Develop Reference

How to force/trigger the load of Wordpress native lazy loading images without scrolling?

I don't like lazy-loading because it looks quite ugly for the user in terms of UX. However, I understand the benefits (faster page load, low bandwidth, high PageSpeed scores etc.)
I am planning to write a javascript code which will:
Stay in the bottom > Wait for the page to fully load > After 3 seconds it will work > Force load all the images which were lazy-loaded previously during initial page load
With this, I won't lose any speed scores (because it will load as normal with lazy loaded images) But, also will load the full images when everything is done, so user won't notice. (we do the same for loading live chat scripts. It works pretty nice)
It will probably look something like this:
<script>
window.onload = function() {
setTimeout(function(){
var ForceLoadImages = document.createElement('script');
ForceLoadImages.type = 'text/javascript';
ForceLoadImages.src = 'link-to-the-script-to-force-load-images.js';
document.body.appendChild(chatScript);
}, 3000);
};
</script>
I am not a js expert. This was just a dummy example to give an idea. I am specifically asking how to write the content of that "link-to-the-script-to-force-load-images.js" part. Will appreciate any inputs.
There was a similar question here, but need an answer for Wordpress.

I guess that the wp lazy load uses data-src attribute to hold the image and when in view port, its adding the image to the src attribute.
Simplified like this:
<img data-src="URL"/>
*if its not like this, find in your source code the attribute where image is hold when out of view
What you need to do is select all images and change the data-src to src like this:
var images = document.querySelectorAll('img');
window.onload = function() {
setTimeout(function(){
for (var i=0; i<images.length; i++) {
if(images[i].getAttribute('data-src')) {
images[i].setAttribute('src',images[i].getAttribute('data-src'));
images[i].removeAttribute('data-src'); // optional if you need to remove data-src attribute after setting src
}
}
}, 3000);
};
<div class="container">
<img data-src='https://picsum.photos/id/237/200/300' />
<img data-src='https://picsum.photos/seed/picsum/200/300' />
<img data-src='https://picsum.photos/200/300' />
</div>

I just wanted to put the solution as an answer (thanks to kaize) who are looking for something like this. It is very clean and works nice:
<script>
var loadimages = document.querySelectorAll('img');
window.onload = function() {
setTimeout(function(){
//Force Load images
for (var i=0; i<loadimages.length; i++) {
if(loadimages[i].getAttribute('loading')) {
loadimages[i].removeAttribute('loading');
}
}
}, 3000);
};
</script>
Who is this for?
For those who does not like the user-experience of lazy loading images. But applying it due to PageSpeed scores.
Where to place this?
Place this to the bottom of your page.
What does this script do?
This script runs 3 seconds after the page loaded completely. It force-loads all the images which were waiting to get into the viewport to be lazy-loaded by removing the "loading" attribute. So that, you get good pagespeed scores for deferring image loads meanwhile keeping the user experience better. (Keep in mind that you lose the bandwidth advantage of lazy-loading concept)

How to lazy load images and make them available for print

Some websites have lots of images, so lazyloading seems appropiate to reduce load times and data consumption. But what if you also need to support printing for that website?
I mean, you can try to detect the print event and then load the images, with something like this:
HTML
<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7">
Note: this is a one by one pixels gif dummy image.
JavaScript
window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
img = document.querySelector('img');
var isPrinting = window.matchMedia('print');
isPrinting.addListener((media) => {
if (media.matches) {
img.src = 'http://unsplash.it/500/300/?image=705';
}
})
});
Note: if you try this in a code playground, remove the DOMContentLoaded event (or simply fork these: JSFiddle | Codepen).
Note: I didn't event bother with the onbeforeprint and onafterprint for obvious reasons.
This will work fine if the image is cached, but then again that's precisely not the point. The image/s should all load and then appear in the printing screen.
Do you have any ideas? Has anyone successfully implemented a print-ready lazyloading plugin?
Update
I've tried redirecting the user after the print dialog is detected, to a flagged version of the website a.k.a website.com?print=true where lazyloading is deactivated and all images load normally.
This method is improved by applying the window.print() method in this flagged print-ready version of the page, opening a new print dialog once all images are finished loading, and showing a "wait for it" message in the meantime at the top of the page.
Important note: this method was tested in Chrome, it does not work in Firefox nor Edge (hence why this is not an answer, but a testimony).
It works in Chrome beacuse the print dialog closes when you redirect to another website (in this case same url but flagged). In Edge and Firefox the print dialog is an actual window and it does not close it, making it pretty unusable.

