Avatar

Category: Communication
Tokens: comp.avatar
Level: Base

Overview

Web: tanrei-avatar; schedule
SwiftUI: TanreiAvatar; radio_button_unchecked
Jetpack Compose: TanreiAvatar; radio_button_unchecked
Flutter: TanreiAvatar; radio_button_unchecked
React Native: Avatar; radio_button_unchecked

Generated from docs/status/status.json, specs/avatar.spec.json

Initials, a glyph, a square, and a group

An avatar shows who something belongs to: the author of a post, the people in a conversation, the owner of a task. It draws a picture, and it always has something to draw when there is none. It never answers a pointer, a key or focus.

On the web it is <tanrei-avatar>, and several together are <tanrei-avatar-group>. The other platforms have not implemented it yet.

Usage

<!-- Alone: named by its label. -->
<tanrei-avatar label="Ada Lovelace" initials="AL" src="/people/ada.jpg"></tanrei-avatar>

<!-- Beside the same name in text: decorative, so the name is read once. -->
<p>
  <tanrei-avatar decorative size="small" initials="AL" src="/people/ada.jpg"></tanrei-avatar>
  Ada Lovelace
</p>

<!-- Not one person: a square, with a glyph of your own. -->
<tanrei-avatar label="Build service" shape="square"><span slot="icon">smart_toy</span></tanrei-avatar>

<!-- Six members, at most four boxes: three members and "+3". -->
<tanrei-avatar-group label="Reviewers" max="4" overflow-label="and {count} more">
  <tanrei-avatar label="Ada Lovelace" initials="AL"></tanrei-avatar>
  <tanrei-avatar label="Grace Hopper" initials="GH"></tanrei-avatar>
  <!-- … -->
</tanrei-avatar-group>

<!-- Before the script arrives, this stylesheet keeps each avatar's place. -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="@tanrei/web/avatar.css" />
<script type="module">
  import '@tanrei/web/components/avatar';
</script>

import { Avatar, AvatarGroup } from '@tanrei/react';

<Avatar label={person.name} initials={person.initials} src={person.picture} />

<AvatarGroup label="Reviewers" max={4} total={reviewerCount} overflowLabel="and {count} more">
  {reviewers.slice(0, 3).map((person) => (
    <Avatar key={person.id} label={person.name} initials={person.initials} src={person.picture} />
  ))}
</AvatarGroup>

Specs

Three sizes, two shapes

Anatomy

Part	Description
1 `container`	The square box of the avatar's size, clipped to a circle or to a rounded square, with a quiet fill that shows behind the initials, the glyph, a picture that is still loading and the transparent parts of a picture. It carries no state: nothing about it answers a pointer, a press or focus.
2 `image` · optional	The picture the product names by its address, filling the box and clipped to its shape. Drawn once it has loaded.
3 `label` · optional	The initials the product gives, drawn at the centre of the box where there is no picture to show. A picture of a name, not text to be read: the name is the avatar's label.
4 `icon` · optional	The fallback glyph, at the centre of the box, where there is neither a picture nor initials: the glyph the product names, or the system's own (a person for a circle, a neutral mark for a square).
5 `group` · optional	Several avatars drawn as one row in which each lies a little over the one before it, with a gap around each so that two pictures are read as two. The group gives its avatars their size and shape.
6 `overflow` · optional	The last box of a group that does not draw all its members: an avatar-sized box in the fallback's colors holding a plus sign and the number of members not drawn.

Properties

Property	Type	Default	Description
`src`	`string`	`""`	The address of the picture. Empty, or a picture that has not loaded or cannot be loaded, draws the fallback: initials where the product gave some, otherwise a glyph.
`label`	`string`	`""`	The name of the person or the thing the avatar stands for, in full ("Ada Lovelace", "Design team"). Not drawn: it is the avatar's accessible name while decorative is false. In the group form it is the group's name ("Reviewers").
`initials`	`string`	`""`	The one or two characters drawn where there is no picture ("AL", "山"). The product makes them: which characters stand for a name depends on its writing system and its order, which the avatar cannot know. Never read by assistive technology.
`decorative`	`boolean`	`false`	True hides the avatar from assistive technology, for an avatar that stands beside the same name in visible text (a byline, a list row, a comment's header), so the name is read once. False, for an avatar that stands alone, exposes it as an image named by label. Ignored for the members of a group.
`size`	`small` \| `medium` \| `large`	`"medium"`	Small (24) stands beside one line of text: a byline, a table cell, a mention. Medium (40) is a list row's or a comment's avatar. Large (56) heads a person's own page or card. A group gives its size to every member. A design system may add values.
`shape`	`circle` \| `square`	`"circle"`	Circle is a person. Square, a rounded square, is something that is not one person: a team, a project, an organisation, a bot. A group gives its shape to every member. A design system may add values.
`max`	`number`	`0`	Group form only. The most boxes the group draws, the overflow box included; 0 draws every member. A whole number of 2 or more: with more members than this, the group draws one fewer member than max and then the overflow box.
`total`	`number`	`null`	Group form only. How many members there are, where the product gives the group fewer than exist (the first five of a team of two hundred). Null counts the members given.
`overflowLabel`	`string`	`""`	Group form only. What assistive technology reads for the overflow box: the whole sentence in the product's language, with one place, {count}, which the group fills with the number of members not drawn ("{count} more", "ほか{count}人"). Written once as the product's words, it serves every group. A sentence that is right for every number, or a prop set per count where the language needs another form for one. Empty reads the product's words; with neither, the drawn text ("+12").

