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Is there an extension for firefox / plugin for chrome / userscript that can make the browser only load first frame of a .gif image rather than (down)loading it entirely.
(gifs take up unnecessarily more of my very limited bandwidth (don't ask) but I don't want to block other friendly images or I'd block all images entirely (like opera does))
laggingreflex
Posted 2013-07-12T02:44:03.253
Reputation: 3 498
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Yes, you can use Privoxy for that. The bonus is that this is system-level tool, so you can use it in combination with any browser.
From the manual:
8.5.12. deanimate-gifs Typical use:
Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.Effect:
De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.Type:
Parameterized.Parameter:
"last" or "first"Notes:
This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If the option "first" is given, the first frame of the animation is used as the replacement. If "last" is given, the last frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like a GIF.
Nice! If this works and does what Etan said above, seems like it's a perfect solution. – Karan – 2013-07-12T17:59:47.087
It seems to, if its claim that it "will also shrink the images considerably" is true. – None – 2013-07-13T11:58:32.773
1Also, I recommend using Privoxy anyway for the rest of its privacy-protecting features! – None – 2013-07-13T11:59:01.277
That's an interesting question. From a quick look at the gif89a spec it looks like this would require on-the-fly parsing of the image as the packets came in and then a termination of the connection when the full first frame had been received. – Etan Reisner – 2013-07-12T02:57:47.300
image.animation_mode will stop the animation, but won't prevent the entire file from being downloaded. – Karan – 2013-07-12T02:58:18.833
You can also create a block rule for ".gif" in Adblock Plus to block all GIFs, but that may be excessive. – Karan – 2013-07-12T03:15:24.810