Based on your desired functionality, I'm not quite sure what you want to do is feasible. As a developer we don't really have control over a users browser. Here are my thoughts as to why this isn't fully possible.
Hooking the event to go and load your missing images won't let you guarantee images will make it from the server into your page. More specifically, the PDF generated for your print preview is going to get generated before your image(s) is done loading, the img.src = "..." is asynchronous. You'd run into similar issues with onbeforeprint as well, unfortunately. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not (example, your fiddle worked when testing in safari, but did not in Chrome)
You cannot stall or stop the print call -- you can't force the browser to wait for your image to finish loading in the lazy loading context. (I read something about using alerts to achieve this once, but it seemed really hacky to me, was more of a deterrent to printing than stalling)
You cannot force img.src to get that data synchronously in a lazy-load context. There are some methods of doing this, but they are clever hacks -- referenced as pure evil and may not work in always. I found another link with a similar approach
So we have a problem, if the images are not loaded by the time print event is fired, we cannot force the browser to wait until they are done. Sure, we can hook and go get those images on print, but as above points out, we cannot wait for those resources to load before the print preview pops up.
Potential solution (inspired by links in point three as well as this link)
You could almost get away with doing a synchronous XMLHttpRequest. Syncrhonous XMLHTTPRequests will not let you change the responseType, they are always strings. However, you could convert the string value to an arrayBuffer encode it to a base-64 encoded string, and set the src to a dataURL (see the link that referenced clever hacks) -- however, when I tried this I got an error in the jsfiddle -- so it would be possible, if things were configured correctly, in theory. I'm hesitant to say yes you can, since I wasn't able to get the fiddle working with the following (but it's a route you could explore!).
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open("GET","http://unsplash.it/500/300/?image=705",false);
xhr.send(null);
if (request.status === 200) {
//we cannot change the resposne type in synchronous XMLHTTPRequests
//we can convert the string into a dataURL though
var arr = new Uint8Array(this.response);
// Convert the int array to a binary string
// We have to use apply() as we are converting an *array*
// and String.fromCharCode() takes one or more single values, not
// an array.
var raw = String.fromCharCode.apply(null,arr);
// This is supported in modern browsers
var b64=btoa(raw);
var dataURL="data:image/jpeg;base64,"+b64;
img.src = dataURL;
}
Work around to enhance the user experience
Something you could do is have some text that only displays in the print version of your page (via #print css media) that says "images are still loading, cancel your print request and try again" and when the images are finished loading, remove that "still waiting on resources try again message" from the DOM. Farther, you could wrap your main content inside an element that inverses the display to none when content is not loaded, so all you see is that message in the print preview dialog.
Going off of the code you posted this could look something like the following (see updated jsfiddle):
CSS
.printing-not-ready-message{
display:none;
}
#media print{
.printing-not-ready-message{
display:block;
}
.do-not-print-content{
display:none;
}
}
HTML
<div class="printing-not-ready-message">
Images are still loading please cancel your preview and try again shortly.
</div>
<div class="do-not-print-content">
<h1>Welcome to my Lazy Page</h1>
<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7">
<p>Insert some comment about picture</p>
</div>
JavaScript
window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
img = document.querySelector('img');
var isPrinting = window.matchMedia('print');
isPrinting.addListener((media) => {
if (media.matches) {
img.src = 'http://unsplash.it/500/300/?image=705';
//depending on how the lazy loading is done, the following might
//exist in some other call, should happen after all images are loaded.
//There is only 1 image in this example so this code can be called here.
img.onload = ()=>{
document.querySelector(".printing-not-ready-message").remove();
document.querySelector(".do-not-print-content").className=""
}
}
})
});

I'm the author of the vanilla-lazyload script and I've recently developed a feature that makes print of all images possible!
Tested cross browser using this repo code which is live here.
Take a look and let me know what you think!
I'm open to pull requests on GitHub of course.

