Need placeholder images? Meet Lorempixel...
Lorempixel served free on-demand placeholder photos for mockups via a simple URL pattern. It shut down in 2019; Lorem Picsum (picsum.photos) now fills the same role.
Lorempixel was a free placeholder-image service that delivered randomized photos at any width and height via a simple URL pattern — perfect for filling web, print, or magazine mockups while you waited on real client assets. The service shut down in 2019; **Lorem Picsum (picsum.photos)** now uses the same URL pattern and is the current go-to for the same workflow. The original guide below explains the concept — just swap `lorempixel.com` for `picsum.photos` in every example.
[Need placeholder images? Meet Lorempixel][Need placeholder images? Meet Lorempixel]
You know the drill: you are designing a website, a poster, or a magazine article, and just when you get to positioning the images and text, your client still has not sent the media you asked for two weeks ago. I have been there and for some projects it happens more often than not.
**Enter Lorempixel**
The placeholder image creating machine webservice. The frustration of having to scour the Internet for temporary images that you will end up removing anyway is a thing of the past. Now you can simply ask Lorempixel for any image size and it will throw a random image ready for all your placeholding needs.
If this wasn’t enough to be grateful for, the service also allows for parameters such as “sports, nature, food, etc” and it will give you the placeholder images relating to the topic you need. It will even give you a black & white image if you so desire.
Examples you can test:
**Get a random image 180 pixels wide by 280 pixels**
http://lorempixel.com/180/280
**Get a sports based random image 180 pixels wide by 280 pixels**
http://lorempixel.com/180/280/sports
**Get a food based random image 180 pixels wide by 280 pixels in Black & White**
http://lorempixel.com/g/180/280/food
[Lorempixel Random][Lorempixel Random][Lorempixel Sports][Lorempixel Sports][Lorempixel Food BW][Lorempixel Food BW]
Visit their website at http://lorempixel.com to find out more. Their work is based on the famous lorem ipsum text generators that people worldwide use to create dummy text for their designs.
Have you tried anything like this before? Share your experience, comment below!