HTMLImageElement: src property

When providing only a single image, rather than a set of images from which the browser selects the best match for the viewport size and display pixel density, the src attribute is a string specifying the URL of the desired image. This can be set either within the HTML itself using the src content attribute, or programmatically by setting the element's src property.

If you use the srcset content attribute to provide multiple image options for different display pixel densities, the URL specified by the src attribute is used in one of two ways:

• as a fallback for browsers that don't support srcset.
• as an equivalent for specifying an image in srcset with the size multiplier 1x; that is, the image specified by src is used on low-density screens (such as typical 72 DPI or 96 DPI displays).

Additionally, if you use src along with both sizes (or the corresponding sizes content attribute) and srcset in order to choose an image based on the viewport size, the src attribute is only used as a fallback for browsers that don't support sizes and srcset; otherwise, it's not used at all.

HTML

<img
  src="grapefruit-slice-332-332.jpg"
  width="160"
  alt="Slices of grapefruit, looking yummy." />

Result

When using a set of images with the srcset property, the src serves as either a fallback for older browsers, or as the 1x size of the image.

HTML

Result

When using viewport-bases selection of an image from a srcset by also specifying the sizes property, the src property serves as the fallback to be used on browsers that don't support viewport-based selection. Browsers that do support viewport-based selection will ignore src in this situation.

HTML

Result