I wrote a lazy loading jquery plugin that supports showing images on print using the window.onbeforeprint events and mediaQueryListeners.
https://github.com/msigley/Unveil-EX/

//declare custom onbeforeprint method
const customOnBeforePrint = () => {
const smoothScroll = (h) => {
let i = h || 0;
if (i < 200) {
setTimeout(() => {
window.scrollTo(window.scrollY, window.scrollY + i);
smoothScroll(i + 10);
}, 10);
}
};
let height = document.body.scrollHeight;
let newHeight;
while (true) {
smoothScroll(100);
if (newHeight === height) break;
height = newHeight;
}
};
//override the onbeforeprint method
window.onbeforeprint = customOnBeforePrint;
Copy&Paste that block into devtool's console and then try to click print button. That workaround is working for me.

For whoever is in the same boat as I was: when using the browser native loading="lazy", you can simply remove that attribute when printing is going to happen. Below is my jQuery implementation.
window.onbeforeprint = function () {
$('img').each(function () {
$(this).removeAttr('loading')
});
}
Chrome will then just load all images and they will show up when printing.

Placeholder while an image is loading with Ember.js [duplicate]

I'm currently working on a web application which has a page which displays a single chart (a .png image). On another part of this page there are a set of links which, when clicked, the entire page reloads and looks exactly the same as before except for the chart in the middle of the page.
What I want to do is when a link is clicked on a page just the chart on the page is changed. This will speed things up tremendously as the page is roughly 100kb large, and don't really want to reload the entire page just to display this.
I've been doing this via JavaScript, which works so far, using the following code
document.getElementById('chart').src = '/charts/10.png';
The problem is that when the user clicks on the link, it may take a couple of seconds before the chart changes. This makes the user think that their click hasn't done anything, or that the system is slow to respond.
What I want to happen is display a spinner / throbber / status indicator, in place of where the image is while it is loading, so when the user clicks the link they know at least the system has taken their input and is doing something about it.
I've tried a few suggestions, even using a psudo time out to show a spinner, and then flick back to the image.
A good suggestion I've had is to use the following
<img src="/charts/10.png" lowsrc="/spinner.gif"/>
Which would be ideal, except the spinner is significantly smaller than the chart which is being displayed.
Any other ideas?

I've used something like this to preload an image and then automatically call back to my javascript when the image is finished loading. You want to check complete before you setup the callback because the image may already be cached and it may not call your callback.
function PreloadImage(imgSrc, callback){
var objImagePreloader = new Image();
objImagePreloader.src = imgSrc;
if(objImagePreloader.complete){
callback();
objImagePreloader.onload=function(){};
}
else{
objImagePreloader.onload = function() {
callback();
// clear onLoad, IE behaves irratically with animated gifs otherwise
objImagePreloader.onload=function(){};
}
}
}

You could show a static image that gives the optical illusion of a spinny-wheel, like these.

Using the load() method of jQuery, it is easily possible to do something as soon as an image is loaded:
$('img.example').load(function() {
$('#spinner').fadeOut();
});
See: http://api.jquery.com/load-event/

Use the power of the setTimeout() function (More info) - this allows you set a timer to trigger a function call in the future, and calling it won't block execution of the current / other functions (async.).
Position a div containing the spinner above the chart image, with it's css display attribute set to none:
<div> <img src="spinner.gif" id="spinnerImg" style="display: none;" /></div>
The nbsp stop the div collapsing when the spinner is hidden. Without it, when you toggle display of the spinner, your layout will "twitch"
function chartOnClick() {
//How long to show the spinner for in ms (eg 3 seconds)
var spinnerShowTime = 3000
//Show the spinner
document.getElementById('spinnerImg').style.display = "";
//Change the chart src
document.getElementById('chart').src = '/charts/10.png';
//Set the timeout on the spinner
setTimeout("hideSpinner()", spinnerShowTime);
}
function hideSpinner() {
document.getElementById('spinnerImg').style.display = "none";
}

Use CSS to set the loading animation as a centered background-image for the image's container.
Then when loading the new large image, first set the src to a preloaded transparent 1 pixel gif.
e.g.
document.getElementById('mainimg').src = '/images/1pix.gif';
document.getElementById('mainimg').src = '/images/large_image.jpg';
While the large_image.jpg is loading, the background will show through the 1pix transparent gif.

