HTML

Living Standard — Last Updated 14 September 2017

1. 1. 4.8 Embedded content
      1. 4.8.1 The picture element
      2. 4.8.2 The source element
      3. 4.8.3 The img element

4.8 Embedded content

4.8.1 The picture element

Categories:

Flow content.

Phrasing content.

Embedded content.

Contexts in which this element can be used:

Where embedded content is expected.

Content model:

Zero or more source elements, followed by one img element, optionally intermixed with script-supporting elements.

Tag omission in text/html:

Neither tag is omissible.

Content attributes:

Global attributes

DOM interface:

[Exposed=Window,
 HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLPictureElement : HTMLElement {};

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.

4.8.2 The source element

Categories:

None.

Contexts in which this element can be used:

As a child of a picture element, before the img element.

As a child of a media element, before any flow content or track elements.

Content model:

Nothing.

Tag omission in text/html:

No end tag.

Content attributes:

Global attributes

src — Address of the resource

type — Type of embedded resource

srcset — Images to use in different situations (e.g. high-resolution displays, small monitors, etc)

sizes — Image sizes for different page layouts

media — Applicable media

DOM interface:

[Exposed=Window,
 HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLSourceElement : HTMLElement {
  [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.

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 element

The 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 element

The 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.

H.264 Constrained baseline profile video (main and extended video compatible) level 3 and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container

<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2"'>

H.264 Extended profile video (baseline-compatible) level 3 and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container

<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.58A01E, mp4a.40.2"'>

H.264 Main profile video level 3 and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container

<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.4D401E, mp4a.40.2"'>

H.264 'High' profile video (incompatible with main, baseline, or extended profiles) level 3 and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container

<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.64001E, mp4a.40.2"'>

MPEG-4 Visual Simple Profile Level 0 video and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container

<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="mp4v.20.8, mp4a.40.2"'>

MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile Level 0 video and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container

<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="mp4v.20.240, mp4a.40.2"'>

MPEG-4 Visual Simple Profile Level 0 video and AMR audio in 3GPP container

<source src='video.3gp' type='video/3gpp; codecs="mp4v.20.8, samr"'>

Theora video and Vorbis audio in Ogg container

<source src='video.ogv' type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"'>

Theora video and Speex audio in Ogg container

<source src='video.ogv' type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, speex"'>

Vorbis audio alone in Ogg container

<source src='audio.ogg' type='audio/ogg; codecs=vorbis'>

Speex audio alone in Ogg container

<source src='audio.spx' type='audio/ogg; codecs=speex'>

FLAC audio alone in Ogg container

<source src='audio.oga' type='audio/ogg; codecs=flac'>

Dirac video and Vorbis audio in Ogg container

<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.

<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>

4.8.3 The img element

Categories:

Flow content.

Phrasing content.

Embedded content.

Form-associated element.

If the element has a usemap attribute: Interactive content.

Palpable content.

Contexts in which this element can be used:

Where embedded content is expected.

Content model:

Nothing.

Tag omission in text/html:

No end tag.

Content attributes:

Global attributes

alt — Replacement text for use when images are not available

src — Address of the resource

srcset — Images to use in different situations (e.g. high-resolution displays, small monitors, etc)

sizes — Image sizes for different page layouts

crossorigin — How the element handles crossorigin requests

usemap — Name of image map to use

ismap — Whether the image is a server-side image map

width — Horizontal dimension

height — Vertical dimension

referrerpolicy — Referrer policy for fetches initiated by the element

DOM interface:

[Exposed=Window,
 HTMLConstructor,
 NamedConstructor=Image(optional unsigned long width, optional unsigned long height)]
interface HTMLImageElement : HTMLElement {
  [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;

  Promise<void> decode();
};

An img element represents an image.

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).

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 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.

If the src attribute is set and the alt attribute is set to the empty string

The 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.

If the src attribute is set and the alt attribute is set to a value that isn't empty

The 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.

If the src attribute is set and the alt attribute is not

The 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.

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:

1. If the image has a title attribute whose value is not the empty string, then the value of that attribute is the caption information; abort these steps.

2. 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 the contents of the first such figcaption element are the caption information; abort these steps.

3. There is no caption information.

If the src attribute is not set and either the alt attribute is set to the empty string or the alt attribute is not set at all

The element represents nothing.

Otherwise

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.

The alt, src, srcset and sizes IDL attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

The crossOrigin IDL attribute must reflect the crossorigin content attribute, limited to only known values.

The useMap IDL attribute must reflect the usemap content attribute.

The isMap IDL attribute must reflect the ismap content attribute.

The referrerPolicy IDL attribute must reflect the referrerpolicy content attribute, limited to only known values.

image . width [ = value ]

image . height [ = value ]

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.

image . naturalWidth

image . naturalHeight

These attributes return the intrinsic dimensions of the image, or zero if the dimensions are not known.

image . complete

Returns true if the image has been completely downloaded or if no image is specified; otherwise, returns false.

image . currentSrc

Returns the image's absolute URL.

image . decode()

Images usually exist in some encoded form; user agents need to decode them into raw pixels before displaying them. This process can be relatively expensive.

This method causes the user agent to decode the image in parallel, returning a promise that fulfills when decoding is complete. The decoded image data will then be readily available for at least one frame after the fulfillment, ensuring that attempting to display the image will complete without decoding delay.

The promise will be rejected with an "EncodingError" DOMException if the image cannot be decoded.

image = new Image( [ width [, height ] ] )

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]

The IDL attribute complete must return true if any of the following conditions is true:

• Both the src attribute and the srcset attribute are omitted.
• The srcset attribute is omitted and the src attribute's value is the empty string.
• The final task that is queued by the networking task source once the resource has been fetched has been queued.
• The img element is completely available.
• The img element is broken.

Otherwise, the attribute must return false.

The value of complete can thus change while a script is executing.

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:

1. If any of the following conditions are true about this img element:

   • its node document is not an active document;

   • it has neither a src nor a srcset attribute;

   • it has a src attribute but its value is the empty string; or

   • its current request's state is broken,

   then return a promise rejected with an "EncodingError" DOMException.

2. Let promise be a new promise.

3. In parallel, wait for one of the following cases to occur, and perform the corresponding actions:

   This img element's node document stops being an active document

   This img element's current request changes or is mutated

   This img element's current request's state becomes broken

   Reject promise with an "EncodingError" DOMException.

   This img element becomes completely available

   Decode the image's media data entirely into its bitmap form, suitable for rapid painting to the screen.

   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 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.

4. Return promise.

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 :("));
};

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 :("));
});

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 constructor is provided for creating HTMLImageElement objects (in addition to the factory methods from DOM such as createElement()): Image(width, height). When invoked, the constructor must perform the following steps:

1. Let document be the current global object's associated Document.

2. Let img be the result of creating an element given document, img, and the HTML namespace.

3. If width is given, then set an attribute value for img using "width" and width.

4. If height is given, then set an attribute value for img using "height" and height.

5. Return img.

<p>I lived in <img src="carouge.svg" alt=""> Carouge.</p>

<p>Home town: <img src="carouge.svg" alt="Carouge"></p>

<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>

<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>

<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>

<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>

<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>