poster frame

This article is a stub. You can help the IndieWeb wiki by expanding it.

A poster frame is a static image taken from one frame of video to represent a video (like a video post) visually in various contexts such as a thumbnail or before the video is played.

Why

You should include an explicit poster frame on your video posts to provide an image that is representative of what the video is about, since the first frame might not show much, or is blank.

How

Use the HTML5 poster attribute on the <video> tag with a URL to the poster frame image like a JPEG.

IndieWeb Examples

Shane Becker

Shane Becker supports explicit poster frames in his video posts since 2013-07-07(private GitHub repo commit). Example:

• http://veganstraightedge.com/videos/2013/5/31/1/backyard-squirrel-buddy (updated 2015-12-13 with fallback <img> tag)
  • markup:
    • <video> tag with u-featured intending to communicate the poster attribute
    • <video> tag with <source> tag for .MP4 video file and <img> tag with u-photo as a fallback for cases when native video isn't supported.

Tantek

Tantek Çelik supports explicit poster frames in his video posts since 2015-360 using an upgrade to the CASSIS auto_link function that implements: Video with poster and Video with poster and hyperlink auto-linking syntaxes. Example:

• 2015-360: http://tantek.com/2015/360/t2/best-starwars-speak-droid
  • manual POSSE tweet video: https://twitter.com/t/status/680897393814994944

Silo Examples

Silos that support video posts with explicit poster frame selection:

• Instagram

In particular the following silos that support video posts DO NOT support poster frames:

• Twitter

See Also

• video