🖼️ Introduction

Images are a critical part of the modern web, and Next.js ships with a powerful tool for handling them: next/image. This built-in component offers significant performance improvements over traditional <img> tags by enabling automatic optimization, responsive loading, and built-in lazy loading.

In this guide, we'll walk through practical usage of next/image, highlight its strengths, and cover a few quirks you should know.

⚙️ How to Use `next/image`

Static Imports

The most optimized approach in Next.js is importing images statically from your project:

import Image from 'next/image'
import oceanPic from '../public/static/images/ocean.jpg'

export default function Gallery() {
  return <Image src={oceanPic} alt="Ocean View" placeholder="blur" />
}

Benefits:

Automatic width/height inference
Generates multiple sizes and uses modern formats like WebP/AVIF
Enables blur-up placeholder by default

Dynamic or Remote URLs

You can also load images from remote sources, but you must allow the domain in next.config.js:

<Image src="https://example.com/images/pic.jpg" alt="Remote image" width={600} height={400} />

In next.config.js:

module.exports = {
  images: {
    domains: ['example.com'],
  },
}

Using in MDX

If you're using MDX (Markdown with JSX), you can embed the Image component directly:

import Image from 'next/image'

<Image src="/static/images/sunset.jpg" alt="Sunset" width={800} height={400} />

Alternatively, standard Markdown image syntax works, but it will fall back to a raw <img> tag unless you configure a custom MDX provider to swap it.

![Ocean](./static/images/ocean.jpg)

✅ Benefits of `next/image`

🔍 Optimized formats: Serves modern formats (WebP/AVIF) automatically
📏 Responsive sizing: Delivers size-appropriate images based on device
💤 Lazy loading: Loads images only when visible on screen
📐 Layout stability: Helps avoid Cumulative Layout Shift by requiring fixed dimensions
⚡ Built-in CDN integration: Works seamlessly with Vercel’s Edge Network

⚠️ Limitations

🔒 Public Folder Only: All local images must be stored in the public directory
🌐 Remote images need config: You have to explicitly list external domains
🔁 Server dependency: The component requires server-side logic (serverless function or custom server)
🛠️ Limited flexibility on non-Vercel platforms: If self-hosting, you must either disable image optimization or configure your own loader/CDN

// next.config.js example to disable optimization:
images: {
  unoptimized: true,
}

🧪 Experimental + Alternatives

Next.js is evolving. For build-time static generation or bundler-based processing, you might consider tools like:

next-optimized-images (Webpack-based)
Image CDN services like Imgix, Cloudinary, or ImageKit

These offer more control, but at the cost of setup complexity.

📸 Final Thoughts

The next/image component is a game-changer for modern frontend development. It's not just about image tags — it's about performance, accessibility, and developer experience.

Use it when you can. Understand its boundaries. And if it doesn't suit your deployment setup, you’ve got alternatives.

Happy optimizing!