How can I determine if an image has loaded, using Javascript/jQuery?

Question

I'm writing some Javascript to resize the large image to fit into the user's browser window. (I don't control the size of the source images unfortunately.)

So something like this would be in the HTML:

<img id="photo"
     src="a_really_big_file.jpg"
     alt="this is some alt text"
     title="this is some title text" />

Is there a way for me to determine if the src image in an img tag has been downloaded?

I need this because I'm running into a problem if $(document).ready() is executed before the browser has loaded the image. $("#photo").width() and $("#photo").height() will return the size of the placeholder (the alt text). In my case this is something like 134 x 20.

Right now I'm just checking if the photo's height is less than 150, and assuming that if so it is just alt text. But this is quite a hack, and it would break if a photo is less than 150 pixels tall (not likely in my particular case), or if the alt text is more than 150 pixels tall (could possibly happen on a small browser window).

---

Edit: For anyone wanting to see the code:

$(function()
{
  var REAL_WIDTH = $("#photo").width();
  var REAL_HEIGHT = $("#photo").height();

  $(window).resize(adjust_photo_size);
  adjust_photo_size();

  function adjust_photo_size()
  {
    if(REAL_HEIGHT < 150)
    {
      REAL_WIDTH = $("#photo").width();
      REAL_HEIGHT = $("#photo").height();
      if(REAL_HEIGHT < 150)
      {
        //image not loaded.. try again in a quarter-second
        setTimeout(adjust_photo_size, 250);
        return;
      }
    }

    var new_width = . . . ;
    var new_height = . . . ;

    $("#photo").width(Math.round(new_width));
    $("#photo").height(Math.round(new_height));
  }

});

---

Update: Thanks for the suggestions. There is a risk of the event not being fired if I set a callback for the $("#photo").load event, so I have defined an onLoad event directly on the image tag. For the record, here is the code I ended up going with:

<img id="photo"
     onload="photoLoaded();"
     src="a_really_big_file.jpg"
     alt="this is some alt text"
     title="this is some title text" />

Then in Javascript:

//This must be outside $() because it may get called first
var isPhotoLoaded = false;
function photoLoaded()
{
  isPhotoLoaded = true;
}

$(function()
{
  //Hides scrollbars, so we can resize properly.  Set with JS instead of
  //  CSS so that page doesn't break with JS disabled.
  $("body").css("overflow", "hidden");

  var REAL_WIDTH = -1;
  var REAL_HEIGHT = -1;

  $(window).resize(adjust_photo_size);
  adjust_photo_size();

  function adjust_photo_size()
  {
    if(!isPhotoLoaded)
    {
      //image not loaded.. try again in a quarter-second
      setTimeout(adjust_photo_size, 250);
      return;
    }
    else if(REAL_WIDTH < 0)
    {
      //first time in this function since photo loaded
      REAL_WIDTH = $("#photo").width();
      REAL_HEIGHT = $("#photo").height();
    }

    var new_width = . . . ;
    var new_height = . . . ;

    $("#photo").width(Math.round(new_width));
    $("#photo").height(Math.round(new_height));
  }

});

Answer 1

Either add an event listener, or have the image announce itself with onload. Then figure out the dimensions from there.

<img id="photo"
     onload='loaded(this.id)'
     src="a_really_big_file.jpg"
     alt="this is some alt text"
     title="this is some title text" />

Answer 2

Using the jquery data store you can define a 'loaded' state.

<img id="myimage" onload="$(this).data('loaded', 'loaded');" src="lolcats.jpg" />

Then elsewhere you can do:

if ($('#myimage').data('loaded')) {
    // loaded, so do stuff
}

Answer 3

The right answer, is to use event.special.load

It is possible that the load event will not be triggered if the image is loaded from the browser cache. To account for this possibility, we can use a special load event that fires immediately if the image is ready. event.special.load is currently available as a plugin.

Per the docs on .load()

Answer 4

You want to do what Allain said, however be aware that sometimes the image loads before dom ready, which means your load handler won't fire. The best way is to do as Allain says, but set the src of the image with javascript after attaching the load hander. This way you can guarantee that it fires.

In terms of accessibility, will your site still work for people without javascript? You may want to give the img tag the correct src, attach you dom ready handler to run your js: clear the image src (give it a fixed with and height with css to prevent the page flickering), then set your img load handler, then reset the src to the correct file. This way you cover all bases :)

Answer 5

As per one of the recent comments to your original question

$(function() {

  $(window).resize(adjust_photo_size);
  adjust_photo_size();

  function adjust_photo_size()  {
    if (!$("#photo").get(0).complete) {
       $("#photo").load(function() {
          adjust_photo_size();
       });
    } else {
      ... 
    }
});

Warning This answer could cause a serious loop in ie8 and lower, because img.complete is not always properly set by the browser. If you must support ie8, use a flag to remember the image is loaded.

Answer 6

There's a jQuery plugin called "imagesLoaded" that provides a cross-browser compatible method to check if an element's image(s) have been loaded.

Site: https://github.com/desandro/imagesloaded/

Usage for a container that has many images inside:

$('container').imagesLoaded(function(){
 console.log("I loaded!");
})

The plugin is great:

1. works for checking a container with many images inside
2. works for check an img to see if it has loaded

Answer 7

I found this worked for me

document.querySelector("img").addEventListener("load", function() { alert('onload!'); });

Credit goes totaly to Frank Schwieterman, who commented on accepted answer. I had to put this here, it's too valuable...

