HTMLImageElement

The HTMLImageElement interface provides special properties and methods for manipulating the layout and presentation of <img> elements.

Properties

Inherits properties from its parent, HTMLElement.

HTMLImageElement.align

Is a DOMString indicating the alignment of the image with respect to the surrounding context. The possible values are "left", "right", "justify", and "center".

HTMLImageElement.alt

Is a DOMString that reflects the alt HTML attribute, thus indicating fallback context for the image.

HTMLImageElement.border

Is a DOMString that is responsible for the width of the border surrounding the image. This is now deprecated and the CSS border property should be used instead.

HTMLImageElement.complete Read only

Returns a Boolean that is true if the browser has finished fetching the image, whether successful or not. It also shows true, if the image has no src value.

HTMLImageElement.crossOrigin

Is a DOMString representing the CORS setting for this image element. See CORS settings attributes for further details.

HTMLImageElement.currentSrc Read only

Returns a DOMString representing the URL to the currently displayed image (which may change, for example in response to media queries).

HTMLImageElement.height

Is a unsigned long that reflects the height HTML attribute, indicating the rendered height of the image in CSS pixels.

HTMLImageElement.hspace

Is a long representing the space on either side of the image.

HTMLImageElement.isMap

Is a Boolean that reflects the ismap HTML attribute, indicating that the image is part of a server-side image map.

HTMLImageElement.longDesc

Is a DOMString representing the URI of a long description of the image.

HTMLImageElement.lowSrc

Is a DOMString that refers to a low-quality (but faster to load) copy of the image.

HTMLImageElement.name

Is a DOMString representing the name of the element.

HTMLImageElement.naturalHeight Read only

Returns a unsigned long representing the intrinsic height of the image in CSS pixels, if it is available; else, it shows 0.

HTMLImageElement.naturalWidth Read only

Returns a unsigned long representing the intrinsic width of the image in CSS pixels, if it is available; otherwise, it will show 0.

HTMLImageElement.referrerPolicy

Is a DOMString that reflects the referrerpolicy HTML attribute indicating which referrer to use in order to fetch the image.

HTMLImageElement.src

Is a DOMString that reflects the src HTML attribute, containing the full URL of the image including base URI.

HTMLImageElement.sizes

Is a DOMString reflecting the sizes HTML attribute.

HTMLImageElement.srcset

Is a DOMString reflecting the srcset HTML attribute, containing a list of candidate images, separated by a comma (',', U+002C COMMA). A candidate image is a URL followed by a 'w' with the width of the images, or an 'x' followed by the pixel density.

HTMLImageElement.useMap

Is a DOMString that reflects the usemap HTML attribute, containing a partial URL of a map element.

HTMLImageElement.vspace

Is a long representing the space above and below the image.

HTMLImageElement.width

Is a unsigned long that reflects the width HTML attribute, indicating the rendered width of the image in CSS pixels.

HTMLImageElement.x Read only

Returns a long representing the horizontal offset from the nearest layer. This property mimics an old Netscape 4 behavior.

HTMLImageElement.y Read only

Returns a long representing the vertical offset from the nearest layer. This property is also similar to behavior of an old Netscape 4.

Methods

Inherits properties from its parent, HTMLElement.

Image()

The Image() constructor, taking two optional unsigned long, which are the width and the height of the resource, creates an instance of HTMLImageElement , not inserted in a DOM tree.

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 <img> element's attributes.
• The specified image is in a format not supported by the user agent.

Example

var img1 = new Image(); // HTML5 Constructor
img1.src = 'image1.png';
img1.alt = 'alt';
document.body.appendChild(img1);

var 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

Specification	Status	Comment
Referrer Policy The definition of 'referrer attribute' in that specification.	Working Draft	Added the referrerPolicy property.
CSS Object Model (CSSOM) View Module The definition of 'Extensions to HTMLImageElement' in that specification.	Working Draft	Added the x and y properties.
WHATWG HTML Living Standard The definition of 'HTMLImageElement' in that specification.	Living Standard	The following properties have been added: srcset, currentSrc and sizes.
HTML5 The definition of 'HTMLImageElement' in that specification.	Recommendation	A constructor (with 2 optional parameters) has been added. The following properties are now obsolete: name, border, align, hspace, vspace, and longdesc. The following properties are now unsigned long, instead of long: height, and width. The following properties have been added: crossorigin, naturalWidth, naturalHeight, and complete.
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification The definition of 'HTMLImgElement' in that specification.	Recommendation	The lowSrc property has been removed. The following properties are now long, instead of DOMString: height, width, hspace, and vspace.
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Specification The definition of 'HTMLImgElement' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

[1] Though, these x and y properties were removed in Gecko 7.0 (Firefox 7.0 / Thunderbird 7.0 / SeaMonkey 2.4) but later, they were restored in Gecko 14.0 (Firefox 14.0 / Thunderbird 14.0 / SeaMonkey 2.11) for compatibility reasons.

[2] This feature is behind the dom.image.srcset.enabled preference, defaulting to false.

[3] This feature is behind the dom.image.picture.enabled preference, defaulting to false.

[4] IE reports false for broken images.

[5] May also be supported in earlier versions.

See also

• The HTML element implementing this interface: <img>