Image slider: maintaining equal height for all images while keeping slider responsive

Question

In my JS image slider (Owl-Carousel), images have different dimensions:

http://goo.gl/KmpX2P

You can see that the image height varies within the carousel. How to make it constant while keeping carousel responsive? I need images to fill the slider space at all times, therefore some will have to be cropped through CSS somehow. The desired result looks like this:

Answer 1

It can be specified in css.

Example,

http://jsfiddle.net/AwBLL/2/

.owl-carousel .owl-item{
    height:285px;
    width:100%;
}

EDIT The following solution uses the plugin's callback events to modify the viewport's/wrapper's height according to the smallest image height.

http://jsfiddle.net/DNMpF/1/

js

$(document).ready(function () {

    $("#owl-example").owlCarousel({
        afterUpdate: function () {
            updateSize();
        },
        afterInit:function(){
            updateSize();
        }
    });
    function updateSize(){
        var minHeight=parseInt($('.owl-item').eq(0).css('height'));
        $('.owl-item').each(function () {
            var thisHeight = parseInt($(this).css('height'));
            minHeight=(minHeight<=thisHeight?minHeight:thisHeight);
        });
        $('.owl-wrapper-outer').css('height',minHeight+'px');
    }
});

css

.owl-carousel .owl-item img {
    height:auto;
    width:100%;
    display: block;
}

.owl-carousel .item {
    margin:0px;
}

EDIT2

Regarding the latest comment, to show the bottom part of the large images one approach could be to iterate the images and add a negative top margin equal to the part of these images hidden.

function updateSize(){
        var minHeight=parseInt($('.owl-item').eq(0).css('height'));
        $('.owl-item').each(function () {
            var thisHeight = parseInt($(this).css('height'));
            minHeight=(minHeight<=thisHeight?minHeight:thisHeight);
        });
        $('.owl-wrapper-outer').css('height',minHeight+'px');

        /*show the bottom part of the cropped images*/
        $('.owl-carousel .owl-item img').each(function(){
            var thisHeight = parseInt($(this).css('height'));
            if(thisHeight>minHeight){
                $(this).css('margin-top',-1*(thisHeight-minHeight)+'px');
            }
        });

    }

Answer 2

Slides with random height at http://jsfiddle.net/AwBLL/108/

HTML:

<h2>Vertical align</h2>
<div class="owl-carousel bg-contain">
  <img src="http://lorempixel.com/234/100/technics/1/"  />
  <img src="http://lorempixel.com/234/400/technics/2/"  />
  <img src="http://lorempixel.com/234/200/technics/9/"  />
  <img src="http://lorempixel.com/234/150/technics/10/" />
</div>

<h2>Full Zoom small images</h2>
<div class="owl-carousel bg-cover">
  <img src="http://lorempixel.com/234/100/technics/1/"  />
  <img src="http://lorempixel.com/234/400/technics/2/"  />
  <img src="http://lorempixel.com/234/200/technics/9/"  />
  <img src="http://lorempixel.com/234/150/technics/10/" />
</div>

CSS:

.owl-wrapper-outer {
  border: 1px solid red;
  font: 0/0 a;
  line-height: 0;
}

.owl-carousel .owl-item {
  background-position: 50% 50%;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
}
.bg-contain .owl-item { background-size: contain }
.bg-cover .owl-item { background-size: cover }

.owl-carousel .owl-item img {
  height: auto;
  width: 100%;
  visibility: hidden;
}

JS:

$(".owl-carousel").each(function () {
  var $this = $(this);

  $this.owlCarousel({
    afterUpdate: function () {
      updateSize($this);
    },
    afterInit: function () {
      updateSize($this);
    }
  });
});

function updateSize($carousel) {
  var maxHeight = 0;

  $('.owl-item', $carousel).each(function () {
    var $this = $(this);
    var $image = $this.find('img');

    //Max height
    var prevHeight = $this.height();
    var thisHeight = $this.height('auto').height();
    $this.height(prevHeight);
    maxHeight = (maxHeight > thisHeight ? maxHeight : thisHeight);

    //Set image as background
    var imageSource = $image.attr('src');
    $this.css('backgroundImage', 'url(' + imageSource + ')');
  });

  //Set equal height
  $('.owl-item', $carousel).height(maxHeight);
}