Slots

Slot	Description
`icon`	The fallback glyph: a glyph of the system's icon set, by name, drawn through the platform's icon helper where there is neither a picture nor initials. Empty draws the system's own fallback glyph.

Items

The kinds of item the component repeats. A fixture lists its items in order; each platform names each kind in its own idiom.

`member`

One avatar of a group: an avatar with its own picture, name, initials and glyph, drawn at the group's size and shape.

Property	Type	Default	Description
`src`	`string`	`""`	The address of the member's picture.
`label`	`string`	`""`	The member's name. Always exposed in a group: the names are what the group says.
`initials`	`string`	`""`	The member's initials, drawn where there is no picture.

Spec	Web	SwiftUI	Jetpack Compose	Flutter	React Native
Item	`tanrei-avatar`	`TanreiAvatar`	`TanreiAvatar`	`TanreiAvatar`	`Avatar`
`src` · Property	`src`	`url`	`model`	`image`	`source`
`label` · Property	`label`	`name`	`name`	`name`	`name`
`initials` · Property	`initials`	`initials`	`initials`	`initials`	`initials`
Notes	A `<tanrei-avatar>` child of `<tanrei-avatar-group>`, with all of an avatar's own attributes and its `icon` slot. The group sets the member's size and shape and makes it named.	A `TanreiAvatar` in the group's builder.	A `TanreiAvatar` call in the group's content.	A `TanreiAvatar` in the group's `children`.	An `<Avatar>` child of `<AvatarGroup>`.

States

Behavior

Requirements in EARS form. Every platform implementation is tested against these ids.

