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Image Optimization: AVIF, Preload, and DPR

Jonathan Dough

Images are everywhere. They’re on websites, blogs, stores, and social media. They help make content look engaging and fun. But, they can also slow down websites if not handled properly. That’s where image optimization comes in. It’s the secret to fast, great-looking sites.

Let’s explore three modern ways to do that: AVIF format, Preloading images, and using DPR, or Device Pixel Ratio. Don’t worry! We’ll keep things simple and fun.

What is Image Optimization?

It’s just making sure your images load fast and look good. When you optimize an image, it:

Seems magical, right? But it’s just smart techniques and tools.

Let’s Talk About AVIF

There’s a new image format on the block. It’s called AVIF (short for AV1 Image File Format).

Think of it as a super-efficient way to store images. It’s smaller than JPEG and even WebP, but still looks sharp.

It has some cool powers:

Let’s compare:

Format File Size Quality
JPEG 300 KB Okay
WebP 200 KB Better
AVIF 100 KB Best

So why isn’t everyone using AVIF already? The main reason is browser support. Most modern browsers like Chrome and Firefox support it, but not all. So it’s smart to provide fallback formats just in case.

Preload: Load the Right Way

Imagine you have a big image that shows up right at the top of your website. You want it to load immediately.

Enter: Preload.

Preload tells the browser, “Hey, this image is important. Load it now!”

<link rel="preload" as="image" href="hero.avif" type="image/avif">

This can dramatically help with:

Use it wisely. Don’t preload every image. Just the ones above the fold (visible when the page first loads).

DPR: One Image Doesn’t Fit All

Ever notice how sharp everything looks on an iPhone screen? That’s because of something called Device Pixel Ratio, or DPR.

Some screens (like Retina displays) have more pixels packed in. So an image that looks fine on one screen might look blurry on another.

To fix this, serve images based on the user’s screen quality.

Here’s how we do it with the srcset attribute:

<img 
  src="image@1x.avif" 
  srcset="image@1x.avif 1x, image@2x.avif 2x" 
  alt="Fancy Image">

This tells the browser: “Here’s an image for regular screens, and a sharper one for high-DPR screens.”

Why does this matter? Because:

Putting It All Together

OK, imagine you’re building a homepage. You want a crisp banner image. You want it to load fast. And you want it to look nice for everyone.

You might do this:

  1. Export the image as AVIF (and a backup WebP or JPEG)
  2. Use preload to tell browsers to load it early
  3. Use srcset for display on high-DPR devices

Here’s what that might look like in code:

<link rel="preload" as="image" href="banner.avif" type="image/avif">

<img 
  src="banner.avif" 
  srcset="banner.avif 1x, banner@2x.avif 2x" 
  type="image/avif" 
  alt="Awesome banner">

This setup makes sure your image is:

Your users will love it. Your Lighthouse scores will love it. You’ll love it.

Bonus Tips for Image Optimization

Here are a few extra tricks to master image optimization:

Summary Time!

Here’s a lightning recap of what we learned:

Mix them together, and you’ve got a silky smooth, super-fast site that looks sharp everywhere.

So go forth and optimize! Your images—and users—will thank you.

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