HTML Taging File

The HTML <img> tag represents an image in an HTML document. It is used for embedding the image into the document.The basic tag is written like this <img src="" alt=""> with the URL of the image inserted between the opening/closing quotes of the src attribute. You should also provide an alt attribute. This attribute is used to specify some text that will be displayed in the even that the image can't be displayed.

Note that, although the image is embedded into the page, it still exists independently of the document. The <img> element simply finds the image, and displays it within the content. If one were to delete or move the image at a later date, the image will no longer be able to be loaded by the HTML document. Similarly, if one were to change the image to a new image (but use the same name/URL of the old image), the new image will now be displayed whenever the HTML document is loaded.

Example

The following example shows the <img> element in action. You can modify the code (on the left) and click "Refresh" to see your changes take effect (on the right).

Source Code	Result

Attributes

The <img> tag accepts the following attributes. Try adding some to the above example to see how it affects the display/behavior of the element.

Attributes Specific to the <img> Element

Attribute	Description
alt	Alternate text. This specifies text to be used in case the browser/user agent can't render the image. The text should describe the image clearly. For example, it's better to use "Photo of Mt Cook on a sunny day" than to simply use "Mt Cook" or "Pic" or similar.
src	This specifies the URL of the image to be embedded into the image.
crossorigin	This attribute is a CORS settings attribute. CORS stands for Cross-Origin Resource Sharing. The purpose of the crossorigin attribute is to allow you to configure the CORS requests for the element's fetched data. The values for the crossorigin attribute are enumerated. Possible values: Value Description anonymous Cross-origin CORS requests for the element will not have the credentials flag set. In other words, there will be no exchange of user credentials via cookies, client-side SSL certificates or HTTP authentication. use-credentials Cross-origin CORS requests for the element will have the credentials flag set. If this attribute is not specified, CORS is not used at all. An invalid keyword and an empty string will be handled as the anonymous value.
ismap	For image maps. For more about image maps, see the <map> tag.
usemap	For image maps. For more about image maps, see the <map> tag.
width	Specifies the width of the image.
height	Specifies the height of the image.

Global Attributes

The <img> tag accepts the following global attributes. These attributes are standard across all HTML 5 tags.

