picture elementSupport in all current engines.
Support in all current engines.
source elements, followed by one img element,
optionally intermixed with script-supporting elements.[Exposed=Window]
interface HTMLPictureElement : HTMLElement {
[HTMLConstructor] constructor();
};The picture element is a container
which provides multiple sources to its contained img element
to allow authors to declaratively control or give hints to the user agent about which image resource to use,
based on the screen pixel density, viewport size, image format, and other factors.
It represents its children.
The picture element is somewhat different from the similar-looking
video and audio elements. While all of them contain source
elements, the source element's src attribute
has no meaning when the element is nested within a picture element, and the resource
selection algorithm is different. Also, the picture element itself does not display
anything; it merely provides a context for its contained img element that enables it
to choose from multiple URLs.
source elementSupport in all current engines.
Support in all current engines.
picture element, before the img element.track elements.src — Address of the resourcetype — Type of embedded resourcesrcset — Images to use in different situations, e.g., high-resolution displays, small monitors, etc.sizes — Image sizes for different page layoutsmedia — Applicable media[Exposed=Window]
interface HTMLSourceElement : HTMLElement {
[HTMLConstructor] constructor();
[CEReactions] attribute USVString src;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString type;
[CEReactions] attribute USVString srcset;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString sizes;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString media;
};The source element allows authors to specify multiple alternative
source sets for img elements or multiple alternative
media resources for media
elements. It does not represent anything on its own.
The type attribute may be present. If
present, the value must be a valid MIME type string.
The remainder of the requirements depend on whether the parent is a picture
element or a media element:
source element's parent is a picture elementThe srcset attribute must be present, and
is a srcset attribute.
The srcset attribute contributes the image sources to the source set, if the
source element is selected.
If the srcset attribute has any image candidate strings using a width descriptor, the sizes attribute must also be present, and is a
sizes attribute. The sizes attribute
contributes the source size to the source set, if the
source element is selected.
The media attributes may also be present.
If present, the value must contain a valid media query list. The user agent will
skip to the next source element if the value does not match the environment.
The type attribute gives the type of the images in the
source set, to allow the user agent to skip to the next source element
if it does not support the given type.
If the type attribute is not
specified, the user agent will not select a different source element if it finds
that it does not support the image format after fetching it.
When a source element has a following sibling source element or
img element with a srcset attribute
specified, it must have at least one of the following:
A media attribute specified with a value that,
after stripping leading and trailing
ASCII whitespace, is not the empty string and is not an ASCII
case-insensitive match for the string "all".
A type attribute specified.
The src attribute must not be present.
source element's parent is a media elementThe src attribute
gives the URL of the media resource. The value must be a valid
non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces. This attribute must be present.
Dynamically modifying a source element and its attribute when the
element is already inserted in a video or audio element will have no
effect. To change what is playing, just use the src
attribute on the media element directly, possibly making use of the canPlayType() method to pick from amongst available
resources. Generally, manipulating source elements manually after the document has
been parsed is an unnecessarily complicated approach.
The type attribute gives the type of the media
resource, to help the user agent determine if it can play this media
resource before fetching it. The codecs parameter, which certain
MIME types define, might be necessary to specify exactly how the resource is encoded. [RFC6381]
The following list shows some examples of how to use the codecs= MIME
parameter in the type attribute.
<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2"'><source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.58A01E, mp4a.40.2"'><source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.4D401E, mp4a.40.2"'><source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.64001E, mp4a.40.2"'><source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="mp4v.20.8, mp4a.40.2"'><source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="mp4v.20.240, mp4a.40.2"'><source src='video.3gp' type='video/3gpp; codecs="mp4v.20.8, samr"'><source src='video.ogv' type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"'><source src='video.ogv' type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, speex"'><source src='audio.ogg' type='audio/ogg; codecs=vorbis'><source src='audio.spx' type='audio/ogg; codecs=speex'><source src='audio.oga' type='audio/ogg; codecs=flac'><source src='video.ogv' type='video/ogg; codecs="dirac, vorbis"'>The srcset, sizes, and media
attributes must not be present.
If a source element is inserted as a
child of a media element that has no src
attribute and whose networkState has the value NETWORK_EMPTY, the user agent must invoke the media
element's resource selection
algorithm.
The IDL attributes src, type,
srcset, sizes and media must reflect the respective
content attributes of the same name.