ID	Requirement
`AVT-1`	THE avatar SHALL draw a square box whose side is the container size of its size (comp.avatar.container.size.small for small, comp.avatar.container.size.medium for medium, comp.avatar.container.size.large for large), with the corners of its shape (comp.avatar.container.shape.circle for circle, comp.avatar.container.shape.square for square), never larger than half the box's side (a circle where the value is sys.shape.corner.full) and eased by sys.shape.corner-smoothing, filled with comp.avatar.container.color, and SHALL clip everything it draws to that shape. THE avatar SHALL lay itself out inline with the text or the row it is placed in, as one unbreakable box that the layout neither stretches nor shrinks, and SHALL draw no edge and no elevation.
`AVT-2`	THE avatar SHALL draw exactly one of three things at the centre of its box (and two only for the cross-fade in which its picture arrives, AVT-4), the first of these that it has: the picture src names, once that picture has loaded (AVT-3, AVT-4); else initials, where initials is not empty (AVT-5); else a glyph (AVT-6). THE avatar SHALL never draw an empty box, a broken-picture mark or the picture's address, and SHALL NOT make initials out of label.
`AVT-3`	WHILE the picture of src has loaded THE avatar SHALL draw it over the whole box, scaled so that it covers the box with its proportions kept and its centre on the box's centre, clipped to the box's shape, over comp.avatar.container.color (which shows through the picture's transparent parts), and SHALL draw neither initials nor a glyph. THE avatar SHALL NOT mirror, tint or otherwise change the picture in any layout direction or scheme.
`AVT-4`	WHILE src is not empty and its picture has not yet loaded THE avatar SHALL draw its fallback (AVT-2) in the box, at the avatar's full size, so that nothing changes place when the picture arrives; WHEN the picture has loaded THE avatar SHALL fade it in over the fallback while the fallback fades out beneath it, one cross-fade of opacity over comp.avatar.motion.picture-duration on comp.avatar.motion.picture-easing (sys.motion.role.state.default and sys.motion.easing.state), in which nothing changes place or size; reduced motion keeps it, as a change of opacity is not motion (MOT-6). WHERE the picture loads while the avatar draws its first frames (MOT-3), or the platform already holds it when the avatar asks for it (in its memory of the pictures it has loaded), THE avatar SHALL draw it at once, in the fallback's place. IF the picture cannot be loaded THE avatar SHALL keep the fallback, SHALL NOT ask for the picture again by itself, and in debug builds SHALL report the address that failed. WHEN src changes THE avatar SHALL draw the fallback at once, until the new picture has loaded and fades in. WHILE src is empty THE avatar SHALL ask for nothing.
`AVT-5`	WHERE the avatar draws initials THE avatar SHALL set them on one line at the centre of the box, in the text style of its size (comp.avatar.label.typescale.small for small, comp.avatar.label.typescale.medium for medium, comp.avatar.label.typescale.large for large) and in comp.avatar.label.color, as the product wrote them: it SHALL NOT change their case, and SHALL draw no more than the first two characters as a reader counts them (grapheme clusters), reporting in debug builds a value that is longer. THE avatar SHALL lay the initials out as text of their own direction, isolated from the text around the avatar, and SHALL keep them from assistive technology.
`AVT-6`	WHERE the avatar draws a glyph THE avatar SHALL draw the glyph of its icon slot, or, where the slot is empty, the system's fallback glyph for its shape (person for circle, category for square), in a box of the icon size of its size (comp.avatar.icon.size.small for small, comp.avatar.icon.size.medium for medium, comp.avatar.icon.size.large for large) at the centre of the avatar, in comp.avatar.icon.color, with sys.icon.family.unselected and sys.icon.fill.unselected, sys.icon.weight and an optical size clamped between sys.icon.optical-size.min and sys.icon.optical-size.max, and SHALL keep it from assistive technology.
`AVT-7`	THE avatar SHALL NOT take pointer, touch or keyboard input, SHALL NOT take focus or be a stop in the focus order, and SHALL NOT change anything it draws under a pointer, a press or focus: it has no hovered, focused, pressed, selected or disabled state, draws no state layer, no ripple and no focus indicator, and emits no event.
`AVT-8`	WHERE the avatar is placed inside an element that takes input (a link, a Button, a list item, a chip, a card that is pressed as a whole) THE avatar SHALL let input over it reach that element, SHALL stay as it is drawn while that element is hovered, focused or pressed (the state and the focus indicator are drawn by that element, on its own container), and SHALL NOT become a second target inside it; WHILE decorative is false THE avatar SHALL add its label to that element's content in reading order, so that a link or a Button that holds an avatar and nothing else is named by the avatar's label. An avatar that leads somewhere or opens something is that composition: the avatar has no destination and no action of its own.
`AVT-9`	WHILE decorative is false and label is not empty THE avatar SHALL be exposed to assistive technology as one image named by label, whether it draws a picture, initials or a glyph, and SHALL expose nothing else: not the initials, not the glyph's name, not the picture's address, and not its size or shape. WHILE decorative is true THE avatar SHALL expose nothing. IF decorative is false, label is empty and the product gives it no name (AVT-24) THE avatar SHALL expose nothing and in debug builds report that an avatar has no name.
`AVT-10`	WHEN label, initials, the icon slot's glyph, size or shape changes THE avatar SHALL draw and expose the new value at once, without a motion, and SHALL NOT announce the change by itself.
`AVT-11`	WHILE the text size is enlarged THE avatar SHALL keep its box at the container size of its size and its glyph at the size of AVT-6, and SHALL let its initials, and a group's count (AVT-17), follow their text style as it grows, no larger than the glyph's box of the same size (comp.avatar.icon.size.small for small, comp.avatar.icon.size.medium for medium, comp.avatar.icon.size.large for large), so that they still stand whole inside the box: an avatar is a picture and is enlarged with the page, not with the text, as a glyph's box is, while the letters it holds grow as far as the box leaves room for them.
`AVT-12`	WHERE the avatar is the anchor of a badge THE avatar SHALL be drawn exactly as it is without one: its square box is the anchor's bounds, the badge is placed by that box's top-end corner and drawn outside the avatar's clip (BDG-1, BDG-3, BDG-7), and the badge's label is added to the avatar's description after its name (BDG-8). THE avatar SHALL have no dot, count or status of its own.
`AVT-13`	WHERE the platform draws with a person's own forced colors (the web's forced-colors mode, and a platform's equivalent where it has one) THE avatar SHALL draw an edge sys.border.hairline wide in the platform's text color inside its box, following its shape, and its initials or its glyph in that text color, so that a fallback whose fill the mode removes is still a bounded mark; THE avatar SHALL leave a picture's own colors as they are.
