New: Customize Your Lightbox
leftquark
Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 3,784 Many Grins
I am pleased to announce that you no longer need CSS code to customize your lightbox. You can now alter a number of Lightbox settings right from the Customizer.
Additionally, you will also find the "Gallery" settings in the Customizer, where you can set the default Gallery Style as well as tweak how the different Gallery Styles are displayed.
Lastly, we've added the ability to select the size of the Thumbnails images in SmugMug style. You may choose between "Small" (the current size) and "Tiny". Setting the thumbnails to Tiny will display more thumbnails per page.
To customize the Lightbox, navigate to one of your galleries and then enter the Customizer. Make sure "All Galleries" is selected and a "Lightbox" option will be displayed under Content.
The following options are possible in the Lightbox Customization settings:
- "Auto Hide Controls" will automatically hide the photo tools at the bottom of the Lightbox as a visitor browses. When they move their mouse, the tools will reveal themselves to ensure those Share and Buy buttons are never hard for your visitors to find. Setting this to OFF will display the tools at all times.
- "Transparent Background" toggles your visitor’s ability to see your site behind the Lightbox or not. Let them know they haven’t left your site, or go for a fully clean, uncluttered aesthetic. Up to you!
- "Toolbar" controls where the photo tools align at the bottom of your visitor’s screen. Pin them to the image width so they always appear at the edge of your photo, or pin them to full width so they adjust to be at the edge of your visitor’s browser window.
- "Title" allows you to turn your photo titles on or off while in Lightbox viewing mode.
- "Caption" allows you to hide or reveal your photo captions while in Lightbox viewing mode.
- "Keywords" lets you hide or reveal your photo keywords while in Lightbox viewing mode.
- "Slideshow" hides or reveals the slideshow’s play button while in Lightbox viewing mode.
- "Buy Button Color" controls which Theme color will apply to the button: Accent, Emphasized, or Default.
- "Buy Button Style" controls whether your buy button appears as a full button with text, as a shopping cart icon, or as a shopping cart icon button. Make that buy button stand out or blend in as much as you like!
The Help pages have been updated and you can find more at the new help page, "Can I Customize my Lightbox?"
DGrin note: The changes to the Lightbox may overwrite or interfere with previous CSS Customizations for the Lightbox. If you have used someone's CSS Customizations to alter your lightbox you may need to verify that the Lightbox still displays as you wish.
Additionally, you will also find the "Gallery" settings in the Customizer, where you can set the default Gallery Style as well as tweak how the different Gallery Styles are displayed.
Lastly, we've added the ability to select the size of the Thumbnails images in SmugMug style. You may choose between "Small" (the current size) and "Tiny". Setting the thumbnails to Tiny will display more thumbnails per page.
To customize the Lightbox, navigate to one of your galleries and then enter the Customizer. Make sure "All Galleries" is selected and a "Lightbox" option will be displayed under Content.
The following options are possible in the Lightbox Customization settings:
- "Auto Hide Controls" will automatically hide the photo tools at the bottom of the Lightbox as a visitor browses. When they move their mouse, the tools will reveal themselves to ensure those Share and Buy buttons are never hard for your visitors to find. Setting this to OFF will display the tools at all times.
- "Transparent Background" toggles your visitor’s ability to see your site behind the Lightbox or not. Let them know they haven’t left your site, or go for a fully clean, uncluttered aesthetic. Up to you!
- "Toolbar" controls where the photo tools align at the bottom of your visitor’s screen. Pin them to the image width so they always appear at the edge of your photo, or pin them to full width so they adjust to be at the edge of your visitor’s browser window.
- "Title" allows you to turn your photo titles on or off while in Lightbox viewing mode.
- "Caption" allows you to hide or reveal your photo captions while in Lightbox viewing mode.
- "Keywords" lets you hide or reveal your photo keywords while in Lightbox viewing mode.
- "Slideshow" hides or reveals the slideshow’s play button while in Lightbox viewing mode.