If the author isn't sure if user agents will all be able to render the media resources
provided, the author can listen to the error event on the last
source element and trigger fallback behavior:
<script>
function fallback(video) {
// replace <video> with its contents
while (video.hasChildNodes()) {
if (video.firstChild instanceof HTMLSourceElement)
video.removeChild(video.firstChild);
else
video.parentNode.insertBefore(video.firstChild, video);
}
video.parentNode.removeChild(video);
}
</script>
<video controls autoplay>
<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2"'>
<source src='video.ogv' type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"'
onerror="fallback(parentNode)">
...
</video>img elementSupport in all current engines.
Support in all current engines.
usemap attribute: Interactive content.alt — Replacement text for use when images are not availablesrc — Address of the resourcesrcset — Images to use in different situations, e.g., high-resolution displays, small monitors, etc.sizes — Image sizes for different page layoutscrossorigin — How the element handles crossorigin requestsusemap — Name of image map to useismap — Whether the image is a server-side image mapwidth — Horizontal dimensionheight — Vertical dimensionreferrerpolicy — Referrer policy for fetches initiated by the elementdecoding — Decoding hint to use when processing this image for presentationloading — Used when determining loading deferralalt attribute: for authors; for implementers.[Exposed=Window,
LegacyFactoryFunction=Image(optional unsigned long width, optional unsigned long height)]
interface HTMLImageElement : HTMLElement {
[HTMLConstructor] constructor();
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString alt;
[CEReactions] attribute USVString src;
[CEReactions] attribute USVString srcset;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString sizes;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString? crossOrigin;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString useMap;
[CEReactions] attribute boolean isMap;
[CEReactions] attribute unsigned long width;
[CEReactions] attribute unsigned long height;
readonly attribute unsigned long naturalWidth;
readonly attribute unsigned long naturalHeight;
readonly attribute boolean complete;
readonly attribute USVString currentSrc;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString referrerPolicy;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString decoding;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString loading;
Promise<undefined> decode();
// also has obsolete members
};An img element represents an image.
Support in all current engines.
The image given by the src and srcset attributes, and any previous sibling
source elements' srcset attributes if the
parent is a picture element, is the embedded content; the value of the alt attribute provides equivalent content for those who
cannot process images or who have image loading disabled (i.e. it is the img
element's fallback content).
The requirements on the alt attribute's value are described
in a separate section.
The src attribute must be present, and must contain a
valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces referencing a non-interactive,
optionally animated, image resource that is neither paged nor scripted.
The requirements above imply that images can be static bitmaps (e.g. PNGs, GIFs, JPEGs), single-page vector documents (single-page PDFs, XML files with an SVG document element), animated bitmaps (APNGs, animated GIFs), animated vector graphics (XML files with an SVG document element that use declarative SMIL animation), and so forth. However, these definitions preclude SVG files with script, multipage PDF files, interactive MNG files, HTML documents, plain text documents, and so forth. [PNG] [GIF] [JPEG] [PDF] [XML] [APNG] [SVG] [MNG]
The srcset attribute may also be present, and is a
srcset attribute.
The srcset attribute and the src attribute (if width
descriptors are not used) contribute the image sources
to the source set (if no source element was selected).
If the srcset attribute is present and has any image candidate strings using a width
descriptor, the sizes attribute must also
be present, and is a sizes attribute. The sizes
attribute contributes the source size to the source set (if no
source element was selected).
Support in all current engines.
The crossorigin attribute is a CORS
settings attribute. Its purpose is to allow images from third-party sites that allow
cross-origin access to be used with canvas.
The referrerpolicy attribute is a
referrer policy attribute. Its purpose is to set the referrer policy
used when fetching the image. [REFERRERPOLICY]
The decoding attribute indicates the
preferred method to decode this image. The attribute,
if present, must be an image decoding hint. This attribute's missing value default and invalid value
default are both the auto state.
The loading attribute is a lazy
loading attribute. Its purpose is to indicate the policy for loading images that are
outside the viewport.
When the loading attribute's state is changed to the
Eager state, the user agent must run these
steps:
Let resumptionSteps be the img element's lazy load
resumption steps.
If resumptionSteps is null, then return.
Set the img's lazy load resumption steps to null.
Invoke resumptionSteps.
<img src="1.jpeg" alt="1">
<img src="2.jpeg" loading=eager alt="2">
<img src="3.jpeg" loading=lazy alt="3">
<div id=very-large></div> <!-- Everything after this div is below the viewport -->
<img src="4.jpeg" alt="4">
<img src="5.jpeg" loading=lazy alt="5">In the example above, the images load as follows:
1.jpeg, 2.jpeg,
4.jpegThe images load eagerly and delay the window's load event.
