Change the aspect ratio of an image using CSS

It is a common request for developers to change the aspect ratio of an image using CSS. It therefore wasn’t new to me when I got asked to do just that a couple of days ago.

Simply, the aspect ratio is a ratio of width to height. We can relate this to a lot of elements such as images, videos, screen sizes and containers. This allows us to use ratios and proportions to control the look and size of our layouts and interfaces. It is a very important concept when considering responsive designs.

Common aspect ratios include 1:1, 3:2, 4:3 and 16:9.

As of 2021, cumulative layout shift is part of the core web vitals and has become a Google ranking factor. Setting aspect ratios can be used to prevent shifts caused by loading media, which is super important.

Aspect ratio using the ‘padding top hack’

The ‘padding top hack’ is the method I’ve always used for changing aspect ratio. The premise is that we use a parent container with top or bottom padding to adjust the aspect ratio.

To find the correct percentage of padding to apply, we divide the larger number by the smaller number and multiply by 100:

1:1 = 1 / 1 * 100 = 100%
3:2 = 2 / 3 * 100 = 66.66%
4:3 = 3 / 4 * 100 = 75%
16:9 = 9 / 16 * 100 = 56.25%

For a 16:9 aspect ratio we use ‘9 / 16 * 100’, which gives us a padding of 56.25%.

<picture>
    <img src="image.jpg" alt="Aspect ratio image">
</picture>

picture {
    display: block;
    position: relative;
    padding-top: 56.25%;
}

img {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    height: 100%;
    width: 100%;
}

Obviously, as we are manipulating the aspect ratio of the image we are going to lose detail and/or definition. We can alleviate this by using ‘object-fit’ to set how the image is going to resize to the container. We can also use ‘object-position’ to specify the alignment of the content.

img {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    height: 100%;
    width: 100%;

    object-fit: cover;
    object-position: left;
}

Here is a fiddle to see the approach in action.

Aspect ratio using the CSS property

Depending on browser targets, I recommend the use of the CSS ‘aspect-ratio’ property. This simplifies setting an aspect ratio into something really intuitive, and no longer feels like a ‘hack’. As you can see, there is considerably less overhead when using this property compared to the ‘padding top hack’.

img {
    aspect-ratio: 16/9;
    width: 100%;
}

Again, we can tidy up any aspect ratio stretching with ‘object-fit’ and ‘object-position’.

img {
    aspect-ratio: 16/9;
    width: 100%;

    object-fit: cover;
    object-position: left;
}

Here is another fiddle.

Should you change the aspect ratio of an image?

Setting the aspect ratio of an image is good practice because it prevents cumulative layout shift. It is a really nice weapon to have to preserve designs, whatever a client might throw at it.

Having said that, I would highly encourage image optimisation because this optimises the payload of our website/application and ensures there is no definition and detail loss on the images.

Tip: If you’re using WordPress then have a look at creating custom image sizes and regenerating WordPress media.