How can I disable flashing images on the Internet Archive?

February 11, 2014 10:36 PM

How do I turn off the distracting animated thumbnail images on the Internet Archive?

The Internet Archive (archive.org) is a fantastic resource, but the thumbnail images that appear of books (in search results, for example) constantly flash different pages. This never-ending (and pointless, as far as I can see) flashing of thumbnail images throughout this website is very distracting and annoying to me; however I can't seem to figure out how to turn this off (I can't seem to find an answer to this question on the site itself).

Can anyone provide a user setting or a Firefox plugin or some other way of viewing the Internet Archive's wonderful collection of materials without being tormented by flashing images? I'm tired of having to resize my browser window or to put post-it notes on my screen in order to read a old text in relative peace.

Many thanks for any suggestions.

posted by washburn to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

This looks like a good way to disable animated GIFs:

Stop Animated Images in a Browser
posted by rmmcclay at 11:02 PM on February 11, 2014

Toggle Animated GIFs is a Firefox plugin that claims to do this per page/image, but I haven't tried it.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 11:06 PM on February 11, 2014

If you have Adblock Plus installed, right click on the offending image and create a sensible filter to block it.
posted by oceanjesse at 11:07 PM on February 11, 2014

For the search results screen at least, under "Options," you can click on "Turn off thumbnails."
posted by gubo at 7:40 AM on February 12, 2014

In most browsers, you can also just hit the Escape key to stop the animation.
posted by mudpuppie at 10:39 AM on February 12, 2014