3.jpegThe image loads when layout is known, due to being in the viewport, however it does not delay the window's load event.
5.jpegThe image loads only once scrolled into the viewport, and does not delay the window's load event.
Developers are encouraged to specify an intrinsic aspect ratio via width and height attributes
on lazy loaded images, even if CSS sets the image's width and height properties, to prevent the
page layout from shifting around after the image loads.
The img element must not be used as a layout tool. In particular, img
elements should not be used to display transparent images, as such images rarely convey meaning and
rarely add anything useful to the document.
What an img element represents depends on the src attribute and the alt
attribute.
src attribute is set and the alt attribute is set to the empty stringThe image is either decorative or supplemental to the rest of the content, redundant with some other information in the document.
If the image is available and the user agent is configured to display that image, then the element represents the element's image data.
Otherwise, the element represents nothing, and may be omitted completely from the rendering. User agents may provide the user with a notification that an image is present but has been omitted from the rendering.
src attribute is set and the alt attribute is set to a value that isn't emptyThe image is a key part of the content; the alt attribute
gives a textual equivalent or replacement for the image.
If the image is available and the user agent is configured to display that image, then the element represents the element's image data.
Otherwise, the element represents the text given by the alt attribute. User agents may provide the user with a notification
that an image is present but has been omitted from the rendering.
src attribute is set and the alt attribute is notThe image might be a key part of the content, and there is no textual equivalent of the image available.
In a conforming document, the absence of the alt attribute indicates that the image is a key part of the content
but that a textual replacement for the image was not available when the image was generated.
If the image is available and the user agent is configured to display that image, then the element represents the element's image data.
If the image has a src attribute whose value is
the empty string, then the element represents nothing.
Otherwise, the user agent should display some sort of indicator that there is an image that is not being rendered, and may, if requested by the user, or if so configured, or when required to provide contextual information in response to navigation, provide caption information for the image, derived as follows:
If the image has a title attribute whose value is not
the empty string, then return the value of that attribute.
If the image is a descendant of a figure element that has a child
figcaption element, and, ignoring the figcaption element and its
descendants, the figure element has no flow content descendants other
than inter-element whitespace and the img element, then return the
contents of the first such figcaption element.
Return nothing. (There is no caption information.)
src attribute is not set and either the alt attribute is set to the empty string or the alt attribute is not set at allThe element represents nothing.
The element represents the text given by the alt attribute.
The alt attribute does not represent advisory information.
User agents must not present the contents of the alt attribute
in the same way as content of the title attribute.
User agents may always provide the user with the option to display any image, or to prevent any image from being displayed. User agents may also apply heuristics to help the user make use of the image when the user is unable to see it, e.g. due to a visual disability or because they are using a text terminal with no graphics capabilities. Such heuristics could include, for instance, optical character recognition (OCR) of text found within the image.
While user agents are encouraged to repair cases of missing alt attributes, authors must not rely on such behavior. Requirements for providing text to act as an alternative for images are described
in detail below.
The contents of img elements, if any, are ignored for the purposes of
rendering.
The usemap attribute,
if present, can indicate that the image has an associated
image map.
The ismap
attribute, when used on an element that is a descendant of an
a element with an href attribute, indicates by its
presence that the element provides access to a server-side image
map. This affects how events are handled on the corresponding
a element.
The ismap attribute is a
boolean attribute. The attribute must not be specified
on an element that does not have an ancestor a element
with an href attribute.
The usemap and ismap attributes can result in confusing behavior when used
together with source elements with the media
attribute specified in a picture element.
The img element supports dimension
attributes.
Support in all current engines.
Support in all current engines.
Support in all current engines.
Support in all current engines.
The alt, src, srcset and sizes IDL attributes must reflect the
respective content attributes of the same name.
Support in all current engines.
The crossOrigin IDL attribute must
reflect the crossorigin content attribute,
limited to only known values.
Support in all current engines.
The useMap IDL attribute must
reflect the usemap content attribute.
Support in all current engines.
The isMap IDL attribute must reflect
the ismap content attribute.
HTMLImageElement/referrerPolicy
Support in all current engines.
The referrerPolicy IDL attribute must
reflect the referrerpolicy
content attribute, limited to only known values.
Support in all current engines.
The decoding
IDL attribute must reflect the decoding
content attribute, limited to only known values.
Support in all current engines.
The loading
IDL attribute must reflect the loading content
attribute, limited to only known values.
width [ = value ]Support in all current engines.
height [ = value ]Support in all current engines.
These attributes return the actual rendered dimensions of the image, or zero if the dimensions are not known.
