Kuvaussanaan

Kuvaussanaan is a Finnish linguistic term used to denote the descriptive word attached to an image, such as a caption or keyword that summarizes the visual content. The term is formed from kuvaus (description) and sana (word), signaling its role as the specific descriptor for an image. In practice, kuvas­sanaan is used in discussions of image captioning, metadata tagging, and accessibility to separate a concise descriptor from longer textual descriptions.

In media production and library science, kuvasanaan helps improve searchability and accessibility. A kuvasana chosen for an image should be informative, neutral, and independent of context that would require viewing the image to understand. For accessibility, it can be part of alt text or metadata that screen readers announce.

Examples: a photo of a beach in winter might have kuvasana talvi-ranta or simply ranta, used as a keyword in the image's metadata. A portrait might have hymy or kohtaaminen as a kuvasana.

Relationship and variation: The concept is related to caption words, tags, and descriptive keywords used across digital platforms. The exact practice varies by medium and style guide. Some writers distinguish longer, narrative captions from a kuvasana, which is specifically the core descriptor.

See also: caption, alt text, metadata, image description. References: Finnish linguistic and information-accessibility literature discusses how descriptive words for images support understanding and discovery.