DevTut

# Image Maps

# Introduction to Image Maps

# Description

An image maps is an image with clickable areas that usually act as hyperlinks.

The image is defined by the <img> (opens new window) tag, and the map is defined by a <map> (opens new window) tag with <area> (opens new window) tags to denote each clickable area. Use the usemap and name attributes to bind the image and the map.

# Basic Example

To create an image map so that each of the shapes in the image below are clickable:

triangle, square, circle image

The code would be as follows:

<img src="http://jaced.com/blogpix/2007/trisquarecircle/002.gif" usemap="#shapes">
<map name="shapes">
    <area shape="polygon" coords="79,6,5,134,153,134">
    <area shape="rectangle" coords="177,6,306,134">
    <area shape="circle" coords="397,71,65">
</map>

You should see that the browser recognizes the areas when the cursor becomes a pointer. See a live demo (opens new window) on JSFiddle, or see a demonstration below:

demonstration of image map and cursor

# Syntax

  • <img usemap="#[map-name]">
  • <map name="[map-name]"></map>
  • <area>

# Parameters

Tag/Attribute Value
<img> Below are the image map-specific attributes to use with <img>. Regular <img> attributes apply.
usemap The name of the map with a hash symbol prepended to it. For example, for a map with name="map", the image should have usemap="#map".
<map>
name The name of the map to identify it. To be used with the image's usemap attribute.
<area> Below are <area>-specific attributes. When href is specified, making the <area> a link, <area> also supports all of the attributes of the anchor tag (<a>) except ping. See them at the MDN docs (opens new window).
alt The alternate text to display if images are not supported. This is only necessary if href is also set on the <area>.
coords The coordinates outlining the selectable area. When shape="polygon", this should be set to a list of "x, y" pairs separated by commas (i.e., shape="polygon" coords="x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3, ..."). When shape="rectangle", this should be set to left, top, right, bottom. When shape="circle", this should be set to centerX, centerY, radius.
href The URL of the hyperlink, if specified. If it is omitted, then the <area> will not represent a hyperlink.
shape The shape of the <area>. Can be set to default to select the entire image (no coords attribute necessary), circle or circ for a circle, rectangle or rect for a rectangle, and polygon or poly for a polygonal area specified by corner points.

# Remarks

  • The above parameters list is modified from the MDN docs: [``](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/map) and [``](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/area).
  • It is feasible to create an image map's coordinates with for an image with simpler shapes (such as in the introductory example above) with an image editor that shows coordinates (such as GIMP). However, it might be easier in general to use an image map generator, such as [this one](http://imagemap-generator.dariodomi.de/).

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