Achieving balance in web design requires effort, skill, hours of reflection, and, of course, experience. In most cases, the key aspect of balance is the absence of overload and the elimination of clutter. It serves the user experience. It helps visitors feel comfortable on a website. Balance in web design creates harmony throughout the structure of a project and at the same time impresses with its convenience and functional simplicity.
We've already discussed working with space, text, and graphics. But today, we want to reflect on and explore interesting ideas for a balanced combination of text and images/photos. So that when looking at a website, one thinks: it's not too much and not too little; not too flashy and not too dull.
Visual elements are processed faster, but text contributes to a deeper understanding of information. That’s why balancing text and graphics in web design is essential to provide users with the best content and meet their expectations.
The Idea of Balance in Purpose
The start of every design project involves defining the goal. That is, what exactly the web designer wants to achieve with this website. Typically, the most common goals are building brand awareness, increasing sales, encouraging user interaction, prompting action, or establishing contact. Of course, there are other goals, but sooner or later they all narrow down to these core ones.
The design of a project heavily depends on its goals and, as a result, dictates the "rules" for element placement, their size and shape, and their accessibility for different users. This makes it much easier to determine how much content, text, and visual effects the project should include.
For example, suppose you're planning a business website. Its goal is to make contact and inform about the business. But you can expand it by adding details about services, employees, company history, and more. Each page with such information will have a different balance between text and visuals.
Let’s take a look at roastworks, carazoarquitectura, myfarbe, elixirr. These websites aim to showcase projects/products/services. As a result, they contain little text and a lot of imagery. Why? Because of the nature of the content. Paints and plasters are chosen visually and based on specs, but placing detailed descriptions right on the homepage would be poor practice. Costa Rican architecture projects don’t require lengthy explanations either. Each project page contains a short summary and a “sea of images.” The same applies to a company that sells various types of roasted coffee.
Content Types
Which type of content is better? It may seem that every web designer knows the answer, but when it comes to a specific website, it’s not always so obvious. That’s when the project’s structure can help.
Surprisingly, achieving balance between text and images/videos can be quite simple. The point is, when exploring content, users first perceive it visually and only then dive into the text if they wish. This type of balance is found in blogs, online stores, social media, ads, and landing pages. If we look at content types, they typically include books, blog articles, manuals, instructions, descriptions, and news.
When it comes to websites, things are usually simpler. At the core is a visual narrative, and the text allows deeper exploration — but only if the user chooses to engage with it.
Here are a few interesting blogs and promo websites: hellozurich, C.O. Bigelow, moustache, naterapija, sentinelservices. Each of them is unique. The health and genetics project talks about people, disease risks, and symptoms. Such information can’t be conveyed with one type of content alone. Some might say there's too much imagery or video, but that’s the nature of the project—it’s a promo, an ad, meant to attract users.
The website for the TV series “Patients” may seem overloaded with photos, but once you enter the blog section, your impression changes completely. There's a reason for that. The homepage introduces the characters and actors, and then lets the user decide: watch videos and behind-the-scenes photos or read the news. After all, hidden scenes can’t be described — they need to be shown.
The same applies to blogs about Zurich and the C.O. Bigelow pharmacy. Each offers something of its own. Visitors scan visually first, and then choose whether to dive in further.
Important: unlike business projects, the goal of these websites is to share something, to "enlighten" the visitor. People visit company websites knowing what to expect — the business is known and services can be guessed. But visitors come to blogs, stores, and magazines to discover something new and interesting. And again: visuals are processed faster than text.
Effects and Text
There's often a temptation to combine cinemagraphs with text, to blend beautiful photo effects with headings, and so on. But think about your audience. For instance, a blog reader doesn’t expect a fully illustrated book and may be disappointed to find a two-line article.
Variety is another key factor in balancing text and graphics. Experienced webmasters already know what works for their audience — or they simply imagine themselves in their users’ place.
The project intours-dmc visually contains more text than graphics. But its animation effects add a special touch and make browsing more enjoyable. They compensate for the minimal imagery with pop-up elements, fading info blocks, and elegant photos of ballerinas.
The site spiritsbyoskarblues also impresses with parallax, animations, and photo effects. At first glance, it seems text-light, but scroll down and you'll see a different picture. Balance is achieved not by piling everything onto one screen, but by distributing it across the page.
Meanwhile, mi-pad delights with thumbnails, blueprints, wavy lines, and plenty of text. Which is more dominant? Surprisingly, it’s all in balance. Reducing either images or text isn’t really an option. Explore the site and you'll see how effortlessly the content is perceived — both visually and subconsciously.
Visual Weight
Text can use large or small fonts, but how do you size it next to an image? Play with scale. Will small type be readable? Maybe use less text, but increase its size?
The visual weight of components can vary from page to page. That’s why it’s fine to have a large photo on the homepage with contact info at the bottom. A landing page might feature a logo and image, while secondary pages might focus on long texts and small preview images. When each page has its own visual rhythm, the overall project feels balanced.
Take a look at projects like Museum of Science and Industry, centoventigrammi, nmni. Each features images and text of varying sizes, which are arranged and scaled differently across the site. But everything has clear structure and defined boundaries. You know where to zoom in and where to keep it small. The reason lies in the focus on content and topic.
How to Achieve Balance
Now that we've talked about how balance between text and images can look, it's time to consider how to actually achieve it. Even the brightest, boldest projects can feel awkward and dull if elements aren’t arranged harmoniously. But balance is achievable.
Balancing the placement of elements — or just graphics and text — is a core part of web design. It starts during prototyping, when designers sketch on paper with pen or pencil to figure out the layout of each page. Then, they plan photo sizes and info blocks within the actual design.
Take a look at some more projects that showcase great image-text balance: extranet.who, barnesfoundation, pinestreet, Ducks Unlimited Canada IWWR, Swiss Parks, Princeton NU.
The Magic Ratio
If you're searching for the “magic ratio” to allocate space for text and visuals — sorry, there’s no universal formula. There’s no one-size-fits-all. There are only expert strategies, theories, considerations... recommendations.
You'll need visual effects to enhance your text.
We live in a visual era. We consume imagery quickly and read far less. So websites should lean slightly toward visuals.
That means: having a little more imagery than text is perfectly fine. Likewise, a slight dominance of text over visuals is also acceptable.
The goal of balance: increase first-impression impact from 60% to 80% by adding imagery. You must engage the audience before asking them to read. Even books have vivid covers, illustrated pages, and short summaries before asking readers to dive into long chapters.
And yes — make sure your text and images work together. A slight imbalance in the number of elements may not matter — what matters is that they don't visually clash. They must harmonize.
Here are more projects where excessive text isn’t needed, but without visual effects, element harmony wouldn't be possible: thecoloradan, tbilisigardens, flex49, topcalgaryrealestate, OnBrand '17, woocloud.
Conclusion
Although the trend toward image-heavy projects has been widely documented and described by many webmasters, such design can sometimes feel “heavy.” That’s why it’s often called “artistic.” So always start from your content — let it guide your design strategy.
Think about the project’s goals, content types, visual weight, and user expectations. Consider the balance of the whole design and the importance of first impressions. A book has a cover — why not treat your homepage like a book cover and use internal pages for text and imagery? Why not compare a site to a book?
Web design is multifaceted and unique. It’s not just about chasing “what’s new.” It’s about creating a comfort zone for your audience — a place that feels pleasant and easy to use.