HTMLImageElement
Inherits properties from its parent, HTMLElement . HTMLImageElement.alt A string that reflects the alt HTML attribute, thus indicating the alternate fallback content to be displayed if the image has not been loaded. HTMLImageElement.complete Read only Returns a boolean value that is true if the browser has finished fetching the image, whether successful or not. That means this value is also true if the image has no src value indicating an image to load. HTMLImageElement.crossOrigin A string specifying the CORS setting for this image element. See CORS settings attributes for further details. This may be null if CORS is not used. HTMLImageElement.currentSrc Read only Returns a string representing the URL from which the currently displayed image was loaded. This may change as the image is adjusted due to changing conditions, as directed by any media queries which are in place. HTMLImageElement.decoding An optional string representing a hint given to the browser on how it should decode the image. If this value is provided, it must be one of the possible permitted values: sync to decode the image synchronously, async to decode it asynchronously, or auto to indicate no preference (which is the default). Read the decoding page for details on the implications of this property’s values. HTMLImageElement.fetchPriority Experimental An optional string representing a hint given to the browser on how it should prioritize fetching of the image relative to other images. If this value is provided, it must be one of the possible permitted values: high to fetch at a high priority, low to fetch at a low priority, or auto to indicate no preference (which is the default). HTMLImageElement.height An integer value that reflects the height HTML attribute, indicating the rendered height of the image in CSS pixels. HTMLImageElement.isMap A boolean value that reflects the ismap HTML attribute, indicating that the image is part of a server-side image map. This is different from a client-side image map, specified using an element and a corresponding which contains elements indicating the clickable areas in the image. The image must be contained within an element; see the ismap page for details. HTMLImageElement.loading A string providing a hint to the browser used to optimize loading the document by determining whether to load the image immediately ( eager ) or on an as-needed basis ( lazy ). HTMLImageElement.naturalHeight Read only Returns an integer value representing the intrinsic height of the image in CSS pixels, if it is available; else, it shows 0 . This is the height the image would be if it were rendered at its natural full size. HTMLImageElement.naturalWidth Read only An integer value representing the intrinsic width of the image in CSS pixels, if it is available; otherwise, it will show 0 . This is the width the image would be if it were rendered at its natural full size. HTMLImageElement.referrerPolicy A string that reflects the referrerpolicy HTML attribute, which tells the user agent how to decide which referrer to use in order to fetch the image. Read this article for details on the possible values of this string. HTMLImageElement.sizes A string reflecting the sizes HTML attribute. This string specifies a list of comma-separated conditional sizes for the image; that is, for a given viewport size, a particular image size is to be used. Read the documentation on the sizes page for details on the format of this string. HTMLImageElement.src A string that reflects the src HTML attribute, which contains the full URL of the image including base URI. You can load a different image into the element by changing the URL in the src attribute. HTMLImageElement.srcset A string reflecting the srcset HTML attribute. This specifies a list of candidate images, separated by commas ( ‘,’, U+002C COMMA ). Each candidate image is a URL followed by a space, followed by a specially-formatted string indicating the size of the image. The size may be specified either the width or a size multiple. Read the srcset page for specifics on the format of the size substring. HTMLImageElement.useMap A string reflecting the usemap HTML attribute, containing the page-local URL of the element describing the image map to use. The page-local URL is a pound (hash) symbol ( # ) followed by the ID of the element, such as #my-map-element . The in turn contains elements indicating the clickable areas in the image. HTMLImageElement.width An integer value that reflects the width HTML attribute, indicating the rendered width of the image in CSS pixels. HTMLImageElement.x Read only An integer indicating the horizontal offset of the left border edge of the image’s CSS layout box relative to the origin of the element’s containing block. HTMLImageElement.y Read only The integer vertical offset of the top border edge of the image’s CSS layout box relative to the origin of the element’s containing block.
Obsolete properties
HTMLImageElement.align Deprecated A string indicating the alignment of the image with respect to the surrounding context. The possible values are «left» , «right» , «justify» , and «center» . This is obsolete; you should instead use CSS (such as text-align , which works with images despite its name) to specify the alignment. HTMLImageElement.border Deprecated A string which defines the width of the border surrounding the image. This is deprecated; use the CSS border property instead. HTMLImageElement.hspace Deprecated An integer value which specifies the amount of space (in pixels) to leave empty on the left and right sides of the image. HTMLImageElement.longDesc Deprecated A string specifying the URL at which a long description of the image’s contents may be found. This is used to turn the image into a hyperlink automatically. Modern HTML should instead place an inside an element defining the hyperlink. HTMLImageElement.name Deprecated A string representing the name of the element. HTMLImageElement.vspace Deprecated An integer value specifying the amount of empty space, in pixels, to leave above and below the image.
Instance methods
Inherits methods from its parent, HTMLElement . HTMLImageElement.decode() Returns a Promise that resolves when the image is decoded and it’s safe to append the image to the DOM. This prevents rendering of the next frame from having to pause to decode the image, as would happen if an undecoded image were added to the DOM.
Errors
If an error occurs while trying to load or render the image, and an onerror event handler has been configured to handle the error event, that event handler will get called. This can happen in a number of situations, including:
- The src attribute is empty or null .
- The specified src URL is the same as the URL of the page the user is currently on.
- The specified image is corrupted in some way that prevents it from being loaded.
- The specified image’s metadata is corrupted in such a way that it’s impossible to retrieve its dimensions, and no dimensions were specified in the
element’s attributes.
- The specified image is in a format not supported by the user agent.
Example
const img1 = new Image(); // Image constructor img1.src = "image1.png"; img1.alt = "alt"; document.body.appendChild(img1); const img2 = document.createElement("img"); // Use DOM HTMLImageElement img2.src = "image2.jpg"; img2.alt = "alt text"; document.body.appendChild(img2); // using first image in the document alert(document.images[0].src);
Specifications
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser
See also
HTML DOM Image Object
You can access an element by using getElementById():
Example
Tip: You can also access an element by using the images collection.
Create an Image Object
You can create an element by using the document.createElement() method:
Example
Image Object Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| align | Not supported in HTML5. Use style.cssFloat instead. Sets or returns the value of the align attribute of an image |
| alt | Sets or returns the value of the alt attribute of an image |
| border | Not supported in HTML5. Use style.border instead. Sets or returns the value of the border attribute of an image |
| complete | Returns whether or not the browser is finished loading an image |
| crossOrigin | Sets or returns the CORS settings of an image |
| height | Sets or returns the value of the height attribute of an image |
| hspace | Not supported in HTML5. Use style.margin instead. Sets or returns the value of the hspace attribute of an image |
| isMap | Sets or returns whether an image should be part of a server-side image-map, or not |
| longDesc | Not supported in HTML5. Sets or returns the value of the longdesc attribute of an image |
| lowsrc | Not supported in HTML5. Sets or returns a URL to a low-resolution version of an image |
| name | Not supported in HTML5. Use id instead. Sets or returns the value of the name attribute of an image |
| naturalHeight | Returns the original height of an image |
| naturalWidth | Returns the original width of an image |
| src | Sets or returns the value of the src attribute of an image |
| useMap | Sets or returns the value of the usemap attribute of an image |
| vspace | Not supported in HTML5. Use style.margin instead. Sets or returns the value of the vspace attribute of an image |
| width | Sets or returns the value of the width attribute of an image |
Standard Properties and Events
The Image object also supports the standard properties and events.