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ThumbHash

unlazy supports client-side and server-side (SSR) decoding of ThumbHash strings. This allows you to use ThumbHash placeholders for images that are not yet loaded.

A ThumbHash is a very compact representation of a placeholder for an image. It's similar to BlurHash but with the following advantages:

  • Encodes more detail in the same space
  • Also encodes the aspect ratio
  • Gives more accurate colors
  • Supports images with alpha channels

Client-Side BlurHash Decoding

data-thumbhash Attribute

By default, unlazy will decode ThumbHash strings on the client-side automatically when a data-thumbhash is present on a <img> tag.

html
<img
  data-src="image.jpg"
  data-thumbhash="1QcSHQRnh493V4dIh4eXh1h4kJUI"
>

hash Option

If you are initializing unlazy for single images, i.e. in a frontend framework component of your choice, you can pass a custom hash string to the lazyLoad function. It has higher priority than the data-thumbhash attribute.

ts
import { lazyLoad } from 'unlazy'

const image = document.querySelector('#image')

lazyLoad(image, {
  hash: '1QcSHQRnh493V4dIh4eXh1h4kJUI',
  hashType: 'thumbhash'
})

Disabling ThumbHash Decoding

To disable ThumbHash decoding altogether, pass false to the hash option.

ts
import { lazyLoad } from 'unlazy'

lazyLoad('img[loading="lazy"]', {
  hash: false
})

INFO

This will also disable BlurHash decoding.

Server-Side ThumbHash Decoding

If you are using a server-side framework, you can use the createPngDataUri function to create a PNG data URI from a ThumbHash string. The resulting data URI can then be used as the src attribute of an image.

ts
import { createPngDataUri } from 'unlazy/thumbhash'

const thumbhash = '1QcSHQRnh493V4dIh4eXh1h4kJUI'
const pngDataUri = createPngDataUri(thumbhash)

For a complete list of options, see the createPngDataUri API documentation.

Released under the MIT License.