`AVT-14`	THE avatar SHALL take its layout direction from where it is used — the direction of the nearest ancestor that sets one, and the platform's own where none does — and SHALL have no direction setting of its own; WHEN that direction changes while the avatar is shown THE avatar SHALL draw itself for the new direction at once, without a motion of its own, keeping what it shows. A single avatar is the same in both directions but for its glyph (AVT-15): its picture is never mirrored and its initials keep their own order (AVT-5).
`AVT-15`	WHERE the layout direction is right-to-left THE avatar SHALL draw the glyph of its icon slot mirrored left to right exactly when the system's icon set marks that glyph's name as mirrored or the product forces mirroring for that use, and unmirrored when the product forbids it: the icon helper mirrors the glyph inside its own box, about the box's vertical centre line, changing neither its place nor its size, color and fill. THE avatar SHALL NOT mirror a glyph itself, and SHALL NOT mirror its picture or its initials.
`AVT-16`	WHERE the avatar is given members THE avatar SHALL be a group: it SHALL draw its members in one row that does not wrap, in the order they are given from the start edge, each as an avatar of the group's size and shape with that member's own picture, initials or glyph (AVT-2 to AVT-6), and SHALL ignore its own src, initials, icon slot and decorative. Each box after the first SHALL lie over the end of the one before it by the overlap of the group's size (comp.avatar.group.overlap.small for small, comp.avatar.group.overlap.medium for medium, comp.avatar.group.overlap.large for large) and be drawn above it, and every box SHALL be surrounded, outside its own edge and following its shape, by a gap comp.avatar.group.outline.width wide in comp.avatar.group.outline.color that takes no room in the layout. THE group SHALL be as wide as its boxes less their overlaps, and as high as one box.
`AVT-17`	WHILE the group has more members than max and max is 2 or more THE group SHALL draw the first max less one members and then, as its last box, an overflow box: a box of the group's size and shape filled with comp.avatar.container.color, placed and surrounded as a member is (AVT-16), holding on one line, in the label style of the group's size (AVT-5) and comp.avatar.label.color, a plus sign followed by the number of members not drawn. WHILE max is 0, or the group has no more members than max, THE group SHALL draw every member and no overflow box, unless total says more exist (AVT-18). THE overflow box SHALL take no input and SHALL NOT be a control: showing the members it counts is the product's, beside the group.
`AVT-18`	WHILE total is greater than the number of members the group is given THE group SHALL count as not drawn every member up to total, and SHALL draw the overflow box with that number after the members it draws: where the members given fit within max less one, or max is 0, all of them are drawn before it. THE group SHALL write the number in the current locale's digits with no grouping separator, SHALL draw 99 followed by a plus sign in place of a number above 99, at every size, so that the box never holds more than three characters (the exact number stays in overflowLabel, AVT-19), and SHALL lay the sign and the number out as one left-to-right run isolated from the text around it, so that the plus sign stays before the digits in a right-to-left layout.
`AVT-19`	THE group SHALL be exposed to assistive technology as one group named by its label, holding in order one image for each member it draws, each named by that member's label whatever decorative says, and then, where it draws an overflow box, one text: overflowLabel — from the instance's prop or, WHILE that is empty, from the product's words of the key avatarGroupOverflowLabel — with its place {count} filled by the number of members not drawn, in the current locale's digits with no grouping separator and never cut at 99 as the drawn text is (AVT-18); else the drawn text. Another text between braces, and a brace that opens or closes nothing, SHALL be read as written and reported in debug builds; a sentence without {count} SHALL be read as written and reported in debug builds, because it does not say how many. THE gaps SHALL be kept from assistive technology. IF the group's label is empty THE group SHALL expose its members without a group's name and in debug builds report that a group has no name; IF a member's label is empty THE group SHALL expose nothing for that member and in debug builds report it.
`AVT-20`	WHERE the layout direction is right-to-left THE group SHALL lay its row out from the right: the first member is at the right, each following box lies over the left end of the one before it and above it, and the overflow box is the leftmost; the order assistive technology reads SHALL stay the order given.
`AVT-21`	WHEN the group's members, max, total, size or shape change THE group SHALL draw and expose the new row at once, without a motion, and SHALL NOT announce the change by itself.
`AVT-22`	WHEN size or shape names a value that the active design system does not have THE avatar SHALL render with the default value's tokens, and in debug builds report the unknown value. IF max is 1, negative or not a whole number THE group SHALL draw as for 0 and in debug builds report it; IF total is not null and is less than the number of members given, negative or not a whole number THE group SHALL count the members given and in debug builds report it.
`AVT-23`	IF the avatar is a group and every member has been removed THE group SHALL draw nothing, take no space and expose nothing. IF max, total or overflowLabel is set on an avatar that has no members THE avatar SHALL ignore it and in debug builds report it.
`AVT-24`	WHERE the platform has ARIA attributes (the web), an avatar's host and a group's host carries its role (AVT-9, AVT-19) itself, so what the product writes on it is not moved, but for a name: WHILE label is not empty THE avatar SHALL hold the product's aria-label and aria-labelledby on that host as their data-aria- twins, so that label is its whole name although the platform gives aria-labelledby the precedence, and WHEN label is emptied SHALL give them back as they were written; WHILE label is empty a name the product gives so — aria-label, or aria-labelledby naming an element — SHALL be its name and SHALL NOT be reported as having none in debug builds (AVT-9, AVT-19). WHILE an avatar's label is empty and decorative is false (or it is a member of a group) a name the product gives so SHALL make it one image named by that name, as AVT-9 says of its label: an image the product names is a named image. WHILE an avatar is decorative and not a member, or a group has no members (AVT-23), it exposes nothing, and THE avatar SHALL hold them as well, giving them back when it is exposed again. WHEN the product removes one, or its data-aria- twin, or sets the ARIA property that reflects it (ariaLabel, ariaLabelledByElements) to null, THE avatar SHALL take it away.

