Responsive Picture

Several times I had web designs specify images in different sizes at different view ports (Mobile, Tablet, Laptop and Desktop etc.)

Not just the regular scaling to make the image responsive, but also with different sizes and aspect ratios.

I found that the HTML5 Picture element actually has a neat way of solving this.

import React = require('react');
import { FC } from 'react';
 
export type PictureProps = {
  src: string;
  title: string;
  imageSizes: {
    xs: { w: number; h: number };
    sm: { w: number; h: number };
    md: { w: number; h: number };
    lg: { w: number; h: number };
    xl: { w: number; h: number };
  };
  objectFit?: 'contain' | 'cover';
  alt?: string;
};
const Picture: FC<PictureProps> = ({
  src,
  title,
  imageSizes,
  objectFit = 'contain',
  alt = title,
}): JSX.Element => {
  const getSrc = (width: number, height: number): string => {
    // Replace return with a cropped image based on your src. You could use Cloudinary or Imgix or your own selfhosted service like https://github.com/thomaskokholm/imgsharp
    return `${src}/${width.toString()}x${height.toString()}.png?text=${width.toString()}x${height.toString()}`;
  };
 
  const getStyles = (...args): React.CSSProperties => {
    if (objectFit === 'cover') {
      return { width: 100 + '%', height: 100 + '%', objectFit: 'cover' };
    }
    return { maxWidth: 100 + '%', height: 'auto' };
  };
  return (
    <picture style={getStyles()}>
      <source
        srcSet={getSrc(imageSizes.xl.w, imageSizes.xl.h)}
        media="(min-width: 1920px)"
      />
      <source
        srcSet={getSrc(imageSizes.lg.w, imageSizes.lg.h)}
        media="(min-width: 1440px)"
      />
      <source
        srcSet={getSrc(imageSizes.md.w, imageSizes.md.h)}
        media="(min-width: 1024px)"
      />
      <source
        srcSet={getSrc(imageSizes.sm.w, imageSizes.sm.h)}
        media="(min-width: 768px)"
      />
      <source
        srcSet={getSrc(imageSizes.xs.w, imageSizes.xs.h)}
        media="(max-width: 767px)"
      />
      <img
        src={getSrc(imageSizes.md.w, imageSizes.md.h)}
        title={title}
        alt={alt}
        style={{ ...getStyles() }}
      />
    </picture>
  );
};
export default Picture;

Then you can use the above Picture component like so:

<Picture
  src="https://via.placeholder.com"
  title="Example placeholder image"
  objectFit="cover"
  imageSizes={{
    xs: { w: 320, h: 400 },
    sm: { w: 540, h: 300 },
    md: { w: 768, h: 700 },
    lg: { w: 250, h: 250 },
    xl: { w: 900, h: 500 },
  }}
/>