diff --git a/docs/configuration.rst b/docs/configuration.rst
index 2f41c9e4..244a9ba2 100644
--- a/docs/configuration.rst
+++ b/docs/configuration.rst
@@ -407,13 +407,13 @@ Description Enable mature content.
 extractor.deviantart.original
 -----------------------------
 =========== =====
-Type        ``bool``
+Type        ``bool`` or ``string``
 Default     ``true``
-Description Download full-sized original images if available.
+Description Download original files if available.
 
-            Some of DeviantArt's images require an additional API call to get
-            their actual original version, which is being hosted on
-            Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers.
+            Setting this option to ``"images"`` only downloads original
+            files if they are images and falls back to preview versions for
+            everything else (archives, etc.).
 =========== =====
 
 
diff --git a/gallery_dl/extractor/deviantart.py b/gallery_dl/extractor/deviantart.py
index 2fb703f7..fff001f1 100644
--- a/gallery_dl/extractor/deviantart.py
+++ b/gallery_dl/extractor/deviantart.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ from .common import Extractor, Message
 from .. import text, exception
 from ..cache import cache, memcache
 import itertools
+import mimetypes
 import datetime
 import time
 import math
@@ -70,8 +71,7 @@ class DeviantartExtractor(Extractor):
                 content = deviation["content"]
                 if (self.original and deviation["is_downloadable"] and
                         content["filesize"] != deviation["download_filesize"]):
-                    content.update(
-                        self.api.deviation_download(deviation["deviationid"]))
+                    self._update_content(deviation, content)
                 yield self.commit(deviation, content)
 
             if "videos" in deviation:
@@ -194,6 +194,15 @@ class DeviantartExtractor(Extractor):
         url = "{}/{}/{}/0/".format(self.root, self.user, category)
         return [(url + folder["name"], folder) for folder in folders]
 
+    def _update_content(self, deviation, content):
+        data = self.api.deviation_download(deviation["deviationid"])
+        if self.original == "images":
+            url = data["src"].partition("?")[0]
+            mtype = mimetypes.guess_type(url, False)[0]
+            if not mtype or not mtype.startswith("image/"):
+                return
+        content.update(data)
+
 
 class DeviantartGalleryExtractor(DeviantartExtractor):
     """Extractor for all deviations from an artist's gallery"""