ImageDecoder

Limited availability

This feature is not Baseline because it does not work in some of the most widely-used browsers.

Secure context: This feature is available only in secure contexts (HTTPS), in some or all supporting browsers.

Note: This feature is available in Dedicated Web Workers.

The ImageDecoder interface of the WebCodecs API provides a way to unpack and decode encoded image data.

Constructor

ImageDecoder(): Creates a new ImageDecoder object.

Instance properties

ImageDecoder.complete Read only: Returns a boolean value indicating whether encoded data is completely buffered.
ImageDecoder.completed Read only: Returns a Promise that resolves once complete is true.
ImageDecoder.tracks Read only: Returns an ImageTrackList object listing the available tracks and providing a method for selecting a track to decode.
ImageDecoder.type Read only: Returns a string reflecting the MIME type configured during construction.

Static methods

ImageDecoder.isTypeSupported(): Indicates if the provided MIME type is supported for unpacking and decoding.

Instance methods

ImageDecoder.close(): Ends all pending work and releases system resources.
ImageDecoder.decode(): Enqueues a control message to decode the frame of an image.
ImageDecoder.reset(): Aborts all pending decode() operations.

Examples

Given a <canvas> element:

html

<canvas></canvas>

the following code decodes and renders an animated image to that canvas:

let imageDecoder = null;
let imageIndex = 0;

function renderImage(result) {
  const canvas = document.querySelector("canvas");
  const canvasContext = canvas.getContext("2d");

  canvasContext.drawImage(result.image, 0, 0);

  const track = imageDecoder.tracks.selectedTrack;

  // We check complete here since `frameCount` won't be stable until all
  // data has been received. This may cause us to receive a RangeError
  // during the decode() call below which needs to be handled.
  if (imageDecoder.complete) {
    if (track.frameCount === 1) return;

    if (imageIndex + 1 >= track.frameCount) imageIndex = 0;
  }

  // Decode the next frame ahead of display so it's ready in time.
  imageDecoder
    .decode({ frameIndex: ++imageIndex })
    .then((nextResult) =>
      setTimeout(() => {
        renderImage(nextResult);
      }, result.image.duration / 1000.0),
    )
    .catch((e) => {
      // We can end up requesting an imageIndex past the end since
      // we're using a ReadableStream from fetch(), when this happens
      // just wrap around.
      if (e instanceof RangeError) {
        imageIndex = 0;
        imageDecoder.decode({ frameIndex: imageIndex }).then(renderImage);
      } else {
        throw e;
      }
    });
}

function decodeImage(imageByteStream) {
  imageDecoder = new ImageDecoder({ data: imageByteStream, type: "image/gif" });
  imageDecoder.decode({ frameIndex: imageIndex }).then(renderImage);
}

fetch("fancy.gif").then((response) => decodeImage(response.body));

Specifications

Specification
WebCodecs # imagedecoder-interface

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser