<click-to-play>: A Web Component That Shows a Still Frame Until Clicked
Original: <click-to-play> — a still that plays
A progressive-enhancement web component that defers GIF loading until a user clicks a play button.
Simon Willison released `<click-to-play>`, a lightweight web component that wraps GIF embeds and replaces them with a static first-frame image and an on-demand play button. The full animated GIF is fetched only when the user clicks, saving bandwidth on pages with multiple large animations. The component follows progressive-enhancement principles, remaining functional as a plain anchor-and-image fallback when JavaScript is absent.
Simon Willison, creator of Django and Datasette, published a new open-source web component called `<click-to-play>` on June 17, 2026, available at his personal tools subdomain. The component addresses a longstanding performance and UX problem: animated GIFs embedded in web pages load immediately and unconditionally, consuming bandwidth and CPU resources even when visitors never watch them.
Free shows the 3-line summary; Pro unlocks the full deep summary (~300 words) so you never have to click through.
See Pro plans →Want the original English / full article?
Read on Simon Willison's Weblog →Summaries are AI-generated; the original article is authoritative.