Platform name mapping

Parity does not mean identical APIs. Each platform uses its own idiom for the same contract.

Spec	Web	SwiftUI	Jetpack Compose	Flutter	React Native
Component	`tanrei-avatar`	`TanreiAvatar`	`TanreiAvatar`	`TanreiAvatar`	`Avatar`
`src` · Property	`src`	`url`	`model`	`image`	`source`
`label` · Property	`label`	`name`	`name`	`name`	`name`
`initials` · Property	`initials`	`initials`	`initials`	`initials`	`initials`
`decorative` · Property	`decorative`	`isDecorative`	`decorative`	`decorative`	`decorative`
`size` · Property	`size`	`size`	`size`	`size`	`size`
`shape` · Property	`shape`	`shape`	`shape`	`shape`	`shape`
`max` · Property	`max`	`max`	`max`	`max`	`max`
`total` · Property	`total`	`total`	`total`	`total`	`total`
`overflowLabel` · Property	`overflowLabel`	`overflowLabel`	`overflowDescription`	`overflowSemanticLabel`	`overflowAccessibilityLabel`
Notes	Two elements: `<tanrei-avatar src label initials size shape decorative>` with the fallback glyph in its `icon` slot, and the group form as `<tanrei-avatar-group label max total overflow-label size shape>` whose light-DOM children are the `<tanrei-avatar>` members (the spec's group props are the group element's attributes; `overflowLabel` is reflected as `overflow-label`). The avatar's host is `display: inline-block`, `flex: none`, `vertical-align: middle`, with `role="img"` and `aria-label` while it is named and `aria-hidden="true"` while decorative, set through ElementInternals where axe can see it and as attributes otherwise; no `tabindex`, no listeners, and `pointer-events` left as they are, so a press over an avatar inside a link or a Button reaches that element (AVT-8). The picture is an `<img alt="" decoding="async">` in the shadow root with `object-fit: cover`, kept hidden until its `load` (and its decode), then faded in while the fallback fades out — at once where the picture was `complete` as soon as its address was set, the browser's list of available images — and removed on `error` (AVT-4); `loading`, `referrerpolicy` and `crossorigin` are forwarded to it and mean nothing off the web. Initials are one `dir="auto"` run cut to two grapheme clusters with `Intl.Segmenter` (AVT-5). Before the element is defined the stylesheet of `@tanrei/web` gives `tanrei-avatar:not(:defined)` the box of its `size` and `shape` attributes in the container color and hides its children, so a page of avatars does not move when the script arrives; no picture, initials or name show until then, which is why a byline writes the name as text beside a decorative avatar. `tanrei-avatar-group:not(:defined)` is an inline flex row of those boxes. The group is `role="group"` with `aria-label`; it sets `size`, `shape` and the named state on its members, hides the members past the limit with `hidden` (they stay in the document), and draws the overflow box in its own shadow root as `aria-hidden` text beside a visually hidden run that carries `overflow-label` (AVT-19). The gap of AVT-16 is an `outline` (or a `box-shadow` spread) in `--tanrei-comp-avatar-group-outline-color`, never a border, so it takes no room; later members are above earlier ones by document order, which needs no `z-index`. Under `forced-colors: active` the box takes a `CanvasText` border and the `<img>` keeps `forced-color-adjust: none` (AVT-13). A badge on an avatar is `<tanrei-badge label="3 unread"><tanrei-avatar …></tanrei-avatar></tanrei-badge>`; a link is `<tanrei-link href="…"><tanrei-avatar label="Ada Lovelace" …></tanrei-avatar></tanrei-link>` or a plain anchor.	`TanreiAvatar(_ name: String, url: URL?, initials:, icon:, size:, shape:, isDecorative:)`, the fallback glyph given by name through `icon:`; the picture through `AsyncImage`, whose placeholder and failure phases both draw the fallback. The group form is `TanreiAvatarGroup(_ name: String, max:, total:, overflowLabel:, size:, shape:) { TanreiAvatar(…) … }`, which carries the spec's group props. Not a `Button`; `allowsHitTesting(false)` so a press reaches a `Link`, a `Button` or a row that holds it. One accessibility element with the image trait and the name as its label, or hidden while decorative; the group is `accessibilityElement(children: .contain)` with the group's label.	`TanreiAvatar(name, model, initials, icon, size, shape, decorative)`, the fallback glyph given by name through `icon`. The package keeps no image-loading dependency: `model` is handed to a painter the app provides through a composition local, and a painter that reports loading or failure draws the fallback (the same arrangement the chip's avatar needs; the platform's agent settles it). The group form is `TanreiAvatarGroup(name, max, total, overflowDescription, size, shape) { TanreiAvatar(…) … }`. No `clickable` and no `focusable` modifier; semantics are `Role.Image` with the name as `contentDescription`, cleared while decorative; the group is a semantics node with the group's name that contains its members.	`TanreiAvatar(name: …, image: ImageProvider?, initials:, icon:, size:, shape:, decorative:)`, the fallback glyph given by name through `icon`; the picture through `Image(image:, frameBuilder:, errorBuilder:)`, both builders drawing the fallback. The group form is `TanreiAvatarGroup(name: …, max:, total:, overflowSemanticLabel:, size:, shape:, children: [TanreiAvatar(…), …])`. Wrapped in `IgnorePointer`, with no `Focus`. `Semantics(image: true, label: name)` over the drawn parts, which are excluded, or `ExcludeSemantics` while decorative; the group is `Semantics(container: true, label: name)`.	`<Avatar name="Ada Lovelace" source={{ uri }} initials="AL" />`; the fallback glyph is the `icon` prop (a glyph name). The picture is an `Image` whose `onLoad` shows it and whose `onError` keeps the fallback. The group form is `<AvatarGroup name="Reviewers" max={4} total={…} overflowAccessibilityLabel="…">` with `<Avatar>` children. `pointerEvents="none"` and not `focusable`. One accessible element with `accessibilityRole="image"` and the name as `accessibilityLabel`, or `accessible={false}` with `importantForAccessibility="no-hide-descendants"` while decorative. Follows the app's direction where an ancestor's is not known.

