Download image with JavaScript

As @Ian explained, the problem is that jQuery's click() is not the same as the native one.

Therefore, consider using vanilla-js instead of jQuery:

var a = document.createElement('a');
a.href = "img.png";
a.download = "output.png";
document.body.appendChild(a);
a.click();
document.body.removeChild(a);

Demo

The problem is that jQuery doesn't trigger the native click event for <a> elements so that navigation doesn't happen (the normal behavior of an <a>), so you need to do that manually. For almost all other scenarios, the native DOM event is triggered (at least attempted to - it's in a try/catch).

To trigger it manually, try:

var a = $("<a>")
    .attr("href", "http://i.stack.imgur.com/L8rHf.png")
    .attr("download", "img.png")
    .appendTo("body");

a[0].click();

a.remove();

DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/HTggQ/

Relevant line in current jQuery source: https://github.com/jquery/jquery/blob/1.11.1/src/event.js#L332

if ( (!special._default || special._default.apply( eventPath.pop(), data ) === false) &&
        jQuery.acceptData( elem ) ) {