Building on Ed's answer, I would prefer to see something like:
function PreLoadImage( srcURL, callback, errorCallback ) {
var thePic = new Image();
thePic.onload = function() {
callback();
thePic.onload = function(){};
}
thePic.onerror = function() {
errorCallback();
}
thePic.src = srcURL;
}
Your callback can display the image in its proper place and dispose/hide of a spinner, and the errorCallback prevents your page from "beachballing". All event driven, no timers or polling, plus you don't have to add the additional if statements to check if the image completed loading while you where setting up your events - since they're set up beforehand they'll trigger regardless of how quickly the images loads.

Some time ago I have written a jQuery plugin which handles displaying a spinner automatically http://denysonique.github.com/imgPreload/
Looking in to its source code should help you with detecting when to display the spinner and with displaying it in the centre of the loaded image.

I like #duddle's jquery method but find that load() isn't always called (such as when the image is retrieved from cache in IE). I use this version instead:
$('img.example').one('load', function() {
$('#spinner').remove();
}).each(function() {
if(this.complete) {
$(this).trigger('load');
}
});
This calls load at most one time and immediately if it's already completed loading.

put the spinner in a div the same size as the chart, you know the height and width so you can use relative positioning to center it correctly.

Aside from the lowsrc option, I've also used a background-image on the img's container.

Be aware that the callback function is also called if the image src doesn't exist (http 404 error). To avoid this you can check the width of the image, like:
if(this.width == 0) return false;

#iAn's solution looks good to me. The only thing I'd change is instead of using setTimeout, I'd try and hook into the images 'Load' event. This way, if the image takes longer than 3 seconds to download, you'll still get the spinner.
On the other hand, if it takes less time to download, you'll get the spinner for less than 3 seconds.

I would add some random digits to avoid the browser cache.

How can we keep OpenX from blocking page load?

We're using OpenX to serve ads on a number of sites. If the OpenX server has problems, however, it blocks page loads on these sites. I'd rather have the sites fail gracefully, i.e. load the pages without the ads and fill them in when they become available.
We're using OpenX's single page call, and we're giving divs explicit size in CSS so they can be laid out without their contents, but still loading the script blocks page load. Are there other best practices for speeding up pages with OpenX?

We load our ads in iframes to avoid the problem you're having. We size div and the iframe the same, with the iframe pointing to a page which just contains the ad snippet (you can pass the zone and other required options as parameters to that page).
cheers
Lee