Tokens

Token	Aliases	Resolved (light)
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-container-color`	`sys.color.surface-container-highest`	#eeeeee
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-container-shape-circle`	`sys.shape.corner.full`	9999px
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-container-shape-square`	`sys.shape.corner.small`	6px
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-container-size-large`	—	56px
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-container-size-medium`	—	40px
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-container-size-small`	—	24px
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-group-outline-color`	`sys.color.surface`	#ffffff
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-group-outline-width`	`sys.border.thick`	2px
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-group-overlap-large`	`sys.space.space100`	8px
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-group-overlap-medium`	`sys.space.space50`	4px
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-group-overlap-small`	`sys.space.space25`	2px
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-icon-color`	`sys.color.on-surface-variant`	#4b4b4b
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-icon-size-large`	`sys.icon.large`	32px
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-icon-size-medium`	`sys.icon.medium`	24px
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-icon-size-small`	`sys.icon.extra-small`	16px
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-label-color`	`sys.color.on-surface-variant`	#4b4b4b
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-motion-picture-duration`	`sys.motion.role.state.default`	250ms
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-motion-picture-easing`	`sys.motion.easing.state`	cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0, 1)
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-label-typescale-large`	`sys.typescale.heading-3`	500 20px/1.4
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-label-typescale-medium`	`sys.typescale.label`	500 14px/1.4286
`--tanrei-comp-avatar-label-typescale-small`	`sys.typescale.caption`	500 11px/1.4545

Fixtures

Canonical renderings. Every platform snapshots each fixture under the same id so the results can be compared.

