HTMLImageElement: srcset property

A string containing a comma-separated list of one or more image candidate strings to be used when determining which image resource to present inside the <img> element represented by the HTMLImageElement.

Each image candidate string must begin with a valid URL referencing a non-interactive graphic resource. This is followed by whitespace and then a condition descriptor that indicates the circumstances in which the indicated image should be used. Space characters, other than the whitespace separating the URL and the corresponding condition descriptor, are ignored; this includes both leading and trailing space, as well as space before or after each comma.

The condition descriptor may take one of two forms:

• To indicate that the image resource specified by the image candidate string should be used when the image is being rendered with a particular width in pixels, provide a width descriptor comprised the number giving that width in pixels followed by the lower case letter "w". For example, to provide an image resource to be used when the renderer needs a 450 pixel wide image, use the width descriptor string 450w. The specified width must be a positive, non-zero, integer, and must match the intrinsic width of the referenced image. When a srcset contains "w" descriptors, the browser uses those descriptors together with the sizes attribute to pick a resource.
• Alternatively, you can use a pixel density descriptor, which specifies the condition in which the corresponding image resource should be used as the display's pixel density. This is written by stating the pixel density as a positive, non-zero floating-point value followed by the lower-case letter "x". As an example, to state that the corresponding image should be used when the pixel density is double the standard density, you can give the pixel density descriptor 2x or 2.0x.

If the condition descriptor is not provided (in other words, the image candidate provides only a URL), the candidate is assigned a default descriptor of "1x".

"images/team-photo.jpg, images/team-photo-retina.jpg 2x"

This string provides versions of an image to be used at the standard pixel density (undescribed, assigned a default of 1x) as well as double that pixel density (2x).

When an image element's srcset contains "x" descriptors, browsers also consider the URL in the src attribute (if present) as a candidate, and assign it a default descriptor of 1x.

"header640.png 640w, header960.png 960w, header1024.png 1024w"

This string provides versions of a header image to use when the user agent's renderer needs an image of width 640px, 960px, or 1024px.

Note that if any resource in a srcset is described with a "w" descriptor, all resources within that srcset must also be described with "w" descriptors, and the image element's src is not considered a candidate.

The HTML below indicates that the default image resource, contained within the src attribute should be used for 1x displays, and that a 400-pixel version (contained within the srcset, and assigned a 2x descriptor) should be used for 2x displays.

<div class="box">
  <img
    src="/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/img/clock-demo-200px.png"
    alt="Clock"
    srcset="/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/img/clock-demo-400px.png 2x" />
</div>

The CSS specifies that the image and its surrounding box should be 200 pixels square and should have a simple border around it. Also provided is the word-break attribute, using the break-all value to tell the browser to wrap the string within the width available regardless of where in the string the wrap must occur.

.box {
  width: 200px;
  border: 2px solid rgb(150 150 150);
  padding: 0.5em;
  word-break: break-all;
}

.box img {
  width: 200px;
}

The following code is run within a handler for the window's load event. It uses the image's currentSrc property to fetch and display the URL selected by the browser from the srcset.

window.addEventListener("load", () => {
  const box = document.querySelector(".box");
  const image = box.querySelector("img");

  const newElem = document.createElement("p");
  newElem.textContent = "Image: ";
  newElem.appendChild(document.createElement("code")).textContent =
    image.currentSrc;
  box.appendChild(newElem);
});

In the displayed output below, the selected URL will correspond with whether your display results in selecting the 1x or the 2x version of the image. If you happen to have both standard and high density displays, try moving this window between them and reloading the page to see the results change.

For additional examples, see our guide to responsive images.

• HTML images
• Responsive images
• Image file type and format guide