# lightbox **Repository Path**: mirrors_lokesh/lightbox ## Basic Information - **Project Name**: lightbox - **Description**: THE original Lightbox script. - **Primary Language**: Unknown - **License**: Not specified - **Default Branch**: main - **Homepage**: None - **GVP Project**: No ## Statistics - **Stars**: 0 - **Forks**: 0 - **Created**: 2020-10-26 - **Last Updated**: 2025-12-28 ## Categories & Tags **Categories**: Uncategorized **Tags**: None ## README # Lightbox This is the original Lightbox script that introduced the concept of overlaying content on top of an existing page. The code is over 10 years old and I wouldn't recommend anyone use it, but I've kept it here for posterity. ## Overview The script narrowly focused on displaying images and nailed a couple of things out of the gate that helped it gain traction: 1. 🛠 It was super simple to implement. The focus on developer ergonomics was less common at the time. 2. 💪 It degraded gracefully if Javascript was disabled or unavailable, a real possibility at the time Over time, it went on to spawn 100s of imitators and become a standard pattern on the web, with the term _lightbox_ added to the lexicon. [Wikipedia/Lightbox_(Javascript)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightbox_(JavaScript)) ## History ### 🎬 v1 In December 2005, I began tinkering around with the idea. I was redesigning my blog and my new design introduced a different column width for the content. This caused the images in the posts to overflow, unless I resized each one of them to fit the new width. I did not want to have to do this every time I tweaked my blog design, so I began to explore alternatives to displaying images. And quickly during this ideation phase, Lightbox was born. I replaced the full-size images in the post with thumbnails and had a click reveal the full-size images. But this time, the images would display above, being overlayed on the page, and not have to worry about the content's column width. I shared the script running on my blog to a couple of coworkers and they were mildly impressed. I thought I was on to something so I kept going. ### 📬 Getting the word out Right before the new year, I emailed a few of my favorite design bloggers and shared my script with them: > On Dec 29, 2005, Lokesh wrote: > > Hello, > > I've written a little script to help people, mainly bloggers, > handle large images. Its a little faux-popup effect with Javascript. > > It might be useful for you, or not, either way take a look: > http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox/ > > btw..long time fan of your work. Keep it up. > > -Lokesh --- The first email response, and also the first bug report: > On Dec 29, 2005, Todd Dominey wrote: > > Hey - looks cool! I think I noticed a bug though in Safari / OS X. > The image loads great the first time, but after closing it and > clicking the same thumbnail again, I get an endless progress bar. > > Todd --- More positive feedback, and the first feature request: > On Dec 29, 2005, Jonathan Snook wrote: > > The script looks nice! I like that the popup image fits into the window size. The only thing I would add is a way to close the overlay before the image has loaded just in case a user doesn't want to wait or if the image doesn't load at all. > > Jonathan Snook --- One of the biggest challenges with the new pattern was noted here in the first week: > On Dec 30, 2005: > > I wonder how many folks visiting a page running your image script will do what I did after clicking and getting this big picture that obscures everything else...click the back button and completely leave your site? > > Perhaps there is a way to cue them that they need to click on the image a second time to return to the original page. > > Good luck! ### ❄️ Snowball effect The script was shared out by a few of the people I emailed directly and started picking up traction incredibly fast thanks to del.icio.us, a social bookmarking site which was popular for discovery at the time. > On Dec 30, 2005 > > I found the Lightbox JS demo today from del.icio.us, and I just wanted to say how impressed I am with it. It looks good, it's easy to use, and it's very unobtrusive. I would like to use it in a site I am developing for my university's student newspaper (Case Western Reserve University). Is it this okay with you? --- > On Dec 30, 2005 > > I just learned of your very interesting lightbox script. I really like the way you are stretching the dimensionality of the web page. --- People were already beginning to imagine how this pattern could be extended: > On Jan 2, 2006 > > Great script!!! > > It’s way much safer than a pop up and it looks pretty neat… > > I was wondering if theres a posiblity that I could load another html instead of an image??? --- For quite some time, I attempted to help everyone who emailed my with their support issues: > On Jan 3, 2006: > > I need some help if you have a moment. I have implemented lightbox on my blog and it is not working just right. I click on the image and the loading graphic comes up but the larger image never appears. > > Any ideas? I am on Wordpress v2 --- There were lots of support issues, but people were generally nice and I was happy to help. > On Jan 6, 2006: > > Many thanks for this nice scipt, it's fantastic! A nice replacement > for all annoying pop-ups. > I was confronted with a strange bug in Firefox 1.5. But it's not your > script, it is some incompatibility with a css syntax in my script. --- I also received a ton of thank you emails, each one of them was a treat! > On Jan 7, 2006: > > this is just a cliché thank you email! loved the "lightbox", really > clean and classy. used it on a website of mine (small icon on the side > of each photo for floating over the page, to allow for both > traditional and floating over the page viewing): ### 🌅 To be continued I have about 10,000 emails related to Lightbox in Gmail and the history so far captures the events of the oldest 500. I hope to dig into more over time as it is a fun walk down memory lane for me.