`size: small` (5)

initials-small

label: Ada Lovelace initials: AL size: small

glyph-small

label: Someone without a picture size: small

square-small

label: Design team initials: DT size: small shape: square

decorative

label: Ada Lovelace initials: AL decorative: true size: small

group-small

label: Authors size: small items: 2

`size: medium` (17)

initials

label: Ada Lovelace initials: AL

initials-cjk

label: 山田花子 initials: 山

glyph

label: Someone without a picture

icon

label: Build service slots: icon

square

label: Design team initials: DT shape: square

square-glyph

label: A project shape: square

image

src: fixtures/avatar.png label: Ada Lovelace initials: AL

image-square

src: fixtures/avatar.png label: Design team initials: DT shape: square

image-failed

src: fixtures/missing.png label: Ada Lovelace initials: AL

icon-rtl

label: خدمة المساعدة direction: rtl slots: icon

initials-rtl

label: ليلى حسن initials: لح direction: rtl

group

label: Authors items: 3

group-max

label: Reviewers max: 4 overflowLabel: {count} more items: 6

group-total

label: Members max: 4 total: 240 overflowLabel: {count} more items: 3

group-square

label: Teams shape: square items: 3

group-image

label: Authors items: 3

group-max-rtl

label: المراجعون max: 4 overflowLabel: و{count} آخرون direction: rtl items: 6

`size: large` (4)

initials-large

label: Ada Lovelace initials: AL size: large

glyph-large

label: Someone without a picture size: large

square-large

label: Design team initials: DT size: large shape: square

group-large

label: Authors size: large max: 3 overflowLabel: {count} more items: 4

Generated from specs/avatar.spec.json, tokens/comp/avatar.tokens.json, design/tokens/

Guidelines

When to use

Use an avatar where a small picture tells people who or what something belongs to faster than a name alone: a byline, a comment, a row of a list of people, the head of a profile. It is a picture and nothing more. It has no hover, no focus, no press and no event.

You need	Use
A dot or a count on a person (“3 unread”)	A badge around the avatar.
An avatar that leads to a profile	A link that holds the avatar.
An avatar that opens a menu	A button that holds the avatar.
A person who can be chosen or removed	A chip.
Presence (online, away)	Words beside the name, with a tag where it needs a mark.

What it draws

The avatar draws the first of these that it has:

The picture of src, once it has loaded.
The initials you give.
The glyph in its icon slot.
The system’s own glyph: a person for a circle, a neutral mark for a square.

The box keeps its size from the first paint. While a picture loads, the fallback is drawn in its place, and when the picture arrives it fades in as the fallback fades out. A picture the browser already holds is drawn at once. Nothing around the avatar moves. A picture that cannot be loaded leaves the fallback: there is no broken-picture mark, and the avatar does not ask again.

Initials

The avatar does not make initials from the name. Which characters stand for a name depends on its writing system and on which part comes first, and your product already knows that. Give them in initials:

Name	`initials`
Ada Lovelace	`AL`
山田花子	`山` or `山田`
王小明	`王`
ليلى حسن	`لح`
किरण राव	`किरा`

The avatar draws at most two characters, counted the way a reader counts them, so a letter with its marks or a joined syllable is never cut in half. It draws them as written and does not change their case.

Initials in several writing systems

Sizes and shapes

`size`	Side	Use for
`small`	24	Beside one line of text: a byline, a table cell, a mention.
`medium` (default)	40	A row of a list, a comment.
`large`	56	The head of a person’s own page or card.

`shape`	Use for
`circle` (default)	A person.
`square`	Something that is not one person: a team, a project, an organisation, a bot.

Every fallback has the same quiet fill. There is no color per person: a color that means nothing is not in the system.

The picture

Give a square picture of at least twice the avatar’s side, so it stays sharp on a dense screen. A picture of other proportions is cropped around its centre.
loading="lazy" waits to ask for the picture until the avatar is near the window. Use it in long lists.
referrerpolicy and crossorigin are passed to the picture as you write them. The avatar chooses neither: what a picture’s host is told about your page is your decision.

Groups

A group draws its members as one row. Each lies a little over the one before it (2, 4 or 8 by size), so two initials side by side stay whole and are not misread, with a gap in the surface’s color around each.

A group that counts what it was not given

max is the most boxes the group draws, the overflow box included. Six members with max="4" are three members and “+3”. The group never draws “+1”: it would spend a box to hide one face.
total is the real count where you give the group fewer members than exist. Three members, max="4" and total="240" are three members and “99+”: above 99 the box reads “99+” at every size, so it never holds more than three characters. Give the exact number in overflow-label, which is what is read.
The group gives its size and shape to every member.
On another surface than the page’s, set --tanrei-comp-avatar-group-outline-color to that surface’s color.
The overflow box is text, not a control. Where people need to see who else there is, put a link or a button beside the group.

Before the script arrives

<tanrei-avatar> draws in its shadow root, so a page rendered on a server shows nothing in its place until the script runs. Load @tanrei/web/avatar.css and each avatar keeps a box of its size and shape, so the page does not move. No picture, initials or name show until then. For a page that must read without script, write the name as text beside a decorative avatar.

