Image service
Get the right crop
for every layout
A single photograph may need to work as a thumbnail, a lead image and a full-screen view. Our image service creates the sizes and crops for each, with a suggested focal point to guide the crop.
Try it with your imagesKeep the subject
in the frame
A model trained on eye-tracking studies predicts where people will look. In this photograph, it identifies the boat as the focal point.
The model predicts what draws the eye, whether it’s a face, a boat or another subject. Switch between the photograph and the attention map to see where it expects people to look.
The boat draws the eye
The lighter areas around the boat show where the model predicts people will look.
All three crops use the same focal point selected by the model.
The editor has the final say
What catches the eye isn’t always what matters to the story. Your editor’s chosen focal point always takes priority over the model’s suggestion and can be used across different image sizes.
Every size you need
from a single original
Your app requests the size and crop it needs by adding parameters to the image’s URL on our content delivery network (CDN).
Resizing is included in our CDN service, with no separate charge. You can also specify pixel density to keep images sharp on high-resolution screens.
Crop to fill, or fit the whole image
Crop around a chosen focal point to fill the available area, or fit the whole photograph within specified dimensions. Upscaling can be disabled when the original is too small.
Choose the format and quality
Choose JPEG, PNG or WebP and set the quality to suit the layout. For a thumbnail, send a small image and spare readers the full-size download.
You can also add watermarks and use protected URLs.
BlurHash
Give readers a preview
while the image loads
BlurHash gives readers a glimpse of the photograph before it arrives.
BlurHash encodes the image’s colours and their positions as a short text string. The app or browser uses it to draw a preview, with no separate thumbnail to download.
Send your image URLs to the service for analysis. It returns a suggested focal point and a BlurHash for each image. Include the BlurHash in your news feed, and the app can show a preview until the full image arrives from the CDN.
This image’s BlurHash · 28 characters
LlE|b..6#hbuY8WmngW?EBRQs,s.
This short string contains everything needed to draw the preview below.
Preview from the feed
Image from the CDN
The image has loaded.
Ready for the next request
We cache the original image, its analysis and the versions we’ve generated, ready to serve them again.