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AWS Solutions Library

Dynamic Image Transformation for Amazon CloudFront

Transform, optimize, and deliver images in real time at a fraction of the cost

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Overview

Dynamic Image Transformation for Amazon CloudFront (formerly Serverless Image Handler) enables real-time image processing through the global content delivery network (CDN) of Amazon CloudFront. This AWS Solution helps you optimize visual content delivery while significantly reducing operational costs and complexity. By dynamically transforming a single source image on-demand, it eliminates the need to store multiple versions of the same image, resulting in substantial storage savings. This solution also enhances the user experience through faster load times with improved caching, while providing robust security controls to protect against inappropriate content, including URL signing, request validation, and content moderation features.

Benefits

Transform and optimize images in real-time through simple API requests, serving the most efficient format based on browser capabilities and helping ensure optimal file size and quality.
Store only original images and generate variants on-demand, eliminating the need for multiple versions of the same image and significantly reducing storage costs.

Protect visual assets with URL signing, request validation, and content moderation features while maintaining granular access controls over your image delivery.
Automatically handle varying loads with serverless architecture, enabling consistent performance during traffic spikes without managing infrastructure.

Technical details

You can automatically deploy this architecture using the implementation guide and the accompanying AWS CloudFormation template.

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About this deployment

  • Version: 7.0.6
  • Released: 7/2025
  • Author: AWS
  • Est. deployment time: 15 mins
  • Estimated cost: See details

Deploy with confidence

Everything you need to launch this AWS Solution in your account is right here

We'll walk you through it

Get started fast. Read the implementation guide for deployment steps, architecture details, cost information, and customization options.

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Let's make it happen

Ready to deploy? Open the CloudFormation template in the AWS Console to begin setting up the infrastructure you need. You'll be prompted to access your AWS account if you haven't yet logged in. 

Launch in the AWS Console

Related content

Video

Solving with AWS Solutions: Serverless Image Handler

This video explores how the Serverless Image Handler AWS Solution leverages AWS services and Sharp to provide efficient, scalable, and cost-effective image processing capabilities through a serverless architecture, utilizing Amazon CloudFront and S3 for global content delivery and storage.

Watch the video 

Fast and Cost-Effective Image Manipulation with Serverless Image Handler

This blog post demonstrates how Serverless Image Handler (SIH), an AWS Solution Implementation, streamlines image management for multi-platform content delivery by storing a single version of each image and dynamically generating device-specific versions at runtime, offering features like resizing, formatting, and watermarking while reducing storage costs and simplifying code.

Read the full blog post

Map Your Show

“At Map Your Show, we manage thousands of images across web-based exhibitor profiles and mobile apps. By using Dynamic Image Transformation for Amazon CloudFront, we've simplified our image collection process and improved exhibitor platform onboarding time by 37%. The solution has been instrumental in helping us deliver high-performance, dynamically transformed images at scale— all without the need to manage multiple variants or maintain additional infrastructure.”

Drew Martin, VP of Technology, Map Your Show

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