In HTML and XHTML, an image map is a list of coordinates relating to a specific image, created in order to hyperlink areas of the image to various destinations (as opposed to a normal image link, in which the entire area of the image links to a single destination). For example, a map of the world may have each country hyperlinked to further information about that country. The intention of an image map is to provide an easy way of linking various parts of an image without dividing the image into separate image files.
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History
Kevin Hughes invented the image map during January 1993[1][2] while he was a student at Honolulu Community College (HCC).[3]
Definition in HTML
In HTML an imagemap is made of the actual image, that is embedded with the <img>-Tag. The image gets simultaneously the attribute usemap.
The imagemap comprise <map>-Tag and in the detail of the <area>-tags, which defines the fields with the weblinks. These are similar to the <a>-Tag defining which URL should be opened.
Following code defines a rectangular area (9,372,66,397) with a link to the English Wikipedia:
<img src="image.png" title="alternative text" usemap="#mapname" /> <map name="mapname"> <area shape="rect" coords="9,372,66,397" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/" /> </map>
Image maps use
It is possible to create image maps by hand using a text editor, but doing so requires web designers to know how to code HTML as well as how to enumerate the coordinates of the areas they wish to place over the image. As a result, most image maps coded by hand are simple polygons.
Because creating image maps in a text editor requires much time and effort, many applications have been designed to allow web designers to create image maps quickly and easily, much as they would create shapes in a vector graphics editor. Examples of these applications are Adobe's Dreamweaver or KImageMapEditor (for KDE), and the imagemap plugin found in GIMP.
Image maps which do not make their clickable areas obvious risk subjecting the user to mystery meat navigation. Even when they do, where they lead may not be obvious. This can be partially remedied with rollover effects.[4]
References
- ^ http://www.kevcom.com/portfolio/graphicdesign.php Honolulu Community College, 1993-1994, The HCC campus map on the right is the first image on the Web to use imagemap (multiple clickable regions), produced in January 1993.
- ^ http://www.kevcom.com/info/factsheet.php#timeline Timeline: 1993 Mapper (imagemap)
- ^ Mary Jo Fahey (1997). Web publisher's design guide for Macintosh. p. 241.
- ^ Flanders, Vincent (March 1998). Web Pages That Suck: Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design. San Francisco: Sybex Inc. ISBN 978-0-7821-2187-2.