Lorem Picsum

Overview

Lorem Picsum is a free placeholder image service that generates random photos at any requested size. It is designed for designers and developers who need realistic, high-quality images for mockups, prototypes, and wireframes.

Unlike generic colored boxes or pattern-based placeholders, Lorem Picsum serves real Unsplash photographs. Users specify dimensions directly in the URL and receive a unique image instantly, with no sign-up or API key required.

Key Benefits

• No registration, API key, or rate limits — just append dimensions to the URL and get an image.
• Supports specific images by ID, seeded random images for consistency, and fully random images.
• Grayscale and blur filters can be applied via simple query parameters.
• Images are served in JPEG or WebP format by changing the file extension in the URL.
• An API endpoint returns paginated lists of available images with author and dimension metadata.

How It Works

You append the desired width and height to the base URL — for example, https://picsum.photos/200/300 — and the service returns a random photo at those dimensions. For a square image, you provide only the width. To get the same image every time, you add a seed value with /seed/{seed}. You can apply grayscale (?grayscale) or blur (?blur=2) filters as query parameters, and combine multiple options in a single URL.

Use Cases

• Front-end web developers who need realistic placeholder images while building layouts and responsive designs.
• UI/UX designers creating mockups and prototypes who want high-quality photos instead of colored boxes.
• Mobile app developers testing image loading and layout behavior across different screen sizes.
• Content creators and bloggers who need temporary featured images while sourcing final photography.
• Students and educators building demo projects or tutorials that require sample image content.

Why Choose This Product

Lorem Picsum is best suited for anyone who needs quick, free placeholder images without creating an account or managing API keys. It offers no image upload, no user accounts, and no customization of the image library itself — it is purely a consumption API for randomly serving Unsplash photos at requested dimensions.