They can be set, to change the corresponding content attributes.
naturalWidthSupport in all current engines.
naturalHeightHTMLImageElement/naturalHeight
Support in all current engines.
These attributes return the intrinsic dimensions of the image, or zero if the dimensions are not known.
completeSupport in all current engines.
Returns true if the image has been completely downloaded or if no image is specified; otherwise, returns false.
currentSrcSupport in all current engines.
Returns the image's absolute URL.
decode()Support in all current engines.
This method causes the user agent to decode the image in parallel, returning a promise that fulfills when decoding is complete.
The promise will be rejected with an "EncodingError"
DOMException if the image cannot be decoded.
Image( [ width [, height ] ] )Support in all current engines.
Returns a new img element, with the width and height attributes set to the values
passed in the relevant arguments, if applicable.
The IDL attributes width and height must return the rendered width and height of the
image, in CSS pixels, if the image is being rendered, and
is being rendered to a visual medium; or else the density-corrected intrinsic width and
height of the image, in CSS pixels, if the image has
intrinsic dimensions and is available but not being
rendered to a visual medium; or else 0, if the image is not available or does not have intrinsic dimensions. [CSS]
On setting, they must act as if they reflected the respective content attributes of the same name.
The IDL attributes naturalWidth and
naturalHeight must return the
density-corrected intrinsic width and height of the image, in CSS pixels, if the image has intrinsic dimensions and is available, or else 0. [CSS]
Since the intrinsic dimensions of an image take into account any
orientation specified in its metadata, naturalWidth and
naturalHeight reflect the dimensions after applying
any rotation needed to correctly orient the image, regardless of the value of the
'image-orientation' property.
The IDL attribute complete must return true if
any of the following conditions is true:
src attribute and the srcset attribute are omitted.
srcset attribute is omitted and the src attribute's value is the empty string.
img element's current request's state is completely available and its
pending request is null.
img element's current request's state is broken and its
pending request is null.
Otherwise, the attribute must return false.
The currentSrc IDL attribute
must return the img element's current request's current URL.
The decode() method, when invoked, must perform
the following steps:
Let promise be a new promise.
Queue a microtask to perform the following steps:
This is done because updating the image data takes place in a microtask as well. Thus, to make code such as
img.src = "stars.jpg";
img.decode();properly decode stars.jpg, we need to delay any processing by one
microtask.
If any of the following conditions are true about this img element:
its node document is not an active document;
its current request's state is broken,
then reject promise with an "EncodingError"
DOMException.
Otherwise, in parallel, wait for one of the following cases to occur, and perform the corresponding actions:
img element's node document stops being an active
documentimg element's current request changes or is mutatedimg element's current request's state becomes brokenReject promise with an "EncodingError"
DOMException.
img element's current request's state becomes completely
availableDecode the image.
If decoding does not need to be performed for this image (for example because it is a vector graphic), resolve promise with undefined.
If decoding fails (for example due to invalid image data), reject promise with
an "EncodingError" DOMException.
If the decoding process completes successfully, resolve promise with undefined.
User agents should ensure that the decoded media data stays readily available until at least the end of the next successful update the rendering step in the event loop. This is an important part of the API contract, and should not be broken if at all possible. (Typically, this would only be violated in low-memory situations that require evicting decoded image data, or when the image is too large to keep in decoded form for this period of time.)
Animated images will become completely available only after all their frames are loaded. Thus, even though an implementation could decode the first frame before that point, the above steps will not do so, instead waiting until all frames are available.
Return promise.
Without the decode() method, the process of loading an
img element and then displaying it might look like the following:
const img = new Image();
img.src = "nebula.jpg";
img.onload = () => {
document.body.appendChild(img);
};
img.onerror = () => {
document.body.appendChild(new Text("Could not load the nebula :("));
};However, this can cause notable dropped frames, as the paint that occurs after inserting the image into the DOM causes a synchronous decode on the main thread.
This can instead be rewritten using the decode()
method:
const img = new Image();
img.src = "nebula.jpg";
img.decode().then(() => {
document.body.appendChild(img);
}).catch(() => {
document.body.appendChild(new Text("Could not load the nebula :("));
});This latter form avoids the dropped frames of the original, by allowing the user agent to decode the image in parallel, and only inserting it into the DOM (and thus causing it to be painted) once the decoding process is complete.
Because the decode() method attempts to ensure that the
decoded image data is available for at least one frame, it can be combined with the requestAnimationFrame() API.
