The modern web is loud. Autoplaying videos, hero images as big as billboards, decorative SVG storms that hammer your CPU. If you are trying to read, research, or just get work done, that noise costs time and attention. Curtain is a Chrome extension from The Code Lab by Leandro Piccione that gives you instant, per-site control over visual clutter, so pages load leaner and feel calmer without breaking what matters.
What is Curtain?
Curtain is a fast, friendly toggle for the heavy visuals on a page. With one click you can hide images, background layers, videos, and SVGs, then bring them back the moment you need them. It is perfect for focus sessions, slow connections, battery saving on the go, or simply reading without distractions.
Key Features
Toggle images: Collapse page images and thumbnails for a clean, text-first layout. Reveal them again when you want visual context.
Toggle backgrounds: Remove parallax photos, gradients, and busy textures to keep typography front and center.
Toggle videos: Hide embedded players to stop autoplay and reduce CPU spikes. Re-enable when you are ready to watch.
Toggle SVGs: Mute decorative vectors and icon storms that can crowd dense interfaces.
Per-site memory: Curtain remembers what you prefer on each domain, so your settings persist across visits without extra clicks.
Accessible controls: A compact panel keeps every switch one click away. Clear labels make it obvious what is on or off at a glance.
Why Curtain Stands Out
Enhanced focus: Strip a page to the essentials while keeping structure, links, and interactions intact. Great for deep reading, documentation, and note-taking.
Performance gains: Fewer heavy elements mean faster render times and smoother scrolling, especially on laptops or underpowered machines.
Personalized browsing: Your rules, your way. Keep images on for design blogs, turn them off for forums, silence videos on news sites, and keep backgrounds muted everywhere.
Privacy-first approach: Curtain runs locally in your browser. It does not ship your page data to a server or track your behavior.
How It Works
Curtain applies precise, reversible CSS rules through a light content script. No page scraping or network interception. Elements are visually suppressed, not destroyed, so layouts remain stable and you can toggle everything back instantly without reloads.
Great Use Cases
Research mode: Hide images and videos to skim faster across multiple tabs. Turn visuals back on when you decide what to read in depth.
Battery saver: Reduce animated and media-heavy elements during travel to stretch battery life.
Low bandwidth: Keep pages snappy on capped or flaky connections by muting large media payloads.
Neurodiversity-friendly: Cut visual noise that can make concentration harder without losing content structure.
Power Tips
Pin the icon: Pin Curtain to your toolbar for one-click access on every site.
Stack toggles: Combine background and SVG suppression for the most distraction-free reading view.
Per-site defaults: Dial in settings on a site once. Curtain will remember next time you land there.
Getting Started
Install Curtain from the Chrome Web Store, pin it to your toolbar, and tailor the web to your workflow. In a few clicks you can declutter dense pages, cut through autoplay noise, and bring attention back to what matters.
If you find Curtain useful, share this overview on your channels to help more people browse with clarity.