Replacing H1's with images

[-Al-]

We host a few Japanese sites and Japanese fonts tend to look a bit scruffy the larger they are. I was wondering if image replacement for H1 is risky or not?

eg in short...

spiders see:

Some header text optimized for seo

then in the css

h1 {
text-indent: -9999px;
}

h1.header_1{

background:url(/images/bg_h1.jpg) no-repeat 0 0;

}

We are considering this technique, I thought I should get some advise before potentially jeopardising anything, especially as we are dealing with one of the most important on page elements. In my opinion any attempt to hide text could be seen as keyword stuffing, is it a case that in moderation it is acceptable?

Cheers

[Keszi]

Hey,

My advice would be to use tag if you really want to use this technique and put an alt tag for the image. The alt tag than it will serve as a H1 + the image will serve for your visitors.

I hope that helped,

Istvan