledge Article on Accessible Images and Alternate Text
  • Optimize. Image files must be less than 100 MB. Follow image size guidelines. Large images increase page load time and may negatively impact the user experience on your site.
  • File types. The media library image uploader accepts png, jpg, jpeg, and webp file types. It does not accept svg.
illustration of man and woman with menu from freepik

Common Image Sizes

Hero images should be no smaller than 1440 pixels wide. Ideally, to scale for retina displays, your images should be at least 2880 pixels wide. 

Other images should be no smaller than 528 pixels wide.

You can upload images up to 100MB.

The system scales images appropriately for the device that people use when they visit your site. It may also crop images that are not the correct aspect ratio or dimension.

Images look better scaled down than scaled up. Size your images appropriately before you upload them.

 

Replace load more images

4:3 Ratio

Most images on the site are in a 4:3 ratio, or landscape orientation. That means for every four pixels of width there should be three pixels of height.

To calculate the image ratio: 

  • Take the height of your image and multiply it by 4/3 to compute the width; or
  • Take the width of your image and multiply it by 3/4 to compute the height.

Images used as the feature on basic pages, promos, and visual link collections follow the 4:3 ratio.

Navigate to our Image Ratio article for more guidance with image quality.

Image Styles

  • Do. Use clear, natural looking photos. Images should feature a person, place, or thing that is relevant to your content.
  • Don’t. Don’t use heavily edited images, or images with overlays or other filters. Avoid clip art and logos in featured image fields.

Stock Photography

All major Iowa Cabinet level agencies will have direct access to Shutterstock. Smaller agencies can access Shutterstock via OCIO.

Woman uploading images

Did you know you could request images through ServiceNow?