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Shantanu Jana
Shantanu Jana

Posted on • Updated on

How to Preview image before uploading in Javascript

In this article, I am going to show you how to create a custom image upload and preview design. Image Preview is a great system where you can check before uploading an image whether the image is eligible for upload.

This is a very simple system that you can only create with the help of HTML and javascript. But here I have used a small amount of CSS to design it.

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HTML has many types of input functions, one of which is text, passwords, emails, etc. that we always use. There is also another type of input known as the file input (<input type=" file">). Here you can use any type of file for input.

This is similar to the general input design. Only 'File' will be used instead of 'Password' or 'Email'. It will receive the file from your device and then show it as a preview. However, to do this image preview, you have to take the help of JavaScript or JQuery. Here I have created this image upload and preview design using Pure JavaScript.

Preview image before upload

Now is the time to fully understand how it is made. Before starting the tutorial, let me tell you some important points. First I designed the web page using some CSS. Then I created a box on the webpage. I made a small button using the input in that box.

I used a level to make this button here. With this, I have made a small display for previewing the image. I implemented it using JavaScript at the end of it all. Let's take a look at how to make it in the full step below.

Step 1: Design the webpage with CSS

First I designed the web page using CSS code. Here we have set the background color of the web page as blue and the height as 100vh.

body {
  margin:0px;
  height:100vh;
  background: #1283da;
}
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Design the webpage with CSS

Step 2: Create the basic structure of the image preview

Now I have made a small box on the web page using some basic HTML and CSS. As you can see above, image previews and buttons are all in this box.

The width of the box is 350 px and the background color is white. I have used some box shadows here which have made it brighter and more attractive.

 <div class="center">
  <div class="form-input">


  </div>
</div> 
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.center {
  height:100%;
  display:flex;
  align-items:center;
  justify-content:center;

}
.form-input {
  width:350px;
  padding:20px;
  background:#fff;
  box-shadow: -3px -3px 7px rgba(94, 104, 121, 0.377),
              3px 3px 7px rgba(94, 104, 121, 0.377);
}
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Create the basic structure of the image preview

Step 3: Create a place to preview the image

I made a small display to view the previewed image. Although it cannot be seen in normal conditions. This can only be seen when we implement it with the help of JavaScript.

 <div class="preview">
   <img id="file-ip-1-preview">
 </div>

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.form-input img {
  width:100%;
  display:none;
  margin-bottom:30px;
}

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Step 4: Create input boxes and buttons

Now I have created an input box using file input and created a button there. I used the level of input to make this button. Later, using CSS, I gave that level the shape of a button. Button height 45 px and width 45%.

 <label for="file-ip-1">Upload Image</label>
 <input type="file" id="file-ip-1" accept="image/*" onchange="showPreview(event);">
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.form-input input {
  display:none;
}

.form-input label {
  display:block;
  width:45%;
  height:45px;
  margin-left: 25%;
  line-height:50px;
  text-align:center;
  background:#1172c2;
  color:#fff;
  font-size:15px;
  font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;
  text-transform:Uppercase;
  font-weight:600;
  border-radius:5px;
  cursor:pointer;
}
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Create input boxes and buttons

Step 5: Activate Image Upload with JavaScript code

As you can see above, we have designed it completely. Now I will implement this image preview system with the help of JavaScript.

  function showPreview(event){
  if(event.target.files.length > 0){
    var src = URL.createObjectURL(event.target.files[0]);
    var preview = document.getElementById("file-ip-1-preview");
    preview.src = src;
    preview.style.display = "block";
  }
}
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Activate Image Upload with JavaScript code

After using js, image preview and upload will be fully effective. Then when you click on the upload button, you will see a preview of any image you select from your file.

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Hopefully from the tutorial above you have learned how to make an image upload with preview. I have already created a system of multiple image previews using JQuery.

You can visit my blog for more tutorials like this.
https://www.foolishdeveloper.com/

Top comments (11)

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rkfr profile image
Roman

Why you're using var in 2021?

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fmagrosoto profile image
Fernando Magrosoto

Wow!, very clever approach for rendering image preview. Thanks!

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shantanu_jana profile image
Shantanu Jana

Welcome 😀

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makavelithadon profile image
makavelithadon • Edited

Great article !! Very useful 👌
But maybe you can use the DOM 2 spec for attaching event on DOM node by doing:

element.addEventListener("change", event => /* Do something with event arg */);
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ibrahimadesoye profile image
Ibro Makanaki

Very informative, educative with new innovations Coding article.

Good job!

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shantanu_jana profile image
Shantanu Jana

Thank you 😍

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rohitgarg profile image
Rohit Garg

Very Informative. Thanks for sharing

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70hackers profile image
70hackers

Awesome 😎👍

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shantanu_jana profile image
Shantanu Jana

Thank you

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brilliance profile image
Brilliance Oparaku

Oh wow, been too lazy to look this up because I felt it was more complicated, thanks for making this a breeze. Thanks a lot :)

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foundmissing01 profile image
Found Missing_59

what if i want to add multiple image
how will i go with that