How to get firefox to show image placeholders?
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- Guest
How to get firefox to show image placeholders?
IE always show borders/outline of where the imge would be when it loads but firefox doesn't.... so sometimes there would be an image there and I wouldn't even know it, especially on a slow server. Firefox just shows blank/nothingness in the spot where the image is, so if the url is broken, nothing is there at all! In IE, you at least get an broken image icon. Does firefox supports these featurs too?
- technomage
- Posts: 1106
- Joined: November 16th, 2003, 11:05 am
Whether or not an image placeholder shows up depends on what's included in the img take that's used. For example:
<b>If the image tag contains no alt attribute:</b>
<img src="http://fake.com/fakeimage.jpg">
(There should be a "broken image" icon above.)
<b>If the image tag contains ' alt="" ':</b>
<img src="http://fake.com/fakeimage.jpg" alt="">
(There should be nothing displayed above to indicate the presence of an img tag.)
<b>If the image tag contains an alt tag with text (not just open and close quote with nothing in between:</b>
<img src="http://fake.com/fakeimage.jpg" alt="fake image">
(There should be the text "fake image" above.)
Edit: Testing something Lazlo mentioned:
<b>If the image tag contains an empty alt tag, but has set dimensions:</b>
<img src="http://fake.com/fakeimage.jpg" alt="" height=100 width=100>
Interesting.
Edit2:
<b>If the image tag contains an alt tag, but has set dimensions:</b>
<img src="http://fake.com/fakeimage.jpg" alt="image" height=100 width=100>
The second example is probably the most annoying and is the one you're talking about, because it doesn't show a placeholder or the alt text (and so many people use alt="" that you end up with nothing). I personally think the third example is also annoying because there's no indication that the text is meant as an alt replacement for a broken image link. It's just text. But other people don't seem to think that way. Bugs have been filed. Whether or not anything will change is anyone's bet.
<b>If the image tag contains no alt attribute:</b>
<img src="http://fake.com/fakeimage.jpg">
(There should be a "broken image" icon above.)
<b>If the image tag contains ' alt="" ':</b>
<img src="http://fake.com/fakeimage.jpg" alt="">
(There should be nothing displayed above to indicate the presence of an img tag.)
<b>If the image tag contains an alt tag with text (not just open and close quote with nothing in between:</b>
<img src="http://fake.com/fakeimage.jpg" alt="fake image">
(There should be the text "fake image" above.)
Edit: Testing something Lazlo mentioned:
<b>If the image tag contains an empty alt tag, but has set dimensions:</b>
<img src="http://fake.com/fakeimage.jpg" alt="" height=100 width=100>
Interesting.
Edit2:
<b>If the image tag contains an alt tag, but has set dimensions:</b>
<img src="http://fake.com/fakeimage.jpg" alt="image" height=100 width=100>
The second example is probably the most annoying and is the one you're talking about, because it doesn't show a placeholder or the alt text (and so many people use alt="" that you end up with nothing). I personally think the third example is also annoying because there's no indication that the text is meant as an alt replacement for a broken image link. It's just text. But other people don't seem to think that way. Bugs have been filed. Whether or not anything will change is anyone's bet.
Last edited by technomage on April 18th, 2004, 3:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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- tupence
- Posts: 152
- Joined: February 21st, 2004, 4:09 am
- Location: UK
If you want to see the alt text for images, like you can in IE, this exention will let you - http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/popupalt
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11
- laszlo
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Open <a href="about:config"><b>about:config</b></a> and set "browser.display.show_image_placeholders" to true. Note that true is the default for this setting.
"I'll be dead after I die. I was dead before I was born. Life is a break from death." - Hlynur, 101 Reykjavík
- technomage
- Posts: 1106
- Joined: November 16th, 2003, 11:05 am
Mine is already on true, and the only image placeholder I see is the first example I posted. And I often see some when pictures are loading, but those are infinitely less useful than a broken image icon, because those go away once the picture shows up (or doesn't show up).
