Is it possible to "pause" an animated gif file in Google Chrome? If so, how do I do it?
I've tried Esc without luck. I'm aware that other browsers can do this using the Esc key
I thought I saw a similar question on here before but couldn't find it - close as dupe if you can find it
Nope, not yet. There is a feature request to add it to Webkit (which is what Chrome is based off of).
There's a great extension for this: Gif Scrubber!
Allows stepping, exploding to see all individual frames (so frame download), with simple shortcuts.
(not in any way affiliated, just stoked it works so well)
you can "grab" the image with your cursor and "hold" a stop-frame of it but once you let go it will begin again
Exactly what I was looking for: https://github.com/shachaf/jsgif
Check how it works: https://slbkbs.org/jsgif/
Simple and minimal!
No, you can't do this. Firefox and Internet Explorer have the functionality you describe, but Chrome doesn't.
Stop animated .gif images in Google Chrome
As we all know, the Escape [Esc] key doesn’t work in the Google Chrome web browser. The Esc key should stop animated gifs dead in their tracks, but it doesn’t. Nor is there a trusty Web Developer toolbar available to do away with them once and for all.
Solution:
Have another tab open in your browser while you’re surfing, (if you don’t already).
Click the other tab with your mouse, then click back to your original tab that had the animated gif.
Caveats:
a. This only stops the gif animation so that you can read without distraction. When you scroll your browser or click the page, the gif will start animating again. This is a temporary hack, until Google adds this functionality or a plugin is written.
b. You must use your mouse to click another tab and then click back on the tab you are trying to stop gif animation in. You can’t use the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl]+[Tab].
note: the article is dated from Dec 2008, i don't know whether this trick works with current versions of Chrome, it doesn't work for me with SRWare Iron Portable 3.x
I have just found that clicking the snipping tool "appears" to work. As soon as you cancel the snipping tool, you bounce back to the animation (that has been moving forward while you snipped).
Press windows key + shift + S and esc to exit. Probably the fastest way to view it while paused without needing to actually screenshot
I know this is an old question, but I think the easiest way to do it now (at least 2024) without using any extension or external software, is to use Google Lens feature in Google Chrome. This is how:
Arriving at this question so I could stop browser animations in Chrome, I found the Chrome Animation Policy extension (courtesy of GifDB), which offers the choice of
Right click. Select IE Tab Options| Open in IE Tab.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ie-tab/hehijbfgiekmjfkfjpbkbammjbdenadd?hl=en-US
