How to emulate background-size: cover on <img>?

For what it's worth: this can now be done with CSS alone with...

The new CSS property object-fit (Current browser support)

Just set object-fit: cover; on the img

You don't even need to wrap the img in a div!

FIDDLE

img {
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
}
.object-fit {
  display: block;
  object-fit: cover;
}
.original {
  width: auto;
  height: auto;
  display: block;
}

<img src="http://lorempixel.com/413/325/food" width="413" height="325">
<p>Img 'squashed' - not good</p>
<img class="object-fit" src="http://lorempixel.com/413/325/food" width="413" height="325">
<p>object-fit: cover -
   The whole image is scaled down or expanded till it fills the box completely, the aspect ratio is maintained. This normally results in only part of the image being visible. </p>
<img class="original" src="http://lorempixel.com/413/325/food" width="413" height="325">
<p>Original ing</p>

You can read more about this new property in this webplatform article.

Also, here is a fiddle from the above article which demonstrates all the values of the object-fit property.

Close enough, pure CSS solution for background size cover simulation using img tag with very good browser support (IE8+):

.container {

  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  right: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  left: 0;

  overflow: hidden;

}

.container img {

  position: absolute;
  top: 50%;
  left: 50%;

  width: auto;
  height: auto;

  max-height: none;
  max-width: none;

  min-height: 100%;
  min-width: 100%;

  transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
  -ms-transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
  -webkit-transform: translate(-50%, -50%);

}

<div class="container">
  <img src="//lorempixel.com/400/200/sports/1/" />
</div>

this may be easier

jQuery

$('.box').each(function() {
    //set size
    var th = $(this).height(),//box height
        tw = $(this).width(),//box width
        im = $(this).children('img'),//image
        ih = im.height(),//inital image height
        iw = im.width();//initial image width
    if (ih>iw) {//if portrait
        im.addClass('ww').removeClass('wh');//set width 100%
    } else {//if landscape
        im.addClass('wh').removeClass('ww');//set height 100%
    }
    //set offset
    var nh = im.height(),//new image height
        nw = im.width(),//new image width
        hd = (nh-th)/2,//half dif img/box height
        wd = (nw-tw)/2;//half dif img/box width
    if (nh<nw) {//if portrait
        im.css({marginLeft: '-'+wd+'px', marginTop: 0});//offset left
    } else {//if landscape
        im.css({marginTop: '-'+hd+'px', marginLeft: 0});//offset top
    }
});

css

.box{height:100px;width:100px;overflow:hidden}
.wh{height:100%!important}
.ww{width:100%!important}

This should handle any size/orientation, and will not only resize, but offset the images. All without relative or absolute positioning.

made a fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/filever10/W8aLN/

Also for what it's worth, the same effect can be produced by instead of setting "width" and "height" (setting them could break this approach btw):

min-width: 100%; min-height: 100%;

or

min-width: (your desired percent of viewport width)vw; min-height: (your desired percent of viewport height)vh;

with

overflow: hidden;

on the parent

:)