A group with max shows every member you gave it until the script counts them. If that must not move the page, give the group only the members it draws, and the rest as total.

Do

Give every avatar that stands alone a label: the name in full.
Set decorative on an avatar that stands beside the same name in text.
Give initials to every person, so a missing or slow picture still shows who it is.
Keep one shape for one kind of thing across the product.

Don’t

Don’t put a handler on an avatar. Put it in a link or a button, which has the states and the focus indicator.
Don’t write “Photo of” in the label. The label is the name.
Don’t use a color, a ring or a dot of your own to show status. A count is a badge, and presence is said in words.
Don’t use an avatar for a decorative picture or a logo in a heading. It stands for someone or something people act as.

Accessibility

Role: img
Labeling: An avatar that stands alone is an image named by label, the full name of the person or the thing, whatever it draws; the initials, the glyph and the picture's address are never read. An avatar beside the same name in visible text is decorative and hidden. A group is a group named by its label, holding one named image for each member it draws and, last, the overflow's text (overflowLabel, or the drawn count). Inside a link or a Button, the avatar's label is part of that element's name.
Minimum target: The hit area meets the minimum target size even when the visual size is smaller. minimum 32px · pointer 44px · spacing 8px · touch 48px

Keyboard

Keys	Action

Notes

Not interactive: the avatar takes no input and no focus (AVT-7), so there is no target to size and minimumTarget holds trivially. An avatar that is pressed is inside a link or a Button, and that element meets the minimum target by its own spec; a small (24) avatar alone in a link needs the link's target, not its own box, to be large enough.
Decorative or named is the product's decision and cannot be seen from the avatar: beside "Ada Lovelace" in text a named avatar would be read as "Ada Lovelace, image, Ada Lovelace". The rule the docs page gives: if deleting the avatar loses a name, it is named; otherwise it is decorative.
The name is the name, not a description of the picture: "Ada Lovelace", never "Photo of Ada Lovelace" and never the initials.
Contrast in the default system: the initials, the count and the glyph are on-surface-variant on surface-container-highest, a pair the token invariants hold to 4.5:1 for secondary content on every surface tone. The fill against the surface around it is not held to a ratio: the avatar is not a control, and what it says is its name.
A picture brings its own colors, which the avatar does not check. A picture with a pale edge on a pale surface loses its outline; the avatar draws no ring around a picture, so a product whose pictures are often pale chooses the square or gives the surface behind them a tone.
A badge on an avatar (AVT-12) says that something is waiting, in the badge's one color and with the badge's label in words. Presence (online, away, busy) is a status that a color alone would carry; say it in words beside the name, with a tag where it needs a mark.
Forced colors (AVT-13): every fallback gains an edge in the text color; pictures are left alone.
A group's overflow box is text, not a control. Where the people it counts matter (who else can see this), the product lists them: a link or a Button beside the group that opens the full list.

Generated from specs/avatar.spec.json, tokens/sys/measure.tokens.json

What the component handles

Alone, it is one image named by label, whether it draws a picture, initials or a glyph. The initials, the glyph’s name and the picture’s address are never read.
With decorative, it is hidden from assistive technology.
Inside a link or a button, its label becomes that element’s name, and a press on the avatar reaches that element.
A badge around it adds the badge’s label after the avatar’s name.
A group is one group named by its label. It holds one named image for each member it draws, in the order given, and then the overflow’s text. Members it does not draw are not exposed.
It takes no input and no focus, so it adds no stop to the focus order.
With enlarged text it keeps its box, as an icon does. Its initials grow with the text until they fill the glyph’s box of the avatar’s size, and stay whole inside it.
In forced-colors mode every fallback gains an edge in the text color. A picture keeps its own colors.
In a right-to-left layout a group starts at the right. A picture and initials are never mirrored, and the plus sign of “+3” stays before the digits.
An avatar without a name, initials longer than two characters, a picture that fails, and an unknown size or shape are reported in debug builds.

What you need to do

Decide for each avatar whether it is named or decorative. The rule: if deleting the avatar loses a name, it is named. Otherwise it is decorative.
Write overflowLabel once, in the page’s language, with the place {count} where the number goes (and {count} more) — on the group, or for the whole product with setWords({ avatarGroupOverflowLabel }). The group fills in the number it does not draw, in full even where it draws 99+. Write a sentence that is right for every number, or set it per count where your language needs another form for one. Without it, “+3” is read as drawn.
Give a small avatar inside a link enough room to press. The avatar is 24 wide; the link must meet the minimum target itself.
A picture brings its own colors. Where pictures are often pale at their edge, give the surface behind them a tone.

Source code and issues on GitHub