I think this is something either the devs need to change or someone needs to write an extension for, because currently it's just not there.
I think this is something either the devs need to change or someone needs to write an extension for, because currently it's just not there.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060508 Firefox/1.5.0.4
Mozilla Thunderbird version 1.5.0.4 (20060516)
Desktop: WinXP Pro | AthlonXP 1700+ | 512MB DDR | ATI Radeon 9000
Laptop: WinXP Home | Intel Centrino Solo 1.66 GHz | 1024 MB DDR2 | Intel GMA 950 Graphphi
Mozilla Thunderbird version 1.5.0.4 (20060516)
Desktop: WinXP Pro | AthlonXP 1700+ | 512MB DDR | ATI Radeon 9000
Laptop: WinXP Home | Intel Centrino Solo 1.66 GHz | 1024 MB DDR2 | Intel GMA 950 Graphphi
- laszlo
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What you should see with this pref set to true is the following:
- If the pic is larger than the placeholder, the placeholder with a frame around it is shown while the picture loads, accompanied by ALT text if available. If the picture can't be loaded, the loading indicator changes to the broken image indicator.
- If the picture has a width and height given by HTML or CSS, the frame around the placeholder should have the given size even before the picture starts loading. If the image is smaller than the placeholder, you will see neither the loading nor the broken indicator due to the small size of the mentioned frame.
This is what I see on dialup. To summarize: the only difference for me is that Firefox shows a loading indicator in the frame that gets later replaced by the loaded image while IE doesn't.
- If the pic is larger than the placeholder, the placeholder with a frame around it is shown while the picture loads, accompanied by ALT text if available. If the picture can't be loaded, the loading indicator changes to the broken image indicator.
- If the picture has a width and height given by HTML or CSS, the frame around the placeholder should have the given size even before the picture starts loading. If the image is smaller than the placeholder, you will see neither the loading nor the broken indicator due to the small size of the mentioned frame.
This is what I see on dialup. To summarize: the only difference for me is that Firefox shows a loading indicator in the frame that gets later replaced by the loaded image while IE doesn't.
- technomage
- Posts: 1106
- Joined: November 16th, 2003, 11:05 am
Do you see a broken image icon in the above example "If the image tag contains ' alt="" ':" I don't, and I think that's the one that annoys me (and other people like Guest) the most. If there are no dimensions given and there is a blank alt tag (both of which are very common), there's NO indication WHATSOEVER that an image should be there.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060508 Firefox/1.5.0.4
Mozilla Thunderbird version 1.5.0.4 (20060516)
Desktop: WinXP Pro | AthlonXP 1700+ | 512MB DDR | ATI Radeon 9000
Laptop: WinXP Home | Intel Centrino Solo 1.66 GHz | 1024 MB DDR2 | Intel GMA 950 Graphphi
Mozilla Thunderbird version 1.5.0.4 (20060516)
Desktop: WinXP Pro | AthlonXP 1700+ | 512MB DDR | ATI Radeon 9000
Laptop: WinXP Home | Intel Centrino Solo 1.66 GHz | 1024 MB DDR2 | Intel GMA 950 Graphphi
- laszlo
- Posts: 5225
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No, I don't, but that has practical reasons. A picture with alt="" is per definition an image that's not of importance for the content of the page (it might be used for pure layout purposes for example). I know that many web designers don't know what the ALT attribute really is for and thus don't use it correctly, and I see how this can be annoying, but I also understand the reasoning for not showing a broken image indicator in this case.
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- Guest
Yes but the problem is that many forums will default with the image attributes so as to make firefox show no indication at all that there's an image there when the [img] tag is used, and there's no way for those forums to force alt tags there, so when someone says "Check out this pic" and made the link wrong, i have to quote him/her just to see if there's anything there at all. Nothing shows up even if highlifht the page.
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- Guest