Lightbox 2

**SugaCrcl** · February 20th, 2008, 06:52 PM

Hey everyone, I don't know if anyone here knows about this or not, but here's a link to a great gallery engine. Andy Park and Steph Laberis use it on their respective websites. I've been looking for this for a while, so I just want to share it to those looking for it too.

Lightbox

**GriNGo** · February 21st, 2008, 11:56 AM

Yep, I used it in the first version of my website too, but it got so common that i decided to resort to a more traditional means of showing my stuff. Also, i have had complains that it isn't very user friendly.

**Farvus** · February 21st, 2008, 12:04 PM

Lightbox 2 would be perfect but on my Opera browser some images stop in the middle of loading and as a result look faded. If someone could have this problem on my portfolio, he would be easily discouraged.

**SugaCrcl** · February 22nd, 2008, 11:40 AM

I don't mind using something everyone is already familiar with. I figure by now, viewers would have the means to view a 'Lightbox' gallery. I use Firefox at home, and LB works good for me. I'm still building my portfolio, so it's good to know the flaws of LB and how people have viewed and used it.

**VulgarDragon** · February 22nd, 2008, 02:31 PM

I'm planning to update my website and use the lightbox to display my images. I think it is a convenient and nice looking way to display the gallery...no leaving the main page and making a new page for every image. It is the only display engine that I know of...I wonder what else is available?

**Steph Laberis** · February 22nd, 2008, 03:53 PM

One little word of caution about lightbox - while the presentation is more elegant and the scripting helps to discourage image stealing, I have heard complaints from art directors that lightbox makes it frustrating for them to link directly to images to show publishers/studios/producers or to save images to a reference folder. 99% of them don't have the time to keep schlepping through galleries to find one image.

I like lightbox for now and hopefully it hasn't driven potential work away for me, but just keep this fact in mind

**DavePalumbo** · February 23rd, 2008, 01:20 AM

One little word of caution about lightbox - while the presentation is more elegant and the scripting helps to discourage image stealing, I have heard complaints from art directors that lightbox makes it frustrating for them to link directly to images to show publishers/studios/producers or to save images to a reference folder. 99% of them don't have the time to keep schlepping through galleries to find one image.

I use lightbox but also have a full image preview off to the side when you rollover the thumbs. I'd like to think it keeps everyone happy, but perhaps I'm just twice as annoying

**Spiralfish** · February 23rd, 2008, 02:42 AM

Of the websites that Ive seen with lightbox, they all took an irritatingly long time to load... and on some sites, it only loads partially.

Is this an image size issue or a lightbox issue?

**Mirana** · February 23rd, 2008, 02:50 AM

Originally Posted by Spiralfish

Of the websites that Ive seen with lightbox, they all took an irritatingly long time to load...

I agree. The cute little "box resize, shading and loading placeholder" script bugs me because I perceive it to take a longer time to load. It probably doesn't, but it makes me crazy. It makes me especially crazy when I have to sit through it multiple times...why aren't there arrows??

**Spiralfish** · February 23rd, 2008, 02:56 AM

script bugs me because I perceive it to take a longer time to load.

Maybe.. but I still feel like it takes longer, especially on a slower connection it can take forever. There are a couple sites Ive seen that load so poorly you'll be lucky to see 3-4 images in 15 mins... (it could be an image size issue)

But I almost feel like lightbox is slower across the board.

**VulgarDragon** · February 23rd, 2008, 11:34 AM

I apologize for repeating myself, but what are the alternatives to lightbox other than having to make a new page for every picture? I want to know.

**DavePalumbo** · February 23rd, 2008, 11:51 AM

what are the alternatives to lightbox other than having to make a new page for every picture? I want to know

like I mentioned for my site, I have an image viewer to the side of the thumbnails which displays a small uncropped images of whatever thumb you last rolled your cursor over. If you want to then see the larger version, you can click the thumb and a lightbox window opens. I feel like it's a good compromise.

**Mirana** · February 23rd, 2008, 01:46 PM

Filebrowser, but it creates the pages with image only (no text) and sorts by filename. I use it for my sketchbook.

Otherwise, you can learn a little php or css and code your own.