- "Buy Button Color" controls which Theme color will apply to the button: Accent, Emphasized, or Default.
- "Buy Button Style" controls whether your buy button appears as a full button with text, as a shopping cart icon, or as a shopping cart icon button. Make that buy button stand out or blend in as much as you like!
The Help pages have been updated and you can find more at the new help page, "Can I Customize my Lightbox?"
DGrin note: The changes to the Lightbox may overwrite or interfere with previous CSS Customizations for the Lightbox. If you have used someone's CSS Customizations to alter your lightbox you may need to verify that the Lightbox still displays as you wish.
dGrin Afficionado
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
0
Comments
But - I'm a little confused by the Slideshow entry. I don't see a slideshow button in lightbox mode - it doesn't matter if the setting is On or Off. What am I missing?
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Next to your title (bottom left corner) is a little triangular play button. Clicking that will launch the slideshow.
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
Thank you!
I love changes like this one, so nice to provide a way to tailor the lightbox without needing code.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Question: Is there a way you could make it so I could change the speed at which the panel at the bottom of the lightbox auto-hides? It looks like it's set to 3 seconds after hover ends. Looks like you do it via JS rather than CSS transitions. I'd personally appreciate it moving a little faster and others might like other things as well.
Comment: I think you missed an opportunity to fix a fit-and-finish bug that's been around since the last round of lightbox updates in March 2014. If the lightbox needs scroll bars, the controls overlap them. See the screenshot below. It shows a piece of a large image displayed at original size, with scroll bars, in Firefox. Note how the close button at the upper right, the forward arrow at the right, and the panel at the bottom all overlap the scroll bar by maybe 6 pixels. The March 2014 update located these controls 15 pixels back from the edge. At the time, that was right for Chrome but not for most other browsers. Now that Chrome has fattened its scroll bars, it's off for all browsers that I know of. This is clearly not a functionality problem, but it sure makes SmugMug look dorky. Probably not the image you want to convey. (This is easy for me to patch via CSS, of course, but it really ought to get worked by SM.)
References:
- http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=245887 (this bug started out very bad and a partial patch went in fast)
- http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=245841 (discussed a ways down in the March 2014 product news announcement thread)
- http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=247209 (a related issue popped up two months later)
A screen shot from FirefoxHigher fidelity at http://jtringl.smugmug.com/Other/Working/n-CNjrs/i-2GPZ93x/A
disappears? Keep wiggling mouse? Slide mouse pointer over caption to freeze it? Move mouse off
photo? off browser? Also all the bottom buttons are relevant.
I think at a minmum moving the mouse out of the browser window should immediately hide overlay.
Or over prev/next chevrons.
My Website index | My Blog
How do I reinstate my modification? I can't see any parameter among the new settings to do this, or am I missing something?
I think my customizations still worked but looked a bit jumbled when I used some of the new features to pull the info bar in with the width of the photo. I had to re-jigger my CSS so that it worked better. Here's what I've got now to make things look right (I think this is all of it. There's a lot of CSS and I think I grabbed the pertinent parts):
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
Let me investigate and get back to you.
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
Anyone else using the tools from Sherlock Photography for their Lightbox customization may want to test their code, as there was something in the always-show-caption code that this broke. Haven't figured out what yet, but I just got word no one could get to the tool bar any longer to access the download button.
I removed Sherlock's customization and it works again (though of course brings up the issues that fixed). I'll explore further, but just a head's up since those customizations are somewhat widely used.
For all those of you who have customized that code to show some text behind those buttons / icons and who want the same type of customization to this add the following code:
So it should be added to the CSS valid for "All Galleries" included in here like this (red):
Honor to those who developed the first part of this code (Sherlock?) - I only added that later paragraph.
Nick has fixed some of that as of yesterday (he's quick!). More info in this thread: http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=241090&page=3
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
Mark Derry
markderry.smugmug.com
I've tried your code to center the caption for my lightbox:
http://www.brandolinoimaging.com/Image-Galleries/My-Portfolio/Published-Images/Published-Images-1/i-Vhwkt6t/A
and all I get is the caption pushed all the way to the right.