Answer 8

Try something like:

$("#photo").load(function() {
    alert("Hello from Image");
});

Answer 9

This function checks if an image is loaded based on having measurable dimensions. This technique is useful if your script is executing after some of the images have already been loaded.

imageLoaded = function(node) {
    var w = 'undefined' != typeof node.clientWidth ? node.clientWidth : node.offsetWidth;
    var h = 'undefined' != typeof node.clientHeight ? node.clientHeight : node.offsetHeight;
    return w+h > 0 ? true : false;
};

Answer 10

Any comments on this one?

...

doShow = function(){
  if($('#img_id').attr('complete')){
    alert('Image is loaded!');
  } else {
    window.setTimeout('doShow()',100);
  }
};

$('#img_id').attr('src','image.jpg');

doShow();

...

Seems like works everywhere...

Answer 11

I just created a jQuery function to load an image using jQuerys Deferred Object which makes it very easy to react on load/error event:

$.fn.extend({
    loadImg: function(url, timeout) {
        // init deferred object
        var defer = $.Deferred(),
            $img = this,
            img = $img.get(0),
            timer = null;

        // define load and error events BEFORE setting the src
        // otherwise IE might fire the event before listening to it
        $img.load(function(e) {
            var that = this;
            // defer this check in order to let IE catch the right image size
            window.setTimeout(function() {
                // make sure the width and height are > 0
                ((that.width > 0 && that.height > 0) ? 
                    defer.resolveWith : 
                    defer.rejectWith)($img);
            }, 1);
        }).error(function(e) {
            defer.rejectWith($img);
        });

        // start loading the image
        img.src = url;

        // check if it's already in the cache
        if (img.complete) {
            defer.resolveWith($img);
        } else if (0 !== timeout) {
            // add a timeout, by default 15 seconds
            timer = window.setTimeout(function() {
                defer.rejectWith($img);
            }, timeout || 15000);
        }

        // return the promise of the deferred object
        return defer.promise().always(function() {
            // stop the timeout timer
            window.clearTimeout(timer);
            timer = null;
            // unbind the load and error event
            this.off("load error");
        });
    }
});

Usage:

var image = $('<img />').loadImg('http://www.google.com/intl/en_com/images/srpr/logo3w.png')
.done(function() {
    alert('image loaded');
    $('body').append(this);
}).fail(function(){
    alert('image failed');
});

See it working at: http://jsfiddle.net/roberkules/AdWZj/

Answer 12

We developed a page where it loaded a number of images and then performed other functions only after the image was loaded. It was a busy site that generated a lot of traffic. It seems that the following simple script worked on practically all browsers:

$(elem).onload = function() {
    doSomething();
}

BUT THIS IS A POTENTIAL ISSUE FOR IE9!

The ONLY browser we had reported issues on is IE9. Are we not surprised? It seems that the best way to solve the issue there is to not assign a src to the image until AFTER the onload function has been defined, like so:

$(elem).onload = function() {
    doSomething();
}
$(elem).attr('src','theimage.png');

It seems that IE 9 will sometimes not throw the onload event for whatever reason. Other solutions on this page (such as the one from Evan Carroll, for example) still did not work. Logically, that checked if the load state was already successful and triggered the function and if it wasn't, then set the onload handler, but even when you do that we demonstrated in testing that the image could load between those two lines of js thereby appearing not loaded to the first line and then loading before the onload handler is set.

We found that the best way to get what you want is to not define the image's src until you have set the onload event trigger.

We only just recently stopped supporting IE8 so I can't speak for versions prior to IE9, otherwise, out of all the other browsers that were used on the site -- IE10 and 11 as well as Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari and whatever mobile browser people were using -- setting the src before assigning the onload handler was not even an issue.

Answer 13

May I suggest a pure CSS solution altogether?

Just have a Div that you want to show the image in. Set the image as background. Then have the property background-size: cover or background-size: contain depending on how you want it.

cover will crop the image until smaller sides cover the box. contain will keep the entire image inside the div, leaving you with spaces on sides.

Check the snippet below.

div {
  height: 300px;
  width: 300px;
  border: 3px dashed grey;
  background-position: center;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
}

.cover-image {
  background-size: cover;
}

.contain-image {
  background-size: contain;
}

<div class="cover-image" style="background-image:url(https://assets1.ignimgs.com/2019/04/25/avengers-endgame-1280y-1556226255823_1280w.jpg)">
</div>
<br/>
<div class="contain-image" style="background-image:url(https://assets1.ignimgs.com/2019/04/25/avengers-endgame-1280y-1556226255823_1280w.jpg)">
</div>

Answer 14

I find that this simple solution works best for me:

        function setEqualHeight(a, b) {
            if (!$(a).height()) {
                return window.setTimeout(function(){ setEqualHeight(a, b); }, 1000);
            }
            $(b).height($(a).height());
        }

        $(document).ready(function() {
            setEqualHeight('#image', '#description');
            $(window).resize(function(){setEqualHeight('#image', '#description')});
        });
    </script>

Answer 15

image.complete might be another option https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLImageElement/complete