An image lightbox is one of the popular components of a visual interface. It loads full-size images dynamically and displays them in a popup box. A basic interface of a lightbox comes with navigational arrows to slide the next/previous images and a cross button to close the lightbox. This tutorial explains how to create a simple lightbox gallery using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
How to Create a Simple JavaScript Lightbox Gallery
1. First of all, load the Normalize CSS and Google Fonts by adding the following CDN links into the head tag of your HTML document.
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/normalize/5.0.0/normalize.min.css"> <link rel='stylesheet' href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:400,700'>
2. After that, create a div element with a class name "content", and place your images wrapped with an anchor tag with the "data-src-full" attribute. Place the link of the full-sized image inside the data-src-full that will be loaded in the lightbox.
Similarly, create a div element with a class name "lightbox", define its tabindex attribute with -1 value, and define an aria-hidden attribute with true value. Inside the lightbox, create two div elements and two buttons with the following mentioned class names.
<div class="content">
<a href="#" data-src-full="path/to/full-size-image.jpg">
<img src="path/to/thumbnail.jpg">
</a>
<a href="#" data-src-full="path/to/full-size-image.jpg">
<img src="path/to/thumbnail.jpg">
</a>
</div>
<div class="lightbox" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-hidden="true">
<div class="lightbox-loader"></div>
<div class="lightbox-content"></div>
<button class="lightbox-previous">‹</button>
<button class="lightbox-next">›</button>
</div>
3. Style the lightbox gallery using the following CSS styles. You can modify the CSS values in order to customize the lightbox.
@charset "UTF-8";
*,
*::before,
*::after {
box-sizing: border-box;
}
html {
font-size: 62.5%;
-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);
}
body {
font-family: "Roboto", sans-serif;
font-size: 1.6rem;
line-height: 1.5em;
}
a {
color: #647df9;
}
img {
height: auto;
max-width: 100%;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.content {
max-width: 480px;
margin: 2em auto;
}
@media all and (min-width: 840px) {
.content {
max-width: 720px;
}
}
.content img {
margin: 0.5em;
}
.lightbox {
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
padding-right: 10px;
padding-left: 10px;
background: rgba(250, 250, 250, 0.45);
position: fixed;
top: 0;
left: 0;
z-index: -1;
opacity: 0;
visibility: hidden;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
transition: z-index 0s 0.3s, opacity 0.3s, visibility 0s 0.3s;
}
@media all and (min-width: 768px) {
.lightbox {
padding-right: 35px;
padding-left: 35px;
}
}
.js-lightbox-loading .lightbox, .js-lightbox-active .lightbox {
z-index: 10;
opacity: 1;
visibility: visible;
transition: z-index 0s 0s, opacity 0.3s, visibility 0s 0s;
}
.lightbox:before {
width: 18px;
font-size: 3.2rem;
line-height: 18px;
color: #000;
position: absolute;
top: 8px;
right: 9px;
cursor: pointer;
content: "×";
}
.lightbox .lightbox-content {
min-width: 80px;
min-height: 80px;
background: #fff;
opacity: 0;
transform: translateY(-80px);
transition: opacity 0s, transform 0s ease-out;
}
.js-lightbox-active .lightbox .lightbox-content {
opacity: 1;
transform: translateY(0);
transition: opacity 0.3s, transform 0.3s ease-out;
}
.js-lightbox-first .lightbox .lightbox-content {
transform: translateX(40px);
transition: transform 0.15s linear;
}
.js-lightbox-last .lightbox .lightbox-content {
transform: translateX(-40px);
transition: transform 0.15s linear;
}
.lightbox .lightbox-content img {
min-width: 60px;
min-height: 60px;
max-height: calc(100vh - 90px);
-webkit-transition: box-shadow 0.6s ease-out;
box-shadow: 1px 1px 4px #ccc;
}
.lightbox .lightbox-content img:hover {
box-shadow: 1px 8px 20px #999;
-webkit-transition: box-shadow 0.6s ease-in;
}
.lightbox .lightbox-previous,
.lightbox .lightbox-next {
width: 50px;
height: 50px;
font-size: 5rem;
line-height: 0.75;
color: #000;
padding: 0 0 0.25em;
background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);
border: none;
margin-top: -24px;
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
outline: none;
}
.js-lightbox-loading .lightbox .lightbox-previous,
.js-lightbox-loading .lightbox .lightbox-next {
display: none;
}
.lightbox .lightbox-previous {
left: 0;
}
.lightbox .lightbox-next {
right: 0;
}
.lightbox .lightbox-loader {
width: 40px;
height: 40px;
border-radius: 50%;
border: 1px solid rgba(200, 200, 200, 0.3);
border-top: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85);
margin-top: -20px;
margin-left: -20px;
display: none;
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
z-index: 1;
-webkit-animation: spinner 1s linear infinite;
animation: spinner 1s linear infinite;
}
.js-lightbox-loading .lightbox .lightbox-loader {
display: block;
}
@-webkit-keyframes spinner {
0% {
transform: rotate(0deg);
}
100% {
transform: rotate(360deg);
}
}
@keyframes spinner {
0% {
transform: rotate(0deg);
}
100% {
transform: rotate(360deg);
