Progressively Loading Images In React

Making a Medium Style Image Loader With Intersection Observer and React Hooks

Malcolm Laing
Nov 3 · 6 min read

Have you ever wondered how Medium loads images? Maybe you noticed how images seem to render in multiple steps. A blurry version of the image appears on screen and then is replaced by the full-sized version.

Progressive image loading
Progressive image loading

How Medium stories loads images

Malcolm Laing

Written by

Front End Engineer in Berlin. Loves React, building component libraries, module bundling, and testing.

Frontend Digest

Anything and everything frontend. JavaScript, CSS and HTML.

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