Known Participant

Answered

What is this new "T" icon on my images?

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
January 29, 2026
72 replies
5931 views

I have an indesign document with a ton of different images, 1 on each page of the doc. I’ve updated a few of these links today and the newly linked updated images have this icon on the bottom left corner which I’ve never seen before. Any idea what this is or what it means? These are not text boxes, there are no primary text frames in this document and no threaded text.

It is definitely attached to the linked image and nothing else, as it moves around with the image when I move the image.

Correct answer Abhishek Rao

Hi everyone,

We’re currently investigating the issue where the “Auto-generate Alt Text” option appears greyed out in Preferences and cannot be toggled. We haven’t been able to reproduce this consistently on our end yet.

If anyone is still facing this issue and would be willing to join a quick debug session with the product team, it would really help us move this forward. Please share your contact number (with country code), email address, and your availability via DM so I can coordinate this further.

Appreciate your help on this.

Abhishek

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carlseibert

Known Participant

There are several annoying things here:

Auto Generate anything should be disabled by default. Public sentiment, corporate policy, or personal morality may prohibit AI-generated content. Defaulting to include such content exposes users to unnecessary risk.
Printers (fleet of trucks, tattooed guys, not Epson) tend not to like superfluous markup in PDFs - for good reason.
I just wasted over an hour and a half on this issue. I use InDesign to product printed documents. Since I don’t publish PDFs, that’s a pure waste. The annoying alt text tags appeared on my images overnight. Presumably, that’s because “Show Alt Text Badge” somehow turned itself on. That instability is also annoying.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out how to view, confirm the existence of, or edit alt texts in Acrobat.
If I check the linked images in question, no alt text appears in the standard field in their metadata. Adobe shouldn’t be generating information without the consent of its users. But then, to add insult to injury, it doesn’t follow standard,
The alt text that InDesign generated was mostly slop. I guess that’s adding injury to insult--and it’s why AI-generated content is so often prohibited.

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Hey Carl,

From one printer to another, I recommend you try this startup script:

https://trainingonsite.com/indesign-generative-ai-blocker.html

Mike Witherell

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Robert32194799hqfj

Known Participant

hilarious that people have already made scripts to block this garbage

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heidi_7321

Participant

this bug is still occurring as of 8/5/2026, any updates?

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marjannetje

Inspiring

I don't know what to do more. I turned off in the preferences both options andt still the T apears, even after restarting the computer. I feel very scammed. I am considering canceling my subscription with Adobe if a solution is not found soon. In stead of paying monthly to Adobe, Adobe should pay me for using my photos without permission

leo.r

Community Expert

I don't know what to do more. I turned off in the preferences both options andt still the T apears, even after restarting the computer.

I understand your frustration. Quite a few users feel the same.

However, it’s still not clear if you removed AI-generated alt text from the images. Because as long as that alt text is there, the icon will continue to denote it. And disabling the Generative AI options in the preferences does NOT remove alt text that was already assigned. You need to remove it yourself (whether manually or with a script). When you disable the Generative AI options, it only stops alt text generation for the images that have not yet been exposed to this feature.

Yes, this problem presents multiple layers of inconvenience to the users. But it won’t go away by itself. And restarting the computer won’t make any difference in this particular case.

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Robert32194799hqfj

Known Participant

‘exposed to this feature’

like radiation poisoning

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marjannetje

Inspiring

I have the same problem and it feels like theft. I never gave permission for that. Adobe did it automatically without warning.

You can go to the preferences> Generaite AI and turn both options off. For my project it is too late. But I don't trust it anymore. How is it possible?

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nosarengonikkitikkitengo

Known Participant

Just reading some of the later replies - the problem is not around hiding the T or not - its that that T - hidden or not, means that Adobe is adding AI generated content to your pdf files without your, or your clients permission, which is a MAJOR risk for commercial client work.

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Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

Please vote and report here and share the link for others wherever you can

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/51277426-generative-ai-alt-text-and-other-ai-features

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Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/51277426-generative-ai-alt-text-and-other-ai-features

If you have a complaint about Alt Text Gen AI you can use the uservoice here.
Thanks

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nela_5553

Known Participant

Where is the picture???? You can see the bounding box. I have never had this happen before the “T”

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nela_5553

Known Participant

not only does the T appear, but when I place and image the picture is NOT THERE!! So frustrating. Is anyone else having this issue?

leo.r

Community Expert

This issue has not been reported before. Did you try to disable the T icon and Generative AI Preferences as described earlier? Does it fix the issue? If not then does it happen with all images or only specific ones?

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radwagon

Participant

I’ve disabled this option in my settings, and the T is still all over my files.

leo.r

Community Expert

Did you disable this:

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Fitz_rt

Participant

OMG please Adobe provide a way to hide these badges, whether the feature is on or not! Working on a 76 page book with hundreds of images and it’s SUPER irritating.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Fitz_rt,

Sorry for the frustration around this. Could you please try toggling View > Extras > Show/Hide Alt Text Badge and check if that helps reduce the visual clutter from the badges?

Also, please make sure the Auto-generate Alt Text options are disabled under Preferences > Generative AI, then completely restart InDesign and reopen the document to test again.

Let us know how it goes after trying this.

Abhishek

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