https://picsum.photos/seed/lovable/800/600<img src="https://picsum.photos/seed/lovable/800/600" alt="placeholder" width="800" height="600" />background-image: url("https://picsum.photos/seed/lovable/800/600");About Placeholder Image Builder
Placeholder Image Builder constructs URLs for the major placeholder-image services — Lorem Picsum (real photos), placehold.co (solid colour with size text), and DummyImage — by picking a width, a height, optional colours, and optional overlay text. The output is a URL ready to paste into an `<img src=…>` attribute, a CSS `background-image`, or a fixture file.
Reach for it whenever you need a stand-in image during design, prototyping, or storybook work — before the real assets are ready, while a CMS is empty, or in tests where the actual image content does not matter. The URL points at a third-party service that returns the rendered image at request time, so the page must have network access. For images that work offline, generate them locally with QR Code Generator (for QR images) or self-host a fallback. Favicon Generator handles the very different problem of producing all favicon sizes from one source image.
Examples
service: placehold.co
size: 800x400
background: 1f2937
foreground: e5e7eb
text: 'Hero image'https://placehold.co/800x400/1f2937/e5e7eb?text=Hero+imageURL ready to drop into `<img src=...>`. Switch to Lorem Picsum for a real photograph instead of a coloured rectangle.
Frequently asked questions
Which service should I use?
Lorem Picsum for real photographs (good for hero sections that need to feel real). placehold.co or DummyImage for coloured rectangles with size labels (good for layout debugging — the size is visible on the image). Pick by what you are testing.
Are the URLs cacheable?
Lorem Picsum returns a different image per request unless you pin a `seed`. placehold.co caches by URL, so the same URL yields the same image. Pin Picsum's seed in production-like demos so screenshots stay reproducible.
Can I use these in production?
Not for real users — the third-party services have rate limits and downtime, and your page becomes worse than a 404 if they are unreachable. Use them in dev, staging, and Storybook; replace with self-hosted assets for production.
How does this differ from Favicon Generator?
Placeholder Image Builder produces URLs to remote, on-the-fly placeholder images at any size. Favicon Generator takes one image you upload and produces every standard favicon size (16x16 up to 512x512, plus a multi-res `.ico`) for download. Different problems entirely.