This means it can be used with coding styles or frameworks that ensure that all DOM modifications
are batched together as animation frame
callbacks:
const container = document.querySelector("#container");
const { containerWidth, containerHeight } = computeDesiredSize();
requestAnimationFrame(() => {
container.style.width = containerWidth;
container.style.height = containerHeight;
});
// ...
const img = new Image();
img.src = "supernova.jpg";
img.decode().then(() => {
requestAnimationFrame(() => container.appendChild(img));
});A legacy factory function is provided for creating HTMLImageElement objects (in
addition to the factory methods from DOM such as createElement()): Image(width, height). When invoked,
the legacy factory function must perform the following steps:
Let document be the current global object's associated Document.
Let img be the result of creating an
element given document, img, and the HTML
namespace.
If width is given, then set
an attribute value for img using "width"
and width.
If height is given, then set an attribute value for img
using "height" and height.
Return img.
A single image can have different appropriate alternative text depending on the context.
In each of the following cases, the same image is used, yet the alt text is different each time. The image is the coat of arms of the
Carouge municipality in the canton Geneva in Switzerland.
Here it is used as a supplementary icon:
<p>I lived in <img src="carouge.svg" alt=""> Carouge.</p>Here it is used as an icon representing the town:
<p>Home town: <img src="carouge.svg" alt="Carouge"></p>Here it is used as part of a text on the town:
<p>Carouge has a coat of arms.</p>
<p><img src="carouge.svg" alt="The coat of arms depicts a lion, sitting in front of a tree."></p>
<p>It is used as decoration all over the town.</p>Here it is used as a way to support a similar text where the description is given as well as, instead of as an alternative to, the image:
<p>Carouge has a coat of arms.</p>
<p><img src="carouge.svg" alt=""></p>
<p>The coat of arms depicts a lion, sitting in front of a tree.
It is used as decoration all over the town.</p>Here it is used as part of a story:
<p>She picked up the folder and a piece of paper fell out.</p>
<p><img src="carouge.svg" alt="Shaped like a shield, the paper had a
red background, a green tree, and a yellow lion with its tongue
hanging out and whose tail was shaped like an S."></p>
<p>She stared at the folder. S! The answer she had been looking for all
this time was simply the letter S! How had she not seen that before? It all
came together now. The phone call where Hector had referred to a lion's tail,
the time Maria had stuck her tongue out...</p>Here it is not known at the time of publication what the image will be, only that it will be a
coat of arms of some kind, and thus no replacement text can be provided, and instead only a brief
caption for the image is provided, in the title attribute:
<p>The last user to have uploaded a coat of arms uploaded this one:</p>
<p><img src="last-uploaded-coat-of-arms.cgi" title="User-uploaded coat of arms."></p>Ideally, the author would find a way to provide real replacement text even in this case, e.g. by asking the previous user. Not providing replacement text makes the document more difficult to use for people who are unable to view images, e.g. blind users, or users or very low-bandwidth connections or who pay by the byte, or users who are forced to use a text-only web browser.
Here are some more examples showing the same picture used in different contexts, with different appropriate alternate texts each time.
<article>
<h1>My cats</h1>
<h2>Fluffy</h2>
<p>Fluffy is my favorite.</p>
<img src="fluffy.jpg" alt="She likes playing with a ball of yarn.">
<p>She's just too cute.</p>
<h2>Miles</h2>
<p>My other cat, Miles just eats and sleeps.</p>
</article><article>
<h1>Photography</h1>
<h2>Shooting moving targets indoors</h2>
<p>The trick here is to know how to anticipate; to know at what speed and
what distance the subject will pass by.</p>
<img src="fluffy.jpg" alt="A cat flying by, chasing a ball of yarn, can be
photographed quite nicely using this technique.">
<h2>Nature by night</h2>
<p>To achieve this, you'll need either an extremely sensitive film, or
immense flash lights.</p>
</article><article>
<h1>About me</h1>
<h2>My pets</h2>
<p>I've got a cat named Fluffy and a dog named Miles.</p>
<img src="fluffy.jpg" alt="Fluffy, my cat, tends to keep itself busy.">
<p>My dog Miles and I like go on long walks together.</p>
<h2>music</h2>
<p>After our walks, having emptied my mind, I like listening to Bach.</p>
</article><article>
<h1>Fluffy and the Yarn</h1>
<p>Fluffy was a cat who liked to play with yarn. She also liked to jump.</p>
<aside><img src="fluffy.jpg" alt="" title="Fluffy"></aside>
<p>She would play in the morning, she would play in the evening.</p>
</article>