The image downloader you point at.
Image Swooper is a free extension for Chrome and Firefox. Hover your cursor over any image, CSS background, or video and press Q. The largest version downloads to your computer, with a filename you can actually read.
How it works
Point
Move your cursor over an image, a CSS background, or a video. A small badge at the cursor shows what it found, and what is about to be saved.
Press Q
The default download key. All three actions, the download, hover mode, and element capture, can be rebound to keys you prefer.
It's in your Downloads
The largest available version lands in your Downloads folder. With renaming switched on, filenames carry the source URL, so you remember where every file came from.
Download a page, one hover at a time Alt Alt
Double-tap Alt and hover download switches on. From then on, media saves as your cursor rests on it: the extension waits a moment first, so scrolling past doesn't grab everything in your path. Double-tap Alt again to switch it off.
This is the reference-gathering mode. Surf a gallery, collect the proofs, and everything useful is already downloaded by the time you leave the page.
What it catches
-
photo.jpg
Images, resolved to the largest version the page offers. Thumbnails lose to originals.
-
hero-background.jpg
CSS background images, including the ones with no download button anywhere in sight.
-
clip.mp4
Inline videos. Experimental: a small subset of players is supported today.
-
element.png
Press the capture key X and click any element to save it as an image of its own.
Everything lands in your regular Downloads folder. Optional filename prefixes keep it organized by source.
Everything else it handles
- Largest version first
- Pages that offer several sizes of an image get resolved to the biggest candidate, not the thumbnail.
- Filename renaming
- Prepend the source URL, or your own prefix, to every saved file so downloads stay traceable.
- Frames handled
- Media inside an embedded iframe is opened in a new tab instead of failing quietly.
Easier, not just faster
Small download icons are a bad interface for a lot of people: hunt the pixel, miss, zoom in, try again. Image Swooper removes the target entirely. Aim anywhere at the image itself and press one key. That is the whole interaction.
Hover download doubles as a one-handed workflow: enable it once, and media saves as you move across the page, no precision required.
Nothing leaves your browser
No account, no analytics, no server of ours to send anything to. Image Swooper reads the page in front of you, saves to your disk, and that is the end of it. It uses three permissions, and here is exactly what each one is for.
- tabs
- Finding the media in the page you are looking at.
- downloads
- Saving files to your Downloads folder and renaming them on the way in.
- site access
- Working on any page, without you having to enable it site by site.
Settings are stored locally and are removed together with the extension.
Questions people actually ask
Nothing happens when I press the download key. Why?
The page has focus inside an embedded frame, most likely because you last clicked something there: a video player or a widget. Click an empty spot on the main page so it regains focus, then press the key again.
I got an image instead of the video I was pointing at.
Web pages stack their elements in layers, and an invisible image or background can sit on top of the video. Image Swooper grabs the topmost item first. Press the download key again to reach the one underneath.
Renaming is on, but my downloaded files keep their old names.
Restart the browser after changing the rename setting. One more quirk: if several download-related extensions are installed, the one installed last does the renaming, and the browser offers no way to choose a winner. Reinstall the one you want in charge.
Which browsers are supported?
Chrome and Firefox. Both versions are free, and neither requires an account: Image Swooper on the Chrome Web Store and Image Swooper on Mozilla Add-ons.
Does it work on any site?
It runs on every regular http and https page: galleries, feeds, portfolios, documentation. On pages behind a login you can save whatever the browser is able to display.