I have a few inquiries regarding the issue of concealing text within an anchor tag and exclusively showing a background image.
To those who may be eager to inundate me with links to other articles and assert that this is a redundant query, let me clarify that I have thoroughly searched through this site and the internet in general, studying the various solutions (mostly perceived as hacks) developed by individuals. The prevailing methods involved utilizing the -9999px hack or enclosing the text in a span while implementing strategies such as this or visibility: hidden.
In my personal opinion, concealing the text would only appear logical if done dynamically, revealing the text solely when the background image fails to load for any reason. However, all the "solutions" I encountered essentially eliminate the text entirely or maintain it permanently invisible, even if the background image does not load - thus defeating the purpose of displaying text.
Hence, I present the following questions:
What could possibly drive someone to include text which they subsequently hide permanently? Wouldn't it be simpler to leave the anchor blank - that is, without any text - and solely exhibit the image instead? What motivates embedding text merely to grapple with techniques to conceal it? Is there a rationale behind this approach that I am overlooking?
Considering the advent of CSS3, are there legitimate, non-hackneyed methods to dynamically conceal text when the background image is evident, with the text surfacing only if the image - under any circumstances - fails to load? Despite scouring resources, I haven't come across any evidence to support this notion, leading me to believe that such functionality isn't supported; unless one among you skilled individuals possesses better insight?