Attribute	Description
accesskey	Specifies a shortcut key that can be used to access this <img> element. Possible values. [Any string of characters. This string of characters specifies the key/s the user needs to use in order to access the element.]
class	This is a document wide identifier. It is used to refer to a class that is specified in the style sheet. The value should match the name of the class you wish to use.
contenteditable	This attribute specifies whether the user can edit the content or not. Possible values: true false
contextmenu	The contextmenu attribute sets a context menu for an element. The value must be the ID of a menu element in the DOM.
dir	Specifies the direction of the text. Possible values: Value Description ltr Specifies that the text should read left to right. rtl The text should read right to left. auto The text direction should be determined programatically using the contents of the element.
draggable	Specifies whether the user is allowed to drag this <img> element or not. Possible values: true false auto Value Description true This value specifies that the element is draggable. false A false value specifies that the element is not draggable. auto Uses the default behavior of the user agent/browser. This is the default value.
dropzone	The dropzone attribute specifies what should happen when the user "drops" an element (i.e. after dragging it) onto this <img> element. Must be an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens that are ASCII case-insensitive. Possible values: Value Description copy Results in a copy of the dragged data. Default value. move Results in the data being moved to the new location. link Results in a link to the original data. Any keyword with eight characters or more, beginning with the an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "string:" Specifies that items with the drag data item kind Plain Unicode string and the drag data item type string set to a value that matches the remainder of the keyword are accepted. Any keyword with six characters or more, beginning with an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "file:" Allows you to specify which file types can be processed (i.e. copied, moved or linked) in this dropzone. Example: dropzone="copy file:image/png file:image/gif file:image/jpeg" Note that this attribute must not have more than one of the three feedback values (copy, move, and link) specified. If none are specified, the copy value is implied.
hidden	Indicates that this particular <img> element is not yet, or is no longer, relevant. The browser/user agent does not display elements that have the hidden attribute present. This is a boolean attribute. If the attribute is present, its value must either be the empty string or a value that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the attribute's canonical name, with no leading or trailing whitespace (i.e. either hidden or hidden="hidden"). Possible values: [Empty string] hidden
id	The id attribute is a document wide identifier, which is used in conjunction with CSS and JavaScript. The value must match the name of the id you wish to use.
itemid	The itemid provides a global identifier for an "item". This attribute is optional, however if it is provided, it must have a value that is a valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces. The itemid attribute can only be present in elements that include both the itemscopeand the itemtype attributes, as long as the itemtype attribute specifies a vocabulary that supports global identifiers for items, as defined by that vocabulary's specification.
itemprop	This attribute provides one or more properties to one or more "items". Although this attribute is optional, if used it must have a value that is an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens that are case-sensitive, representing the names of the name-value pairs that it adds. The attribute's value must have at least one token. Each token must be one of the following: A valid URL that is an absolute URL, or If the item is a typed item: a "defined property name" allowed in this situation according to the specification that defines the relevant types for the item, or If the item is not a typed item: a string that contains no U+002E FULL STOP characters (.) and no U+003A COLON characters (:). Also, Specifications that introduce defined property names that are not absolute URLs must ensure all such property names contain no U+002E FULL STOP characters (.), no U+003A COLON characters (:), and no space characters.
itemref	This attribute is used in conjunction with the itemscope attribute, the itemref attribute provides a list of additional elements to crawl to find the name-value pairs of the "item". Although the itemref attribute is optional, if specified, it must have a value that is an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens that are case-sensitive, consisting of IDs of elements in the same home subtree. Also, the itemref can only be used on elements that also have the itemscope attribute present.
itemscope	HTML5 elements that have the itemscope attribute create a name-value pair called an "item". Elements with an itemscope attribute may also have an itemtype attribute specified, to give the item types of the item. This is a boolean attribute. If the attribute is present, its value must either be the empty string or a value that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the attribute's canonical name, with no leading or trailing whitespace (i.e. either itemscope or itemscope="itemscope"). Possible values: [Empty string] itemscope
itemtype	This attribute provides an item type for elements containing the itemscope attribute. The attribute is optional but if it is specified, it must have a value that is an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens that are case-sensitive, each of which is a valid URL that is an absolute URL, and all of which are defined to use the same vocabulary. The attribute's value must have at least one token. The itemtype attribute must only be present in elements that include the itemscopeattribute.
lang	Sets the language code to be used. Possible values: [Must be a valid RFC 3066 language code, or an empty string.]
spellcheck	Specifies whether the element should have its spelling checked. Value Description [Empty string] The element should have its spelling checked. true The element should have its spelling checked. false The element should not have its spelling checked. If this attribute is missing, the element will use the default behavior, possibly based on the parent's own spellcheck state.
style	Specifies inline styles for this <img> element. This allows you to define the styles within the page, and within this <img> tag, as opposed to referring to styles defined elsewhere (such as an external style sheet). Although this can be useful for over-riding external styles, it is usually preferrable to use external styles in conjunction with the classattribute and/or the id attribute.
tabindex	Helps determine the tabbing order for this <img> element (for when the user uses the "tab" key on their keyboard to "tab" through the elements on the page in order to select an element). Possible values: [Any valid integer. For example, 0, 1, 2, 3, ...etc]
title	Specifies a title to associate with this particular <img> element. Many browsers will display this when the cursor hovers over the element (similar to a "tool tip"). Possible values: [Any text to be displayed as a "tool tip".]
translate	Determines whether the element's attribute values and the values of its Text node children are to be translated when the page is localized, or whether to leave them unchanged. The translate attribute is an enumerated attribute and may contain the following possible values: [Empty String] yes no If the translate attribute is provided, but its value is missing or is invalid, the element will inherit its value from its parent element.

 

Event Handler Content Attributes

The <img> tag also accepts the event handler content attributes listed below.

An event handler content attribute is an attribute for a specific event handler. The name of the content attribute is the same as the name of the event handler.

Event handlers are commonly used to extend the functionality of an HTML element. By using any of the event handler content attributes below, you can tell the browser to run a specific script and when to run it. For example, by using onclick="", you tell the browser to run a piece of JavaScript whenever someone clicks on the element. The JavaScript needs to be inserted between the double quotes. This is typically a small piece of JavaScript that simply calls a JavaScript function that has been defined elsewhere.

Here are the event handler content attributes that can be used with the <img> element.

