Opera browser now lets you set custom images for tiles

Opera browser's latest Dev Channel build introduces an option that allows you to set custom images for tiles. Now you can customize your speed dials however you want to.

Most browsers don't allow you to edit a tile properly, the common options to modify it usually just let you change the name of the shortcut, and the URL that it links to. Now, Opera browser has added an option to customize it. Vivaldi has had this option for a long time,  and if I remember correctly it was the first one that introduced this feature.

Opera browser now lets you set custom images for tiles

So, how do you set a custom images for a tile in Opera browser. Click on the new tab button, and you should see your tiles. Right-click on of the tiles, and select the option that is labeled "Set Custom Image". Opera displays thumbnails of recently downloaded images (that are in your downloads folder),  it also detects whether any image is in the clipboard, select it to set it as the new background image for the tile.

If you can't find the image in the list, click on the Show all Files button, it opens the default file picker (Windows Explorer), which you can use to navigate to the folder that contains the picture that you want to use. Once you pick the image, Opera automatically assigns it as the tile's thumbnail. You can undo the change by right-clicking on the shortcut and select the "Remove custom image" option.

The only drawback in this feature is that Opera browser crops the image automatically, which is not exactly great, it really depends on the dimensions of the picture, so you may have to fiddle with an image editor to resize it according to your preferences.

As a fan of speed dials, specifically the Group Speed Dial extension, I think custom images for tiles is such a basic feature, and can be a very useful one to have. I prefer having a thumbnail of the web page because it looks nicer than a logo, but the latter can be helpful if you like a more compact layout.

The experiment's name in opera://flags is Speed Dial Custom Image, and is set as Enabled by default. You can disable it to remove the option from the tiles' context menu.

Download Opera browser 96.0.4660.0 for Windows, macOS and Linux from the official website.

Opera says its browser is 16% faster than before

Last week, Opera published an article at its blog, which claims that the browser is now 16% faster to render web pages and handling requests.Benchmark numbers don't really matter, the technical aspect behind the changes are the ones to care about.  These improvements were made possible with Profile Guided Optimization (PGO) and Link Time Optimization (LTO). Essentially, the browser maker ran tests to detect which parts of a program are used frequently, and optimized them accordingly.

Opera says that it has also improved the graphics components in its engine (out-of-process 2D canvas rasterization), to deliver 14% faster performance in games, animations and web apps that rely on graphics. These changes let your graphics card (GPU) handle the heavy load, while freeing up your CPU's resources for other tasks. The improvements are included in both Opera and Opera GX. That said, I don't really notice any difference in the performance of the browser, even with hardware acceleration enabled.

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