YSK you can use Imagus or any hover to zoom addon to quickly view images and gifs on your Lemmy front page
Why YSK: It makes viewing images fast and easy, with no clicks.
I got used to this on the site that shall not be named, sometimes I don't want to open the whole image or post. With the addon if I hover over the image button that would expand the image, it will show the image full size for as long as I hover over it, no clicking needed, this works with gifs as well.
I've been using this extension for years. Very useful! Works on all sites with images, so it's been especially helpful when I'm viewing an image that doesn't enlarge; I simply scroll to zoom in.
I imagine it will soon, in the settings is a toggle to add images hovered to your history, on the site that shall not be named this added them to the "read".