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Style broken images

Written byPhuoc Nguyen
Created
23 Feb, 2021
Last updated
27 Feb, 2021
Category
Tip
Tags
CSS
Contributors
KittyGiraudel
By default, the browser will display a placeholder for a broken image. This post introduces a simple tip to replace that placeholder with our stylable elements.
When the image is not found, the `::before` and `::after` pseudo-elements are displayed as long as they have content. We can take this advantage to make these elements visible to the user.
css
img {
position: relative;

/* The initial styles */
display: block;
height: auto;
min-height: 4rem;
width: 100%;
}

img::before,
img::after {
/* Take full size of the image */
height: 100%;
left: 0;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
width: 100%;
}

img::before {
/* Hide the default placeholder */
background: #fff;
content: '';
}

img::after {
/* Taken from the `alt` attribute of the element */
content: attr(alt) ' image is broken';
border: 2px dotted #d1d5db;

/* Center */
align-items: center;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
The demo below shows extra elements for a broken image whose markup is
html
<img src="/assets/img/not-found.png" alt="front-end tips" />
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Phước Nguyễn