Attribute	Description
onabort	Invoked when an event has been aborted. For example, the browser stops fetching media data before it is completely downloaded.
onblur	User has left the focus of the element.
oncancel	cancel event handler.
oncanplay	Invoked when the browser/user agent can start playing media, but hasn't yet, due to buffering. In other words, if playback were to begin now, it wouldn't play right to the end (due to the current playback rate) - it would need to pause during playback in order to load the rest of the media.
oncanplaythrough	The browser/user agent estimates that if playback were to begin now, the media resource could be rendered at the current playback rate all the way to its end without having to stop for further buffering.
onchange	User has changed the object, then attempts to leave that field (i.e. clicks elsewhere).
onclick	Invoked when the user clicked on the object.
onclose	close event handler.
oncontextmenu	Invoked when a context menu has been triggered.
oncuechange	cuechange event handler.
ondblclick	Invoked when the user clicked twice on the object.
ondrag	Invoked when an element is being dragged.
ondragend	Invoked when an element has stopped being dragged.
ondragenter	Invoked when an element has been dragged to a drop target.
ondragexit	dragexit event handler.
ondragleave	Invoked when an element leaves a valid drop target.
ondragover	Invoked when an element is being dragged over a valid drop target.
ondragstart	Invoked when a drag operation has started.
ondrop	Invoked when an element is being dropped.
ondurationchange	Invoked when the length of the media is changed (i.e. the duration attribute has just been updated).
onemptied	Invoked when a media resource element suddenly becomes empty (for example, due to a network error).
onended	Invoked when the media has reached the end.
onerror	Invoked when an error occurs while the element is being loaded. Also handler for script error notifications.
onfocus	Invoked when the focus is on the element.
oninput	input event handler.
oninvalid	invalid event handler.
onkeydown	Invoked when a key was pressed over an element.
onkeypress	Invoked when a key was pressed over an element then released.
onkeyup	Invoked when a key was released over an element.
onload	The element has loaded.
onloadeddata	Invoked when the browser/user agent can render the media data at the current playback position for the first time.
onloadedmetadata	Invoked when the browser/user agent has just determined the duration and dimensions of the media resource.
onloadstart	Invoked when the browser/user agent has started loading the media resource.
onmousedown	The cursor moved over the object and mouse/pointing device was pressed down.
onmousemove	The cursor moved while hovering over an object.
onmouseout	The cursor moved off the object
onmouseover	The cursor moved over the object (i.e. user hovers the mouse over the object).
onmouseup	The mouse/pointing device was released after being pressed down.
onmousewheel	Invoked when the mouse wheel is being rotated.
onpause	Invoked when the media resource has been paused.
onplay	Invoked when the media resource starts playback.
onplaying	Playback has begun.
onprogress	The browser/user agent is fetching media data the.
onratechange	Invoked when the playback rate has changed (i.e. either the defaultPlaybackRate or the playbackRate has just been updated).
onreset	reset event handler.
onresize	resize event handler.
onscroll	scroll event handler. Invoked when the element's scrollbar is being scrolled.
onseeked	Invoked when the seeking IDL attribute changed to false (i.e. the seeking attribute is no longer true)
onseeking	Invoked when the seeking IDL attribute changed to true and the seek operation is taking long enough that the user agent has time to fire the event.
onselect	Invoked when some or all of the contents of an object is selected. For example, the user selected some text within a text field.
onshow	show event handler.
onstalled	Invoked when the browser/user agent is trying to fetch media data but the data has stalled (i.e. the data has stopped coming).
onsubmit	User submitted a form.
onsuspend	The browser/user agent is (intentionally) not currently fetching media data, but has not yet downloaded the entire media resource (i.e. it has suspended the download).
ontimeupdate	Invoked when the media's current playback position changed.
onvolumechange	Invoked when either the volume attribute or the muted attribute has changed.
onwaiting	The next frame of the media is not yet available (but the browser/user agent expects it to become available).

More Information About the <img> Element

Content Categories	Flow content. Phrasing content. Embedded content. Form-associated element. If the element has a usemap attribute: Interactive content. Palpable content.
Can be used	Where embedded content is expected.
Content model	Empty.
End Tag Required?	No. You can only use a start tag when using the <img> element, it must not have a closing tag. Right: <img> Wrong: <img></img>
DOM Interface	HTMLImageElement