This article was originally published at https://www.codingnepalweb.com.

Image sliders have become an important component of websites, used to showcase multiple images engagingly. As a beginner web developer, creating an image slider can be a useful project to understand and improve your fundamental web development concepts, such as responsive designs, DOM manipulation, and JavaScript event listeners.

In this blog post, I will show you how to create a responsive image slider using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. We will use vanilla JavaScript to create this slider without relying on external JavaScript libraries such as SwiperJs or Owl Carousel. This way, beginners can learn how these image sliders work and the code required to build them.

In this image slider, there are two buttons for sliding images: one for going back and one for moving forward. There is also a horizontal scrollbar that acts as a slider indicator and can be used to slide images by dragging it. This slider supports all major browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, as well as mobile or tablet devices.

Video Tutorial of Image Slider in HTML and JavaScript

If you enjoy learning through video tutorials, the above YouTube video can be an excellent resource. In the video, I’ve explained each line of code and included informative comments to make the process of creating your own image slider simple and easy to follow.

However, if you like reading blog posts or want a step-by-step guide for this project, you can continue reading this post. By the end of this post, you will have your own image slider that is easy to customize and implement into your other projects.

Steps to Create Image Slider in HTML & JavaScript

To create a responsive image slider using HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript, follow these simple step-by-step instructions:

First, create a folder with any name you like. Then, make the necessary files inside it.
Create a file called index.html to serve as the main file.
Create a file called style.css for the CSS code.
Create a file called script.js for the JavaScript code.
Finally, download the Images folder and put it in your project directory. This folder contains all the images you’ll need for this image slider. You can also use your own images.

To start, add the following HTML codes to your index.html file. These codes include all essential HTML semantic tags, such as div, button, img, etc., for the image slider.



<!DOCTYPE html>
<!-- Coding By CodingNepal - www.codingnepalweb.com -->
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <title>Image Slider in HTML CSS and JavaScript | CodingNepal</title>
    <!-- Google Fonts Link For Icons -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Material+Symbols+Rounded:opsz,wght,FILL,GRAD@48,400,0,0" />
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" />
    <script src="script.js" defer></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div class="container">
      <div class="slider-wrapper">
        <button id="prev-slide" class="slide-button material-symbols-rounded">
          chevron_left
        </button>
        <ul class="image-list">
          <img class="image-item" src="images/img-1.jpg" alt="img-1" />
          <img class="image-item" src="images/img-2.jpg" alt="img-2" />
          <img class="image-item" src="images/img-3.jpg" alt="img-3" />
          <img class="image-item" src="images/img-4.jpg" alt="img-4" />
          <img class="image-item" src="images/img-5.jpg" alt="img-5" />
          <img class="image-item" src="images/img-6.jpg" alt="img-6" />
          <img class="image-item" src="images/img-7.jpg" alt="img-7" />
          <img class="image-item" src="images/img-8.jpg" alt="img-8" />
          <img class="image-item" src="images/img-9.jpg" alt="img-9" />
          <img class="image-item" src="images/img-10.jpg" alt="img-10" />
        </ul>
        <button id="next-slide" class="slide-button material-symbols-rounded">
          chevron_right
        </button>
      </div>
      <div class="slider-scrollbar">
        <div class="scrollbar-track">
          <div class="scrollbar-thumb"></div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Next, add the following CSS codes to your style.css file to make your image slider beautiful. You can experiment with different CSS properties like colors, fonts, and backgrounds to give a personalized touch to your slider. If you load the web page in your browser, you can see your image slider with a scrollbar and an arrow button.



* {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

body {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  min-height: 100vh;
  background: #f1f4fd;
}

.container {
  max-width: 1200px;
  width: 95%;
}

.slider-wrapper {
  position: relative;
}

.slider-wrapper .slide-button {
  position: absolute;
  top: 50%;
  outline: none;
  border: none;
  height: 50px;
  width: 50px;
  z-index: 5;
  color: #fff;
  display: flex;
  cursor: pointer;
  font-size: 2.2rem;
  background: #000;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  border-radius: 50%;
  transform: translateY(-50%);
}

.slider-wrapper .slide-button:hover {
  background: #404040;
}

.slider-wrapper .slide-button#prev-slide {
  left: -25px;
  display: none;
}

.slider-wrapper .slide-button#next-slide {
  right: -25px;
}

.slider-wrapper .image-list {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(10, 1fr);
  gap: 18px;
  font-size: 0;
  list-style: none;
  margin-bottom: 30px;
  overflow-x: auto;
  scrollbar-width: none;
}

.slider-wrapper .image-list::-webkit-scrollbar {
  display: none;
}

.slider-wrapper .image-list .image-item {
  width: 325px;
  height: 400px;
  object-fit: cover;
}

.container .slider-scrollbar {
  height: 24px;
  width: 100%;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
}

.slider-scrollbar .scrollbar-track {
  background: #ccc;
  width: 100%;
  height: 2px;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  border-radius: 4px;
  position: relative;
}

