Which Should You Use?
Which image replacement technique you use (or whether you use one at all) depends upon your personal priorities and the priorities of your project or client. It might be that one method is appropriate for one site while a different method is appropriate for another.
If you require 100% accessibility, including for users without images, then the Gilder/Levin “cover-up” method is the only option. You’ll have to sacrifice semantic purity of the document and allow an empty span. You’ll have to stick with opaque images as well.
If you can live with the CSS-on/Images-off scenario, the Rundle/Phark method is the most popular among the standards-conscious designers as of this writing and works well in all browsers. The original FIR method is obsolete and should not be used due to fundamental accessibility issues.
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