I tried Sherlock's code to always show caption and made his tweak so the image did not fill the screen, and I got my border filling the screen. It seems a spacer gif is what is getting the border and that gif goes full screen even thought the image itself does not.
I've removed the code since it makes the page look very bad... tried playing with the FF WD tools but could not get it sorted out.
Even removed all my other CSS tweaks using the WD tool...
Help!
Jason Scott Photography | Blog | FB | Twitter | Google+ | Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube
If you mean the top of the grayed-out text area block, it moves out of the way after about 5 seconds (in Chrome).
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
I want it to go away completely as soon as the mouse moves away...
Jason Scott Photography | Blog | FB | Twitter | Google+ | Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube
Excellent suggestion -- especially since you're now the second person in just a few days to ask for it (Jting requested this same feature earlier in this conversation). I've taken it back to the team but I can't comment on if or when we'll be able to incorporate this.
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
I think this CSS snippet will do the job. I put this up on my site today. I've been updating (and simplifying) my lightbox customization.
This doesn't do anything to the other controls, the expand, close, previous, and next buttons. I've opted to make them never disappear, but to make the background on them transparent.
You can see the lightbox in operation on my site, along with some other adjustments to the lightbox caption area.
And, obviously, I've figured out how to do it myself ...
Great, not only the upate doesn't fix problems, it creates more!
Could we get these announcements on our homepage instead of finding out when our sites are broken?
borealphoto.smugmug.com
Thanks
borealphoto.smugmug.com
We usually announce new features via the Quick News feature on your homepage, via blog posts, and through the newsletters once they've been tested on the live site for a little period of time. We do notify the dgrin community immediately since many of you are more plugged in and interested in the advanced customizations.
Standard and common design User Interface practice always has the close button at the top right corner of the screen, with navigation arrows in the center on the left/right side of the screen. Facebook, Flickr, 500px, and about every other Photography service do it this way since it's what visitors have come to understand and expect. With that said, you can customize your lightbox further by using the following:
First, I'd recommend setting your Lightbox Toolbar to be "Image Width" in the new Lightbox settings.
You can then move your close button down using: The navigation arrows can be moved similarly.
We wanted the Lightbox to showcase your photo, which is why the title and caption are minimized by default" Nick Sherlock has some CSS for always showing the title and caption.
Let me know if there is anything else I can help with.
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
The X and arrows are ugly on every websites. It covers the photo in some case.
You may want to show the photo but there's an X covering one bit of my photo, arrows covering other bits and a caption that is cut off so when people want to read it, they have to hover every single time... and then it covers the photo as well. I'd rather have showing at all time in a fixed location, without NOTHING over the image.
borealphoto.smugmug.com
That doesn't cut it. With the toolbar at image width, it changes with every photo and looks cramped with vertical photos.
borealphoto.smugmug.com
Additionally, if you subscribe to the Product News Forum you can get email alerts daily when I announce changes.
We want to continuously innovate and make your SmugMug site better and sometimes that means adding functionality that will conflict with your custom CSS. We hate to do this but we wanted to make it so that everyone using SmugMug could have these features and not just those of you using these advanced customizations. I will definitely try to alert everyone when these situations will occur and I realize I could do a better job giving you warning ahead-of-time about these.
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
My focus is on digitizing memories
I can try to provide some code (or link to Nick Sherlock's), however, I have a few questions so I can help implement it the way you'd like:
- When you say "always be shown" do you just mean that the title and caption don't disappear after a few seconds?
- Do you want it to display down the page, keeping your image as large as possible but requiring the user to scroll to see the caption ?
- Do you want to shrink the photo so the caption has room on the page, without requiring the user to scroll?
- Do you want the image to remain large but have the caption overlay the image, as if the small box with the caption has been hovered on and rolls up over the photo?
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations