What are the advantages of using an imageless button?

Question

The discussion on this answer to the question \"How can I use Google\'s new imageless button?\" Has prompted this question.

Google seems to think that going imageless i

Answer 1

1. Localization (it's easier to translate text than images)
2. Skinning/themeing (it's easier to change the look and feel with single CSS than recreate multiple images)
3. Accessibility (screen readers can read properly, text scaling works properly)
4. Performance (the CSS is shared and so is loaded once from the server)
5. Functionality (it's easier to expand the button with new UX elements like dropdown arrow when you don't have to change the whole picture)

Btw, the "imageless" button might as well contain an image inside the visual template. This approach is quite similar to XAML's approach to templating and styling the visual tree.