Placeholder Resources and the Age-Old Debate

I work on a lot of front-end development projects at Blueprint. They range from making WordPress themes to converting a website to WordPress to writing code for mobile design. When working on some of these projects, I find myself needing placeholder images. For example, I could be working on a jQuery slideshow, and I would need temporary placeholder images until graphics are provided. Sure, I could open up Photoshop and make a simple blank image with the dimensions I need, but why do that if there are so many resources available online? It cuts out an unnecessary time-consuming step and increases my work productivity, which shortens the turnaround time.

Placehold.it

Placehold.it is a good resource for generating a standard placeholder image. Using a URL like this:

http://placehold.it/300x200

will result in this:

I personally like using this because it generates a placeholder image with the exact pixel dimensions of the image. It comes in handy if I need to request an image from a graphic designer because I can reference the dimensions quickly.

Place Kitten

Now the age-old debate begins: cats or dogs? It seems like the ladies of Blueprint love cats more than dogs. Place Kitten is a great placeholder image resource for cat lovers. Using a URL like this:

http://placekitten.com/300/200

will result in this:Place Dog

The gentlemen of Blueprint seem to love dogs more than cats. There is an alternative if you are not a fan of cats. It is called Place Dog, and this service will generate a picture of a dog. Using a URL like this:

http://placedog.com/300/200

will result in this:

Conclusion

There are many more placeholder image tools online than the ones showcased in this blog post, and they could be found with a simple Google search. Whichever service you choose, however, placeholder image services are a great tool to save a lot of development time to focus on more important things like cross browser compatibility. Reducing time needed for these extra steps will improve work productivity. And you have to admit, cats and dogs are pretty darn adorable.