How to replace missing images with default image

Is there a way to detect missing images (not residing on my site) and redirect them to a static image?

Basically if I had an image that I was displaying from a different site (with permission), and that image were removed, is there a way I can default that image to a default .gif? I have tried PHP getimagesize, but to do that multiple times per page REALLY slowed things down.

Is there a better way? The only other thing I could think of was to create a background image of the default gif, load the images on top of the background, and use blank alt text so that if the image I'm trying to load doesn't exist, just the background default image will show, but this won't work very well, as sometimes the background image would show through as the size of the images are variable.

Thanks!

 

I'm sure that you could actually do this with javascript preloading

 

Try htaccess

RewriteCond %{ENV:ERROR404} \.(jpe?g|gif|png)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^.*$ foo.gif [L]

Code (markup):

 

well done, that's an excellent and efficient solution!

 

Yes, thank you very much!