Open any InDesign document and place an image.
Last updated on
29 July 2026
Learn how to generate Alt Text for the images placed in your Adobe InDesign documents.
Generate Alt Text automatically
You’ll see an Alt Text badge icon at the lower-left side of the image frame, indicating that the image now has an automatically generated alternate text. A red mark on the badge means Alt Text wasn’t generated. Hover over it to view the error message.
If you crop an image or move it within the frame, you'll view the Outdated Alt Text icon. You can generate Alt Text manually to match the updated image.
Note
- You can show or hide the Alt Text badge icon (View > Extras > Hide Alt Text Badge or Show Alt Text Badge). Hiding the badge does not remove Alt Text and does not affect accessible exports.
- Alt Text is a standard generative feature.
- For users with unlimited access to standard features, we apply the Alt Text automatically. You can turn off Alt Text generation in Preferences.
Select Window > Paragraph Styles and then double-click the default [Basic Paragraph] style. Select an option from the Language drop-down menu and in the Advanced Character Formats tab.
![A screenshot of the Paragraph Style Options of the [Basic Paragraph] style, highlighting the Language.](https://helpx-prod.scene7.com/is/image/HelpxProdLoc/A-screenshot-of-the-Paragraph-Style-Options-of-the?$pjpeg$&jpegSize=300&wid=1600)
Hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) and select the icon to view and edit the alternate text in the Object Export Options panel.
You can select the Regenerate icon to generate new alternate text for the same image.
Select Done.
Select Edit > Preferences > Generative AI (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Generative AI (macOS). You can also right-click any image and select Object Export Options, then select the Alt Text preferences option.
Select from the following options:
- Auto-generate Alt Text when placing images to automatically generate Alt Text whenever you place an image (turned on by default for users with unlimited credits).
- Add "Description generated by AI" tag for auto-generated Alt Text to add a tag indicating the text is AI-generated (turned on by default).
Open any InDesign document and place an image.
Select Object > Object Export Options.
Select Custom from Alt Text Source.
Select Generate Alt Text. This will consume one credit per generation for a limited time.
Select the Regenerate icon to generate new alternate text for the same image.
Select Done.
Generate or remove AI-generated Alt Text for multiple images
Right-click any object and select Object Export Options.
Select More options from the Object Export Options dialog, and then select one of the following options:
- Find images with missing Alt Text: To view the list of images with missing Alt Text.
- Generate Alt Text for Alt Text missing images: To generate Alt Text for all the images without any Alt Text within the document. This won't replace or update any existing Alt Text.
- Remove all generated Alt Texts: To remove the AI-generated Alt Text from the images within the document. This won't remove manually entered Alt Text or AI-generated Alt Text that is manually changed.
Known issues
- Images that already contain Alt Text from previous versions won’t display the alt text icon.
Admin control for Enterprise users
- Admins can control access to the Alt Text feature for Enterprise users by turning it on or off in the Admin Console.
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