I think ajax is not important for it. It can be done by JavaScript. Example: <html> <head> <title>Loading image</title> </head> <body> <img id="loading_image" src="http://forums.digitalpoint.com/images/misc/dps_logo.gif"> <div id="loading">Loading...</div> </body> <script> document.getElementById('loading_image').style.display = "none"; document.getElementById('loading').style.display = ""; document.getElementById('loading_image').onload = function(){ document.getElementById('loading').style.display = "none"; document.getElementById('loading_image').style.display = ""; } </script> </html> Code (markup):