How to Resize Images in HTML

To resize an image in HTML, use the width and height attributes of the img tag. You can also use various CSS properties to resize images.

Here's an image at its original size:

You should be seeing this image at its original size, unless your device is narrow and has resized it.

Below is the same image after it's been resized using HTML (using the width and height attributes of the img tag):

You can play with the dimensions and click Run to see how it affects the end result.

Resizing with CSS

It's usually better to use CSS to resize images in HTML. You can do this with the height and width properties.

In my stylesheet, I create a class called cats and I then reference that in the img tag. By doing this, only images with class="cats" will set to this size. You can use whatever class name you like. Just be sure that the img tag references the correct class.

Also, in this example I used px to indicate the image size in pixels. You can use any other valid length, percentage, or various other values as required.

Resize an Image Dynamically

You can use the CSS max-width property to resize the image dynamically.

The following example displays quite a large image in a small viewport. To see it in different sized viewports click Editor and Preview. You can also resize your window to see the image shrink and expand.

By ommitting any width/height declarations and only using max-width: 100%;, the image will be displayed at 100% of the size of its container, but no larger. If the image is larger than its container, the image will shrink to fit. However, if the image is smaller than its container, it will be displayed at its true size (i.e. it won't increase in size to fit the container).

This technique can be handy when designing responsively for the image/web page to be displayed across multiple sized devices.

Read on for a more advanced method for responsively resizing images (using the picture element).

Resize ALL Images

The previous CSS examples put the styles into a class, so that we can apply it selectively to certain images. You can also apply styles to all images if you like.

In fact, you can combine it, so that all images are styled a certain way, and then also be specific about certain images.

Here's an example of what that could look like:

This sets all img elements to a maximum width of 100%.

However, it also sets a class for thumbnails (called thumbnail) which explicitly sets their width and height. Therefore, images with that class will be sized using those explicit dimensions instead.

You might notice that I've prefixed the class name with img. in the stylesheet. What I mean is, I've used img.thumbnail in the CSS. By doing this, I'm specifying that only img elements that use the thumbnail class will have those styles applied. This prevents you from inadvertently applying the class to the wrong element in the event that another element uses a class of the same name.

For example, if a video element had class="thumbnail", the above class won't be applied to it. You would need to use something like video.thumbnail in your stylesheet for video thumbnails.

However, this is entirely optional. Feel free to change img.thumbnail to just .thumbnail if you want the class applied to all elements that use that class.

Background Images

You can also resize background images using CSS. In particular, you can use the background-size property to resize background images.

Here's an example:

In this example, I use the contain keyword to specify the size of the background image. You can also supply any length or percentage value, the cover keyword, or auto (which specifies that the image size is automatically determined using the intrinsic width and/or height of the image).

Further to this, all CSS properties are able to use the initial, inherit, and unset values.

When working with background images, you also have the option of using the background property as a shorthand to specify the background image URL, its size, the background color, etc, all in one go. I encourage you to look at that page, because there are several other things you can do with regards to resizing/cropping/repeating background images, etc.

The picture Element and Responsive Design

One of the more recent additions to HTML is the picture element.

This element allows you to load a different image, depending on the user's screen pixel density, viewport size, image format, and other factors.

Here's an example:

Click the two orientation buttons at the top right of the editor to toggle the two images. Those two buttons change the orientation of the editor/preview pane, and therefore the width of the viewport.

Alternatively, try clicking the Preview button, then resizing your browser window to see the same effect.

Doing this should switch the image from a close-up of the kitten's face, to a larger version that includes the kitten's whole body.

I don't know what device/size screen you'll be viewing this on, so you may need to resize your screen or reorient your device to see the effect. Alternatively you can adjust the code to use a more suitable width for your device (i.e. change 600px to a different value).

The picture element contains multiple source elements to determine possible source images for the img element, depending on factors such as screen pixel density, viewport size, image format, etc.

When using this element, you're not actually resizing the image as such. What you're doing is selecting the appropriately sized image for a given situation.

The good thing about this method is that it allows you to do things like, display a cropped version of the image for smaller viewports, while displaying an uncropped version for larger ones.