progressive-image.js

A lazy-loading progressive image system similar to those seen on Facebook and Medium. A very small, blurred image is replaced with the full-resolution equivalent when the element is scrolled into view.

View demonstration and further examples on codepen.io...

Please use the code as you wish - tweet me @craigbuckler if you find it useful.

Benefits:

• saves unnecessary bandwidth
• fast loading, high performance, images loaded on view
• supports any image type (JPEG photographs are most appropriate)
• supports responsive images (srcset and sizes attributes)
• supports CSS background images
• small: 1,300 bytes of JavaScript, 445 bytes of CSS (minified)
• any CSS reveal effect can be applied
• no external dependencies - works with any framework
• works in all modern browsers (IE10+)
• progressively-enhanced to work in older browsers
• easy to use

Usage instructions

Include the minified CSS and JavaScript anywhere in your page:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/progressive-image.min.css">
<script src="js/progressive-image.min.js"></script>

Basic example:

<a href="full.jpg" class="progressive replace">
  <img src="tiny.jpg" class="preview" alt="image" />
</a>

Where:

• full.jpg is the large image.
• tiny.jpg is a very small preview image - typically 20px in width saved with high JPEG compression. It be added to the page directly or inlined as a data URI.

Both images must have the same aspect ratio.

If image loading or JavaScript fails, a blurred version of the preview image can be clicked to view the full image.

When JavaScript runs successfully, the large image is loaded and revealed when the preview is scrolled into view. The link click is disabled and resulting HTML will be:

<a href="full.jpg" class="progressive">
  <img src="full.jpg" alt="image" />
</a>

Responsive images of differing sizes and resolutions can be defined in the link using the data-srcset and data-sizes attributes which map to the standard srcset and sizes attributes, e.g.

<a href="small.jpg"
   data-srcset="small.jpg 800w, large.jpg 1200w"
   data-sizes="100vw"
   class="progressive replace">
    <img src="tiny.jpg" class="preview" alt="image" />
</a>

On replacement, the image code becomes:

<img src="small.jpg" srcset="small.jpg 800w, large.jpg 1200w" sizes="100vw" alt="image" />

Modern browsers will load large.jpg on screens of 800px width or greater.

Further examples, options and usage notes can be found on the demo.html example page.

Version history

v1.2, 13 April 2018

• added CSS background image support information

v1.2, 9 April 2018

• full image replaces preview in-place (PR from ftaiolivista)
• minor refactoring and simplification

v1.1, 25 November 2017

• permits any container element
• link to other URLs can be retained
• mutation observer event detects elements added via JavaScript
• minor performance tweaks

v1.0, 16 January 2017

• Initial commit