--- title: "The present and potential future of progressive image rendering" url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-present-and-potential-future-of-progressive-image-rendering-x30vnz4xu source_url: https://jakearchibald.com/2025/present-and-future-of-progressive-image-rendering/ type: article source: "Jake Archibald" published: 2025-10-15T21:21:05.682Z updated: 2025-10-15T21:21:31.126Z tags: ["webdev", "performance"] reading_time: 13 upvotes: 2 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The present and potential future of progressive image rendering **[Jake Archibald](https://daily.dev/sources/jakearchibald)** · 13 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Progressive image rendering allows browsers to display partial images while loading. JPEG offers free progressive rendering with minimal decode overhead. AVIF's experimental layered mode provides early previews at ~4% file size but has limited configuration. JPEG XL promises sophisticated progressive rendering but current browser implementations are slow and lack progressive support. WebP renders top-to-bottom in Firefox/Chrome but not Safari. The author proposes AVIF should support a simpler progressive approach: embedding a small, blurred preview at the file start with configurable quality, offering zero decode overhead when the full image loads quickly while providing better user experience on slow connections. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Issue \#624 – CSS Weekly](https://daily.dev/posts/issue-624-css-weekly-zs3kdhkbd) · CSS Weekly · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [Regressive JPEGs: \(Maurycy's blog\)](https://daily.dev/posts/regressive-jpegs-maurycy-s-blog--sr9gxaz14) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#performance](https://daily.dev/tags/performance) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-present-and-potential-future-of-progressive-image-rendering-x30vnz4xu)