<picture>: The Picture element
The <picture>
HTML element contains zero or more <source>
elements and one <img>
element to offer alternative versions of an image for different display/device scenarios.
The browser will consider each child <source>
element and choose the best match among them. If no matches are found—or the browser doesn't support the <picture>
element—the URL of the <img>
element's src
attribute is selected. The selected image is then presented in the space occupied by the <img>
element.
Try it
To decide which URL to load, the user agent examines each <source>
's srcset
, media
, and type
attributes to select a compatible image that best matches the current layout and capabilities of the display device.
The <img>
element serves two purposes:
- It describes the size and other attributes of the image and its presentation.
- It provides a fallback in case none of the offered
<source>
elements are able to provide a usable image.
Common use cases for <picture>
:
- Art direction. Cropping or modifying images for different
media
conditions (for example, loading a simpler version of an image which has too many details, on smaller displays). - Offering alternative image formats, for cases where certain formats are not supported.
Note: For example, newer formats like AVIF or WEBP have many advantages, but might not be supported by the browser. A list of supported image formats can be found in: Image file type and format guide.
- Saving bandwidth and speeding page load times by loading the most appropriate image for the viewer's display.
If providing higher-density versions of an image for high-DPI (Retina) display, use srcset
on the <img>
element instead. This lets browsers opt for lower-density versions in data-saving modes, and you don't have to write explicit media
conditions.
Content categories | Flow content, phrasing content, embedded content |
---|---|
Permitted content |
Zero or more <source> elements, followed by one
<img> element, optionally intermixed with
script-supporting elements.
|
Tag omission | None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory. |
Permitted parents | Any element that allows embedded content. |
Implicit ARIA role | No corresponding role |
Permitted ARIA roles | No role permitted |
DOM interface | HTMLPictureElement |
Attributes
This element includes only global attributes.
Usage notes
You can use the object-position
property to adjust the positioning of the image within the element's frame, and the object-fit
property to control how the image is resized to fit within the frame.
Note: Use these properties on the child <img>
element, not the <picture>
element.
Examples
These examples demonstrate how different attributes of the <source>
element change the selection of the image inside <picture>
.
The media attribute
The media
attribute specifies a media condition (similar to a media query) that the user agent will evaluate for each <source>
element.
If the <source>
's media condition evaluates to false
, the browser skips it and evaluates the next element inside <picture>
.
html
<picture>
<source srcset="mdn-logo-wide.png" media="(min-width: 600px)" />
<img src="mdn-logo-narrow.png" alt="MDN" />
</picture>
The srcset attribute
The srcset attribute is used to offer list of possible images based on size.
It is composed of a comma-separated list of image descriptors. Each image descriptor is composed of a URL of the image, and either:
-
a width descriptor, followed by a
w
(such as300w
); OR - a pixel density descriptor, followed by an
x
(such as2x
) to serve a high-res image for high-DPI screens.
html
<picture>
<source srcset="logo-768.png, logo-768-1.5x.png 1.5x" />
<img src="logo-320.png" alt="logo" />
</picture>
The type attribute
The type
attribute specifies a MIME type for the resource URL(s) in the <source>
element's srcset
attribute. If the user agent does not support the given type, the <source>
element is skipped.
html
<picture>
<source srcset="photo.avif" type="image/avif" />
<source srcset="photo.webp" type="image/webp" />
<img src="photo.jpg" alt="photo" />
</picture>
Specifications
Specification |
---|
HTML Standard # the-picture-element |
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser
See also
<img>
element<source>
element- Positioning and sizing the picture within its frame:
object-position
andobject-fit
- Image file type and format guide