thumbnail-zoom
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dadler
option to play animated gifs even if animation is disabled
Request: force the animation to be "enabled" on animated GIFs - thumbs AND full-size.
My idea... if it's possible - on mouse-over give Thumbnail Zoom the option of setting the image.animation_mode (in about:config) to "normal".
In about:config I have image.animation_mode set to "none" so there's no way to know if a GIF is animated or not. I think many people are like me - we use "none" since things like forums are unreadable with GIFs flashing. I think a mouse-over solution would be near perfect.
Why?
At google images did a mouse over of a thumb and and Thumbnail Zoom "enabled" the full-sized animated GIF despite my about:config setting. The "forced enabling" doesn't seem to be default behavior.
= If I don't think a GIF is animated - I miss the chance to see it.
= If I think a GIF is animated I use an ugly workaround. I open the full-sized image in the IE tab add-on. Doing that is no fun. Of course - if there's more than one image - it's a big slog or I'm forced to open the page in IE tab.
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image.animation_mode info [Edit - I changed the link. It's the same one as dadler's link.]
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Image examples http://imgur.com/MxMEy
On the page are various examples of the same image
The full-size http://i.imgur.com/MxMEy.gif
The large thumb [blahblah + l.gif] http://i.imgur.com/MxMEyl.gif
The small square thumbnail [blahblah + s.gif] http://i.imgur.com/MxMEys.gif
It's an interesting idea. I just prototyped the suggested change, and it works somewhat.
One problem I see is that the configuration change doesn't affect an image if it's already been loaded into cache (eg when configuration was set to "none"). So if for example the page embeds the full-size gif as the thumbnail (perhaps with img width and height set to make it look smaller), the popup won't animate even if the add-on or user sets the configuration to "normal". But it could work for images which weren't previously loaded into cache.
I've also seen it cause the thumbnail in the page to start animating when the TZP popup appears, e.g. on this page: http://hub.webring.org/hub/supermananimated
BTW, the "full-size" and "large thumb" images mentioned in the issue submission both seem to be the same size (resolution and bytes).
It'd be helpful to have an example of where it'd be used in real life -- ideally a page with several different animated gifs which are linked to larger animated gifs (e.g. where you'd want to use thumbnail zoom plus).
For the record, here's the config setting's doc on mozillazine.
One can find links to many gifs on reddit (though the thumbs are jpg, not gif): http://www.reddit.com/r/gifs
TZP popup appears
The problem is - after mouse-over it's "enabled" and doesn't stop.
One problem I see is that the configuration change doesn't affect an image if it's already been loaded into cache (eg when configuration was set to "none").
Could it work in an "opposite" way: the setting could be "normal" - yet the add-on blocks animations until mouse over.
It'd be helpful to have an example of where it'd be used in real life -- ideally a page with several different animated gifs which are linked to larger animated gifs (e.g. where you'd want to use thumbnail zoom plus).
= Forums can be awful. An example is a forum where the "thumbs" are simply the full-sized animated GIF resized with a width or height attribute. The only forums I know of like this require a log-in.
= A worse problem is webpages assume you have GIFs enabled. Any page may have an animated gif: a random blog, Wikipedia etc. Wikipedia might have one on a page related to engineering, science or technology... If there's no hint text: "This animation shows..." - you can miss the animation.
I was surprised that when I looked for a non-working example - I found one that does show the animation on mouse over. Uranus: Orbit and rotation - the first image. [Edit - sometimes it's animated - other times it's not.]
Maybe I'm a dinosaur but I don't like anything flashing when I want to read a page.
Offhand I don't remember if Wikipedia uses a thumb or full-sized image for gifs.
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By the way...
= There's no "quote" link. What's the best way to quote somebody? Using "greater than" is pretty ugly.
= For a comment you've already posted - is there a preview function? I can't find it.
The option's setting must set the way you want it to affect the web page itself since TZP isn't involved in the loading of the page.
Even if the forum requires a login, if it's free to join and you don't mind sending me the URL, it'd help me test this. You can reply via email if you prefer.
If you'd like to try my prototype I could email that version of TZP to you. In that version it temporarily sets the animation mode to "normal" while loading the pop-up. Send an email to me at [email protected] and I'll reply with the add-on. Then you could test it on the forum.
It's not ready yet for an official beta release since it hasn't been tested much and there isn't yet a preference in TZP to enable/disable this behavior.
The "Uranus: Orbit and rotation - the first image" example does seem to work well in my prototype so that's a good sign. The approach I'm taking isn't foolproof, though: since the preference is global to the browser, other pages which are loading at the same time as a popup may show gif animation (I suspect).
Re commenting in github, I don't know how to see a preview of a post, though you can always edit after the fact.
A different idea which would help a little would be for TZP to show an indication in the mouse cursor when it's able to recognize that an popup is for a gif image. But it can't always tell since the linked image wouldn't have to be named *.gif.
Even if the forum requires a login, if it's free to join...
You'd need an invite.
You can make your own examples with any gif if you set the width.
Here's an animated "thumb" at a forum. I used Firebug to grab the HTML:
<img width="150" src="http://i47.tinypic.com/2a7aarm.jpg">
Just in case - here's a non-HTML version:
img width="150" src="hxxp://i47.tinypic.com/2a7aarm.jpg"
When I mouse over - the animation becomes "enabled" and continues after I mouse out. Some forum "thumbs" animate after mouse over. Others don't.
That example comes from a b-movie forum and many of the images are NSFW so I don't want to share more than one image.
If you'd like to try my prototype
I'll think about it.
...since the preference is global to the browser, other pages which are loading at the same time as a popup may show gif animation (I suspect).
I can't quite follow that.
the mouse cursor
Well, nearly all animations start very quickly. Within a fraction of a second after mouse over you know if it's animated or not. But I think a mouse cursor change would still be good. "Nearly all" isn't the same as "all".
But it can't always tell since the linked image wouldn't have to be named *.gif.
Hmm... maybe the mouse cursor idea isn't possible.