This article was written on October 04, 2011 by CyberNet.
When doing web development work I frequently find myself needing placeholder images that have specific dimensions. The last thing you want to do is sit there taking the time cropping a bunch of images to the size you need, and that’s where placeholder generators come into play. All of the online generators I’m going to show you use a custom URL scheme to make it hassle-free to get an image of any size.
Now you’d think that you’d only need one of these sites, but there are a handful I keep handy because they are able to serve up different kinds of images. Here are my favorites:
- PlaceKitten.com – Here you’ll find pictures of cute and cuddly kittens. Who can say no to a kitten?
- Color photo example: http://placekitten.com/200/300
- Grayscale photo example: http://placekitten.com/g/200/300
- PlaceHold.It -This site creates a bit more basic placeholders using just a solid (customizable) background color. Maybe not as exciting as some of the others, but it may be a little more professional depending on your audience.
- Example: http://placehold.it/350×150
- LoremPixum.com – If you’re not fond of messing around with URLs this will probably be the site you’ll want to use. It has a nice selection interface for choosing the dimensions and category of your placeholder image, but images can also be retrieved through the basic URL scheme.
- Color photo example: http://lorempixum.com/400/200
- Grayscale photo example: http://lorempixum.com/g/400/200
- Category example: http://lorempixum.com/400/200/sports
- Flickholdr.com – This site harnesses the vast library of photos over on Flickr. You can can even get a bit more detailed by specifying a Flickr tag you want the images restricted to.
- Color photo example: http://flickholdr.com/200/300
- Grayscale photo example: http://flickholdr.com/200/300/bw
- Tag name example: http://flickholdr.com/200/300/sea
The next time you need an image it might be a huge time saver to turn to one of these sites to get something that is perfectly cropped to the dimensions you need.
Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com
