Keywords to Alt Text

[Antonio Franco]

I'm sure this is possible in PM to a large extent, I just don't know how to do this.

I have a series of keywords that I would like to use as a base for alt text. I hope a process like this can take me to something like 80% accurate alt text.

For example, I have the following keywords in an image: Emerald Isle, Female, Green, Human, Humble, Joyful, Matcha, Muir Woods, Studio Portrait, Supportive, Tiergarten.

I would like to use the following keywords: Female, Green, Joyful, Studio Portrait to generate the following phrase or something close, "Woman smiles for portrait on green background"

I'd like to have that phrase in the "Description/Caption" or the "Title/Object" parts of the IPTC.

How would I got about mapping those Keywords to form a basis for this alt text?

Thank you!

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

Fully automating that particular transformation would probably not be possible just from keywords alone, unfortunately.   The keywords list cannot be easily separated.

You might be able to come up with something suitable for Alt Text by combining other fields

As an example, if you used the "Persons Shown" field to store the subject of the photo (example "Woman") , and used the "Genre" field to store the type of photo (example "Studio Portrait") you could include this to generate a passable Alt Text description:

{persons} in a {genre} with other keywords: {keywords} 

that would evaluate to

Woman in a Studio Portrait with other keywords: Emerald Isle, Female, Green, Human, Humble, Joyful, Matcha, Muir Woods, Studio Portrait, Supportive, Tiergarten.

I know it's not the perfect solution, but maybe you can play around and find something that works for you?  I'm hopeful that Photo Mechanic will eventually support the official IPTC "Alt Text" tag at some point in the future, but we can't say exactly when.

Here is the manual on using variables to insert the content from certain fields into other areas:

Introduction to Photo Mechanic variables
https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48000207639-introduction-to-photo-mechanic-variables

-Mick

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

I will also add that the "Supplemental Category" fields are free to be used in whatever new ways you want.  I've been pondering using {suppcat3} to store information about dominant colors in an image in a way to help generate useful Alt Text.  If you included "Green" in "Supplemental Category 3" your Alt Text string could be something like

{persons} wearing {suppcat3} in a {genre} 

You could even re-label "Supplemental Category 3" to say "Dominant color(s)" and put it under the Persons Shown field by editing the Metadata dialogs.  You can learn how to do that here:

Accessibility preferences
https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001146204-accessibility-preferences

I also want to say thanks for attempting to generate useful Alt Text -- I know it's challenging both as a task to do and to get platforms to recognize and use it, but I recognize how important it is.  I commend you for putting in the effort.

Mick

[Antonio Franco]

Thank you for the responses Mick. I'm a DAM manager for a large company and I pioneered the us of PM exclusively to manage our photos as I come from a sports photo background.

I can tell you accessibility in the corporate world right now is the name of the game. I know of multiple companies like my own racing to alt text all of their assets; in fact I was hired in part because I can tag quickly using PM.

Thanks for the tips, I'll look into the other fields idea. Cheers