So you're making a site but you haven't got the images ready. You'll need placeholders, but things are changing quick and you don't want to make a bunch of images you'll eventually throw away.
Enter placeholder image sites. The de factor standard for these sites is that you call a URL similar to sitename.com/width/height and you'll get an image back. Sometimes you can add text, or add a g for gray scale. You'd be surprised how much more compelling it makes basic layouts.
For example, <img src="http://fillmurray.com/200/300"> gets you this:
Here's a collection of the web's best sites for dynamic placeholder images.
The only image placeholder service on the web bringing you nothing but Vanilla Ice jpgs.
The internet was missing the ability to provide custom-sized placeholder images of Nicolas Cage. Now it can.
The internet was missing the ability to provide custom-sized placeholder images of Bill Murray.
Color: http://placebear.com/200/300 Gray: http://placebear.com/g/200/300
More complex but more flexible, DummyImage lets you do colors, gradients and announce the size.
For example http://dummyimage.com/450x250/f00/fff is
LorumPixels lets you choose from various categories like cats, nightlife, or people.
So http://lorempixel.com/400/200/sports/Dummy-Text/ gets you this. And it's random, which is a nice touch.
The original and cleanest, you get gray placeholders.
http://placehold.it/350x150 is
For Placement Only is similar.
http://fpoimg.com/300x300?text=Hanselman gets you:
Placeholder kittens.
http://placekitten.com/300/350 gets you:
Or, if you want to fight, there's also
So http://placedog.com/400/300 gets you
Which inevitably led us to
Wherein http://placezombies.com/425x300 yields
Like bacon? http://baconmockup.com/300/200
Even better, why not http://placesheen.com/400/250 for
Did I miss any awesome ones?
Sponsor: Thanks again to Red Gate for sponsoring the feed this week. Download their free ASP.NET performance ebook from http://red-gate.com/50ways
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. I am a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
a@href@title, b, blockquote@cite, em, i, li, ol, pre, strike, strong, sub, super, u, ul
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.