Data URIs

By  on  

We're all familiar with traditional URI protocols like https, http, ftp, and file, but data URIs have become a large part of our online strategy. We can use them to display images, the Mac camera and webcams, and more. But what if we simply want to use a data URI to convey basic data?

Typing a data URI shouldn't be difficult, and it isn't. As someone that works on the Firefox DevTools Debugger, I'm often typing out data URIs to illustrate problems. The format is:

data:text/html,<body class="blah"></body>

We're all so ingrained to use protocol://subdomain.domain.tld addresses that data URIs look foreign...but they require the least amount of resources to express content!

Recent Features

  • By
    Responsive Images: The Ultimate Guide

    Chances are that any Web designers using our Ghostlab browser testing app, which allows seamless testing across all devices simultaneously, will have worked with responsive design in some shape or form. And as today's websites and devices become ever more varied, a plethora of responsive images...

  • By
    39 Shirts &#8211; Leaving Mozilla

    In 2001 I had just graduated from a small town high school and headed off to a small town college. I found myself in the quaint computer lab where the substandard computers featured two browsers: Internet Explorer and Mozilla. It was this lab where I fell...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    MooTools Fun with Fx.Shake

    Adding movement to your website is a great way to attract attention to specific elements that you want users to notice. Of course you could use Flash or an animated GIF to achieve the movement effect but graphics can be difficult to maintain. Enter...

  • By
    Face Detection with jQuery

    I've always been intrigued by recognition software because I cannot imagine the logic that goes into all of the algorithms. Whether it's voice, face, or other types of detection, people look and sound so different, pictures are shot differently, and from different angles, I...

Discussion

    Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!