We lazy-load OpenX's code. Instead of putting the single-page call at the top of the page, we put it at the bottom. After the page has loaded, the call will get the banner data and a custom code will add the correct banners in the correct zones.
The code below requires a proper DOM. If you have jQuery, DOMAssistant, FlowJS, etc, the DOM should be fixed for you.
This code will work with normal banners with images, flash, or HTML content. It may not work in some cases like when using banners from external providers (adform, etc). For that you may need to hack the code a bit.
How to use it?
add your SinglePageCall code towards the end of your HTML code
add this code under the SPC code.
after half a second or so, your OpenX code should be ready, and the code below will put the banners within the specified DIVs.
Oh, yeah, you need to add to your HTML code some DIVs as place holders for your banners. By default I have these banners set with CSS class "hidden" which totally hides the DIVs (with visibility, display, and height). Then, after the banner in a given DIV is successfully loaded, we remove the hidden class and the DIV (and the banner within) become visible.
Use at your own risk! :) Hope it helps
(function(){
if (!document || !document.getElementById || !document.addEventListener || !document.removeClass) {
return; // No proper DOM; give up.
}
var openx_timeout = 1, // limit the time we wait for openx
oZones = new Object(), // list of [div_id] => zoneID
displayBannerAds; // function.
// oZones.<divID> = <zoneID>
// eg: oZones.banner_below_job2 = 100;
// (generated on the server side with PHP)
oZones.banner_top = 23;
oZones.banner_bottom = 34;
displayBannerAds = function(){
if( typeof(OA_output)!='undefined' && OA_output.constructor == Array ){
// OpenX SinglePageCall ready!
if (OA_output.length>0) {
for (var zone_div_id in oZones){
zoneid = oZones[zone_div_id];
if(typeof(OA_output[zoneid])!='undefined' && OA_output[zoneid]!='') {
var flashCode,
oDIV = document.getElementById( zone_div_id );
if (oDIV) {
// if it's a flash banner..
if(OA_output[zoneid].indexOf("ox_swf.write")!=-1)
{
// extract javascript code
var pre_code_wrap = "<script type='text/javascript'><!--// <![CDATA[",
post_code_wrap = "// ]]> -->";
flashCode = OA_output[zoneid].substr(OA_output[zoneid].indexOf(pre_code_wrap)+pre_code_wrap.length);
flashCode = flashCode.substr(0, flashCode.indexOf(post_code_wrap));
// replace destination for the SWFObject
flashCode = flashCode.replace(/ox\_swf\.write\(\'(.*)'\)/, "ox_swf.write('"+ oDIV.id +"')");
// insert SWFObject
if( flashCode.indexOf("ox_swf.write")!=-1 ){
eval(flashCode);
oDIV.removeClass('hidden');
}// else: the code was not as expected; don't show it
}else{
// normal image banner; just set the contents of the DIV
oDIV.innerHTML = OA_output[zoneid];
oDIV.removeClass('hidden');
}
}
}
} // end of loop
}//else: no banners on this page
}else{
// not ready, let's wait a bit
if (openx_timeout>80) {
return; // we waited too long; abort
};
setTimeout( displayBannerAds, 10*openx_timeout );
openx_timeout+=4;
}
};
displayBannerAds();
})();

OpenX has some documentation on how to make their tags load asynchronously:
http://docs.openx.com/ad_server/adtagguide_synchjs_implementing_async.html
I've tested it, and it works well in current Chrome/Firefox.
It takes some manual tweaking of their ad code. Their example of how the ad tags should end up:
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
Some content here.
Ad goes here.
<!-- Preserve space while the rest of the page loads. -->
<div id="placeholderId" style="width:728px;height:90px">
<!-- Fallback mechanism to use if unable to load the script tag. -->
<noscript>
<iframe id="4cb4e94bd5bb6" name="4cb4e94bd5bb6"
src="http://d.example.com/w/1.0/afr?auid=8&target=
_blank&cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE"
frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="728"
height="90">
<a href="http://d.example.com/w/1.0/rc?cs=
4cb4e94bd5bb6&cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE"
target="_blank">
<img src="http://d.example.com/w/1.0/ai?auid=8&cs=
4cb4e94bd5bb6&cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE"
border="0" alt=""></a></iframe>
</noscript>
</div>
<!--Async ad request with multiple parameters.-->
<script type="text/javascript">
var OX_ads = OX_ads || [];
OX_ads.push({
"slot_id":"placeholderId",
"auid":"8",
"tid":"4",
"tg":"_blank",
"r":"http://redirect.clicks.to.here/landing.html",
"rd":"120",
"rm":"2",
"imp_beacon":"HTML for client-side impression beacon",
"fallback":"HTML for client-side fallback"
});
</script>
<!-- Fetch the Tag Library -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://d.example.com/w/1.0/jstag"></script>
Some other content here.
</body>
</html>

