Image Placeholder Generator

What this generates

Placeholder image URLs from four popular providers, with a live preview and copy-ready snippets in URL, HTML, and Markdown form.

The four providers each have a specific use case:

• placehold.co: solid-colored rectangles with optional text overlay. Customizable background and text color. Reliable and fast, perfect for static design mockups where you want explicit “PLACEHOLDER” labeling.

• picsum.photos: random Lorem Ipsum-style photos. Pick any seed string and you’ll get the same photo each time, so layouts stay stable across reloads.

• DiceBear (avatars): SVG avatars generated from a seed. Great for user-list mockups where you need 20 different “people” to populate a UI.

• picsum.photos (random): same provider, no seed, different photo every refresh. Use when you want variation in your mockup without picking specific seeds.

Why use external placeholders instead of local files

Three reasons:

1. No file management. No need to commit dummy images to your repo, manage filenames, or worry about license attribution for design mockups.

2. Shareable URLs. A https://placehold.co/800x450/blue/white link works in any context, Figma, Slack, Markdown notes, README files. No “did you upload the asset” friction.

3. Variable sizes. Need a 200×200 thumbnail, 800×450 hero, 1200×630 OG image? Just change the URL parameters; no Photoshop trip.

The trade-off: external URLs require network access, may go down (rare for these providers), and add real network requests to your page during development. For final production assets, ship real images.

Common dimensions

A few standard sizes that show up constantly:

• OG image / Twitter card: 1200×630
• Hero banner: 1920×600 or 1920×1080
• Card thumbnail: 600×400 or 800×450 (16:9)
• Avatar: 64×64, 128×128, 256×256
• Square Instagram post: 1080×1080
• YouTube thumbnail: 1280×720
• Favicon source: 512×512 or 1024×1024

The generator supports any dimensions up to 4096×4096, past that, providers may rate-limit or refuse.

Seed strings (DiceBear / Picsum)

For DiceBear avatars and seeded Picsum photos, the seed determines the result:

• Same seed = same image every request
• Different seed = different image
• Numeric seeds (1, 2, 3) are common for sequential mockups
• String seeds (alice, bob, charlie) make sense when you have actual user data to align with

Avatar UIs often hash the user’s email or ID to use as the seed, that way each user has a consistent avatar even when the real one isn’t uploaded yet.

Production caveats

These services are for design mockups and development. For production:

• Don’t ship external placeholder URLs in user-facing pages, they add latency and dependency on third parties.
• DiceBear and placehold.co are typically free; commercial heavy use should check their terms.
• Picsum images are real photos with CC0 licensing, usable in production if you want, but typically you want branded assets in production.

Frequently asked questions

Why doesn’t my custom color work in placehold.co? Use 6-character hex without the #. The generator strips it automatically. If a color isn’t rendering, the URL might be malformed, copy the URL and check the color code in the path.

Can I use these in commercial projects? Mockup/development: yes, all are free for that. Production: check each provider’s terms. Picsum’s images are CC0; placehold.co is usage-unrestricted; DiceBear has multiple license tiers.

What if the provider goes down? Cache the image locally for production. The placeholder URL pattern doesn’t change much over the years, but having a local backup prevents broken mockups in case of outages.

Can I get a transparent placeholder? Use placehold.co with very small dimensions (1×1 transparent PNG works as a spacer), or DiceBear’s SVG output which has a transparent background.