A very simple placeholder image generator with zero dependencies. Returns a data URI (or raw SVG source) as a string for use in templates.

The package is available to install via npm:

npm i --save @cloudfour/simple-svg-placeholder

Once installed, you may import the function as an ES or CommonJS module:

// Module
import simpleSvgPlaceholder from '@cloudfour/simple-svg-placeholder';

// CommonJS
const simpleSvgPlaceholder = require('@cloudfour/simple-svg-placeholder');

Then call the function to generate placeholder SVGs:

const placeholder = simpleSvgPlaceholder(/* options */);
// => 'data:image/svg+xml;...'

simpleSvgPlaceholder();

simpleSvgPlaceholder({
  width: 180,
  height: 135,
});

simpleSvgPlaceholder({
  text: 'Hello world!',
});

simpleSvgPlaceholder({
  bgColor: '#0F1C3F',
  textColor: '#7FDBFF',
});

simpleSvgPlaceholder({
  fontFamily: 'Georgia, serif',
  fontWeight: 'normal',
});

Defaults to 300, the default width of SVG elements in most browsers.

Defaults to 150, the default height of SVG elements in most browsers.

The text to display. Defaults to the image dimensions.

The font to use for the text. For data URIs, this needs to be a system-installed font. Defaults to 'sans-serif'.

Defaults to 'bold'.

Defaults to 20% of the shortest image dimension, rounded down.

Adjustment applied to the dy attribute of the text element so it will appear vertically centered. Defaults to 35% of the fontSize.

The background color of the image. Defaults to #ddd.

The color of the text. For transparency, use an rgba or hsla color value. Defaults to rgba(0,0,0,0.5).

If true, the function will return an encoded string for use as an img element's src value. If false, the function will return the unencoded SVG source. Defaults to true.

Defaults to UTF-8, but if your source HTML document's character set is different, you may want to update this to match.