Following #Rafa excellent answer, i'm using this code to invoke OpenX banners after the page loads. I'm using jquery as well and had to add a new replace call for the "document.write" that flash banners use, and replacing it with "$('#"+ oDIV.id +"').append" instead. I'm using a custom "my_openx()" call, to replace "OA_show()". My banners area called by the zone_id and are wrapped inside a div, like this:
<div id="openx-4"><script>wm_openx(4);</script></div>
It's working :)
<script type="text/javascript">
$is_mobile = false;
$document_ready = 0;
$(document).ready(function() {
$document_ready = 1;
if( $('#MobileCheck').css('display') == 'inline' ) {
$is_mobile = true;
//alert('is_mobile: '+$is_mobile);
}
});
function wm_openx($id) {
if($is_mobile) return false;
if(!$document_ready) {
setTimeout(function(){ wm_openx($id); },1000);
return false;
}
if(typeof(OA_output[$id])!='undefined' && OA_output[$id]!='') {
var flashCode,
oDIV = document.getElementById('openx-'+$id);
if (oDIV) {
// if it's a flash banner..
if(OA_output[$id].indexOf("ox_swf.write")!=-1) {
// extract javascript code
var pre_code_wrap = "<script type='text/javascript'><!--// <![CDATA[",
post_code_wrap = "// ]]> -->";
flashCode = OA_output[$id].substr(OA_output[$id].indexOf(pre_code_wrap)+pre_code_wrap.length);
flashCode = flashCode.substr(0, flashCode.indexOf(post_code_wrap));
// replace destination for the SWFObject
flashCode = flashCode.replace(/ox\_swf\.write\(\'(.*)'\)/, "ox_swf.write('"+ oDIV.id +"')");
flashCode = flashCode.replace(/document.write/, "$('#"+ oDIV.id +"').append");
// insert SWFObject
if( flashCode.indexOf("ox_swf.write")!=-1 ) {
//alert(flashCode);
eval(flashCode);
//oDIV.removeClass('hidden');
}// else: the code was not as expected; don't show it
}else{
// normal image banner; just set the contents of the DIV
oDIV.innerHTML = OA_output[$id];
//oDIV.removeClass('hidden');
}
}
}
//OA_show($id);
}
</script>

I was looking for this to load advertising from my openX server only when the advertising should be visible. I'm using the iFrame version of openX which is loaded in a div. The answer here put me on my way to solving this problem, but the posted solution is a bit too simple. First of all, when the page is not loaded from the top (in case the user enters the page by clicking 'back') none of the divs are loaded. So you'll need something like this:
$(document).ready(function(){
$(window).scroll(lazyload);
lazyload();
});
also, you'll need to know what defines a visible div. That can be a div that's fully visible or partially visible. If the bottom of the object is greater or equal to the top of the window AND the top of the object is smaller or equal to the bottom of the window it should be visible (or in this case: loaded). Your function lazyload may look like this:
function lazyload(){
var wt = $(window).scrollTop(); //* top of the window
var wb = wt + $(window).height(); //* bottom of the window
$(".ads").each(function(){
var ot = $(this).offset().top; //* top of object (i.e. advertising div)
var ob = ot + $(this).height(); //* bottom of object
if(!$(this).attr("loaded") && wt<=ob && wb >= ot){
$(this).html("here goes the iframe definition");
$(this).attr("loaded",true);
}
});
}
Tested on all major browsers and even on my iPhone, works like a charm!!

How can I determine if an image has loaded, using Javascript/jQuery?

I'm writing some Javascript to resize the large image to fit into the user's browser window. (I don't control the size of the source images unfortunately.)
So something like this would be in the HTML:
<img id="photo"
src="a_really_big_file.jpg"
alt="this is some alt text"
title="this is some title text" />
Is there a way for me to determine if the src image in an img tag has been downloaded?
I need this because I'm running into a problem if $(document).ready() is executed before the browser has loaded the image. $("#photo").width() and $("#photo").height() will return the size of the placeholder (the alt text). In my case this is something like 134 x 20.
Right now I'm just checking if the photo's height is less than 150, and assuming that if so it is just alt text. But this is quite a hack, and it would break if a photo is less than 150 pixels tall (not likely in my particular case), or if the alt text is more than 150 pixels tall (could possibly happen on a small browser window).
Edit: For anyone wanting to see the code:
$(function()
{
var REAL_WIDTH = $("#photo").width();
var REAL_HEIGHT = $("#photo").height();
$(window).resize(adjust_photo_size);
adjust_photo_size();
function adjust_photo_size()
{
if(REAL_HEIGHT < 150)
{
REAL_WIDTH = $("#photo").width();
REAL_HEIGHT = $("#photo").height();
if(REAL_HEIGHT < 150)
{
//image not loaded.. try again in a quarter-second
setTimeout(adjust_photo_size, 250);
return;
}
}
var new_width = . . . ;
var new_height = . . . ;
$("#photo").width(Math.round(new_width));
$("#photo").height(Math.round(new_height));
}
});
Update: Thanks for the suggestions. There is a risk of the event not being fired if I set a callback for the $("#photo").load event, so I have defined an onLoad event directly on the image tag. For the record, here is the code I ended up going with:
<img id="photo"
onload="photoLoaded();"
src="a_really_big_file.jpg"
alt="this is some alt text"
title="this is some title text" />
Then in Javascript:
//This must be outside $() because it may get called first
var isPhotoLoaded = false;
function photoLoaded()
{
isPhotoLoaded = true;
}
$(function()
{
//Hides scrollbars, so we can resize properly. Set with JS instead of
// CSS so that page doesn't break with JS disabled.
$("body").css("overflow", "hidden");
var REAL_WIDTH = -1;
var REAL_HEIGHT = -1;
$(window).resize(adjust_photo_size);
adjust_photo_size();
function adjust_photo_size()
{
if(!isPhotoLoaded)
{
//image not loaded.. try again in a quarter-second
setTimeout(adjust_photo_size, 250);
return;
}
else if(REAL_WIDTH < 0)
{
//first time in this function since photo loaded
REAL_WIDTH = $("#photo").width();
REAL_HEIGHT = $("#photo").height();
}
var new_width = . . . ;
var new_height = . . . ;
$("#photo").width(Math.round(new_width));
$("#photo").height(Math.round(new_height));
}
});

