Using the Image Component in Next.js

Introduction to the Image Component

In web projects, one of the common challenges is optimizing images for faster and more efficient loading. Next.js provides the Image component, which allows you to automatically optimize images. This component offers various features that result in improved image optimization and faster loading times for users accessing the website. Some of these features include managing different resolutions and image sizes based on the user's device.

Key Features of the Image Component

In the latest versions of Next.js, additional functionalities have been provided for the Image component, which helps you manage images in the best possible way. These functionalities include lazy loading, support for modern formats such as AVIF and WebP, and also the ability to automatically encode images. With these features, you can enhance the user experience on websites with many images.

How to Use the Image Component

To use the Image component, you first need to configure your application to utilize this component. Initially, you should import the next/image library in your file and you can easily use the Image tag to add images to your application. For example, you can use an image with this component, and its various features won't affect the implementation.

Practical Example

Below is an example of how to use the Image component, showing how images can be optimized:

import Image from 'next/image';

const MyComponent = () => {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Sample Image</h1>
      <Image
        src="/path/to/image.jpg"
        alt="Image description"
        width={500}
        height={300}
        layout="responsive"
      />
    </div>
  );
};

Code Explanation

import Image from 'next/image';
In this line, the Image component is imported from the next/image module.

const MyComponent = () => {...
This defines a functional component named MyComponent.

<div>...
A div is created for the contents of the component.

<h1>Sample Image</h1>
This line is a heading for the image section.

<Image src="..." alt="..." width={500} height={300} layout="responsive" />
This line adds an image with specified attributes and optimizations.

The attributes src, alt, width, height, and layout are used for primary image configurations.