.slider-scrollbar:hover .scrollbar-track {
  height: 4px;
}

.slider-scrollbar .scrollbar-thumb {
  position: absolute;
  background: #000;
  top: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  width: 50%;
  height: 100%;
  cursor: grab;
  border-radius: inherit;
}

.slider-scrollbar .scrollbar-thumb:active {
  cursor: grabbing;
  height: 8px;
  top: -2px;
}

.slider-scrollbar .scrollbar-thumb::after {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
  top: -10px;
  bottom: -10px;
}

/* Styles for mobile and tablets */
@media only screen and (max-width: 1023px) {
  .slider-wrapper .slide-button {
    display: none !important;
  }

  .slider-wrapper .image-list {
    gap: 10px;
    margin-bottom: 15px;
    scroll-snap-type: x mandatory;
  }

  .slider-wrapper .image-list .image-item {
    width: 280px;
    height: 380px;
  }

  .slider-scrollbar .scrollbar-thumb {
    width: 20%;
  }
}

Finally, add the following JavaScript code to your script.js file to make your image slider functional. This code includes event listeners like mouseup, mousemove, mousedown, click, and mathematical calculations to make the slider work as expected.



const initSlider = () => {
    const imageList = document.querySelector(".slider-wrapper .image-list");
    const slideButtons = document.querySelectorAll(".slider-wrapper .slide-button");
    const sliderScrollbar = document.querySelector(".container .slider-scrollbar");
    const scrollbarThumb = sliderScrollbar.querySelector(".scrollbar-thumb");
    const maxScrollLeft = imageList.scrollWidth - imageList.clientWidth;

    // Handle scrollbar thumb drag
    scrollbarThumb.addEventListener("mousedown", (e) => {
        const startX = e.clientX;
        const thumbPosition = scrollbarThumb.offsetLeft;
        const maxThumbPosition = sliderScrollbar.getBoundingClientRect().width - scrollbarThumb.offsetWidth;

        // Update thumb position on mouse move
        const handleMouseMove = (e) => {
            const deltaX = e.clientX - startX;
            const newThumbPosition = thumbPosition + deltaX;

            // Ensure the scrollbar thumb stays within bounds
            const boundedPosition = Math.max(0, Math.min(maxThumbPosition, newThumbPosition));
            const scrollPosition = (boundedPosition / maxThumbPosition) * maxScrollLeft;

            scrollbarThumb.style.left = `${boundedPosition}px`;
            imageList.scrollLeft = scrollPosition;
        }

        // Remove event listeners on mouse up
        const handleMouseUp = () => {
            document.removeEventListener("mousemove", handleMouseMove);
            document.removeEventListener("mouseup", handleMouseUp);
        }

        // Add event listeners for drag interaction
        document.addEventListener("mousemove", handleMouseMove);
        document.addEventListener("mouseup", handleMouseUp);
    });

    // Slide images according to the slide button clicks
    slideButtons.forEach(button => {
        button.addEventListener("click", () => {
            const direction = button.id === "prev-slide" ? -1 : 1;
            const scrollAmount = imageList.clientWidth * direction;
            imageList.scrollBy({ left: scrollAmount, behavior: "smooth" });
        });
    });

     // Show or hide slide buttons based on scroll position
    const handleSlideButtons = () => {
        slideButtons[0].style.display = imageList.scrollLeft <= 0 ? "none" : "flex";
        slideButtons[1].style.display = imageList.scrollLeft >= maxScrollLeft ? "none" : "flex";
    }

    // Update scrollbar thumb position based on image scroll
    const updateScrollThumbPosition = () => {
        const scrollPosition = imageList.scrollLeft;
        const thumbPosition = (scrollPosition / maxScrollLeft) * (sliderScrollbar.clientWidth - scrollbarThumb.offsetWidth);
        scrollbarThumb.style.left = `${thumbPosition}px`;
    }

    // Call these two functions when image list scrolls
    imageList.addEventListener("scroll", () => {
        updateScrollThumbPosition();
        handleSlideButtons();
    });
}

window.addEventListener("resize", initSlider);
window.addEventListener("load", initSlider);

To understand the JavaScript code better, I recommend watching the above video tutorial, reading the code comments, and experimenting with the code.

Conclusion and Final words

In conclusion, creating a responsive image slider from scratch using HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript is not only a valuable learning experience but also a practical addition to your web development skills. By following the steps in this post, you have successfully built a functional image slider, and you can now easily customize it according to your choice.

Feel free to experiment with different styles, transitions, and features to take your image slider to the next level. To further improve your web development, I recommend you try recreating other interactive images or card sliders available on this website.

If you encounter any problems while creating your image slider, you can download the source code files for this project for free by clicking the Download button. Additionally, you can view a live demo of it by clicking the View Live button.

View Live Demo

Download Code Files

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Create A Responsive Image Slider in HTML CSS and JavaScript

Video Tutorial of Image Slider in HTML and JavaScript

Steps to Create Image Slider in HTML & JavaScript

Conclusion and Final words