Text placed directly on a photo
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Rule · bucket: judgment · severity: note · detector: none · since: v0.1.0
Section: Things to avoid
Group: Typography

Forbidden:
  White text over an image, legible on the mockup's photo and not on the next one

Instead:
  Contrast still has to be met — 4.5:1 for text 18px and under, 3:1 for larger. A photo cannot guarantee it, because the photo changes.

Four workable treatments:
1. **Linear gradient overlay** — dark, ~90% opacity at the text edge fading to 0% partway across. Preserves most of the image.
2. **Semi-transparent overlay** — a flat dark layer at ~50% over the whole image.
3. **Blurred semi-transparent overlay** — as above with a blur behind the text only.
4. **Solid background behind the text** — the caption approach; most reliable, least subtle.
A text shadow may reinforce any of these but never substitutes for one. Verify against the worst image the slot will ever hold, not the one in the mockup.