Either add an event listener, or have the image announce itself with onload. Then figure out the dimensions from there.
<img id="photo"
onload='loaded(this.id)'
src="a_really_big_file.jpg"
alt="this is some alt text"
title="this is some title text" />

Using the jquery data store you can define a 'loaded' state.
<img id="myimage" onload="$(this).data('loaded', 'loaded');" src="lolcats.jpg" />
Then elsewhere you can do:
if ($('#myimage').data('loaded')) {
// loaded, so do stuff
}

The right answer, is to use event.special.load
It is possible that the load event will not be triggered if the image is loaded from the browser cache. To account for this possibility, we can use a special load event that fires immediately if the image is ready. event.special.load is currently available as a plugin.
Per the docs on .load()

You want to do what Allain said, however be aware that sometimes the image loads before dom ready, which means your load handler won't fire. The best way is to do as Allain says, but set the src of the image with javascript after attaching the load hander. This way you can guarantee that it fires.
In terms of accessibility, will your site still work for people without javascript? You may want to give the img tag the correct src, attach you dom ready handler to run your js: clear the image src (give it a fixed with and height with css to prevent the page flickering), then set your img load handler, then reset the src to the correct file. This way you cover all bases :)

As per one of the recent comments to your original question
$(function() {
$(window).resize(adjust_photo_size);
adjust_photo_size();
function adjust_photo_size() {
if (!$("#photo").get(0).complete) {
$("#photo").load(function() {
adjust_photo_size();
});
} else {
...
}
});
Warning This answer could cause a serious loop in ie8 and lower, because img.complete is not always properly set by the browser. If you must support ie8, use a flag to remember the image is loaded.

Try something like:
$("#photo").load(function() {
alert("Hello from Image");
});

There's a jQuery plugin called "imagesLoaded" that provides a cross-browser compatible method to check if an element's image(s) have been loaded.
Site: https://github.com/desandro/imagesloaded/
Usage for a container that has many images inside:
$('container').imagesLoaded(function(){
console.log("I loaded!");
})
The plugin is great:
works for checking a container with many images inside
works for check an img to see if it has loaded

I found this worked for me
document.querySelector("img").addEventListener("load", function() { alert('onload!'); });
Credit goes totaly to Frank Schwieterman, who commented on accepted answer. I had to put this here, it's too valuable...

Any comments on this one?
...
doShow = function(){
if($('#img_id').attr('complete')){
alert('Image is loaded!');
} else {
window.setTimeout('doShow()',100);
}
};
$('#img_id').attr('src','image.jpg');
doShow();
...
Seems like works everywhere...

I just created a jQuery function to load an image using jQuerys Deferred Object which makes it very easy to react on load/error event:
$.fn.extend({
loadImg: function(url, timeout) {
// init deferred object
var defer = $.Deferred(),
$img = this,
img = $img.get(0),
timer = null;
// define load and error events BEFORE setting the src
// otherwise IE might fire the event before listening to it
$img.load(function(e) {
var that = this;
// defer this check in order to let IE catch the right image size
window.setTimeout(function() {
// make sure the width and height are > 0
((that.width > 0 && that.height > 0) ?
defer.resolveWith :
defer.rejectWith)($img);
}, 1);
}).error(function(e) {
defer.rejectWith($img);
});
// start loading the image
img.src = url;
// check if it's already in the cache
if (img.complete) {
defer.resolveWith($img);
} else if (0 !== timeout) {
// add a timeout, by default 15 seconds
timer = window.setTimeout(function() {
defer.rejectWith($img);
}, timeout || 15000);
}
// return the promise of the deferred object
return defer.promise().always(function() {
// stop the timeout timer
window.clearTimeout(timer);
timer = null;
// unbind the load and error event
this.off("load error");
});
}
});
Usage:
var image = $('<img />').loadImg('http://www.google.com/intl/en_com/images/srpr/logo3w.png')
.done(function() {
alert('image loaded');
$('body').append(this);
}).fail(function(){
alert('image failed');
});
See it working at: http://jsfiddle.net/roberkules/AdWZj/

This function checks if an image is loaded based on having measurable dimensions. This technique is useful if your script is executing after some of the images have already been loaded.
imageLoaded = function(node) {
var w = 'undefined' != typeof node.clientWidth ? node.clientWidth : node.offsetWidth;
var h = 'undefined' != typeof node.clientHeight ? node.clientHeight : node.offsetHeight;
return w+h > 0 ? true : false;
};

We developed a page where it loaded a number of images and then performed other functions only after the image was loaded. It was a busy site that generated a lot of traffic. It seems that the following simple script worked on practically all browsers:
$(elem).onload = function() {
doSomething();
}
BUT THIS IS A POTENTIAL ISSUE FOR IE9!
The ONLY browser we had reported issues on is IE9. Are we not surprised? It seems that the best way to solve the issue there is to not assign a src to the image until AFTER the onload function has been defined, like so:
$(elem).onload = function() {
doSomething();
}
$(elem).attr('src','theimage.png');
It seems that IE 9 will sometimes not throw the onload event for whatever reason. Other solutions on this page (such as the one from Evan Carroll, for example) still did not work. Logically, that checked if the load state was already successful and triggered the function and if it wasn't, then set the onload handler, but even when you do that we demonstrated in testing that the image could load between those two lines of js thereby appearing not loaded to the first line and then loading before the onload handler is set.
We found that the best way to get what you want is to not define the image's src until you have set the onload event trigger.
We only just recently stopped supporting IE8 so I can't speak for versions prior to IE9, otherwise, out of all the other browsers that were used on the site -- IE10 and 11 as well as Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari and whatever mobile browser people were using -- setting the src before assigning the onload handler was not even an issue.

May I suggest a pure CSS solution altogether?
Just have a Div that you want to show the image in. Set the image as background. Then have the property background-size: cover or background-size: contain depending on how you want it.
cover will crop the image until smaller sides cover the box.
contain will keep the entire image inside the div, leaving you with spaces on sides.
Check the snippet below.
div {
height: 300px;
width: 300px;
border: 3px dashed grey;
background-position: center;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
}
.cover-image {
background-size: cover;
}
.contain-image {
background-size: contain;
}
<div class="cover-image" style="background-image:url(https://assets1.ignimgs.com/2019/04/25/avengers-endgame-1280y-1556226255823_1280w.jpg)">
</div>
<br/>
<div class="contain-image" style="background-image:url(https://assets1.ignimgs.com/2019/04/25/avengers-endgame-1280y-1556226255823_1280w.jpg)">
</div>

I find that this simple solution works best for me:
function setEqualHeight(a, b) {
if (!$(a).height()) {
return window.setTimeout(function(){ setEqualHeight(a, b); }, 1000);
}
$(b).height($(a).height());
}
$(document).ready(function() {
setEqualHeight('#image', '#description');
$(window).resize(function(){setEqualHeight('#image', '#description')});
});
</script>

image.complete might be another option https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLImageElement/complete