}
}
4. Now, load the ImagesLoaded JS library that helps to load images dynamically inside the lightbox.
<script src='https://imagesloaded.desandro.com/imagesloaded.pkgd.js'></script>
5. Finally, add the following JavaScript function between the <script> and </script> tags before closing the body tag to initialize the lightbox.
console.clear();
var body = document.body,
lightbox = document.querySelector('.lightbox'),
lightboxContent = lightbox.querySelector('.lightbox-content'),
lightboxImages = [],
lightboxPrevious = lightbox.querySelector('.lightbox-previous'),
lightboxNext = lightbox.querySelector('.lightbox-next'),
photoLink = document.querySelectorAll('.content a');
function getTransitionPrefix() {
var element = document.createElement('div'),
transitions = {
'transition': 'transitionend',
'webkitTransition': 'webkitTransitionEnd',
'msTransition': 'msTransitionEnd',
'mozTransition': 'MoztransitionEnd'
};
for (var transition in transitions) {
if (element.style[transition] !== undefined) {
return transitions[transition];
}
}
}
function showLightbox(source) {
body.classList.add('js-lightbox-loading');
body.classList.remove('js-lightbox-active');
body.classList.remove('js-lightbox-first');
body.classList.remove('js-lightbox-last');
lightboxContent.innerHTML = '<img src="' + source + '" />';
imagesLoaded(lightboxContent, function () {
body.classList.remove('js-lightbox-loading');
body.classList.add('js-lightbox-active');
});
}
function previousLightbox() {
var currentIndex = lightboxImages.indexOf(lightboxContent.querySelector('img').src);
currentIndex--;
if (currentIndex >= 0) {
showLightbox(lightboxImages[currentIndex]);
} else {
body.classList.add('js-lightbox-first');
lightboxContent.addEventListener(getTransitionPrefix(), function() {
body.classList.remove('js-lightbox-first');
});
}
}
function nextLightbox() {
var currentIndex = lightboxImages.indexOf(lightboxContent.querySelector('img').src);
currentIndex++;
if (currentIndex < lightboxImages.length) {
showLightbox(lightboxImages[currentIndex]);
} else {
body.classList.add('js-lightbox-last');
lightboxContent.addEventListener(getTransitionPrefix(), function() {
body.classList.remove('js-lightbox-last');
});
}
}
function hideLightbox() {
body.classList.remove('js-lightbox-loading');
body.classList.remove('js-lightbox-active');
lightboxContent.innerHTML = '';
}
lightbox.addEventListener('click', function (event) {
if ((event.target === this || event.target === this.querySelector('.loader') || event.target === this.querySelector('.close')) && (body.classList.contains('js-lightbox-loading') || body.classList.contains('js-lightbox-active'))) {
hideLightbox();
}
});
document.addEventListener('keyup', function (event) {
if ((event.keyCode === 27 || event.keyCode === 33 || event.keyCode === 34) && (body.classList.contains('js-lightbox-loading') || body.classList.contains('js-lightbox-active'))) {
hideLightbox();
}
});
document.addEventListener('mousewheel', function (event) {
if (body.classList.contains('js-lightbox-loading') || body.classList.contains('js-lightbox-active')) {
hideLightbox();
// REMEBER TO CHECK IF IMAGE IS SCROLLED TO TOP OR BOTTOM + SOME EXTRA
}
});
var startX = 0,
startY = 0,
endX = 0,
endY = 0;
document.addEventListener('touchstart', function (event) {
if (event.target === lightboxContent || event.target === lightboxContent.querySelector('img')) {
startX = event.pageX || event.touches[0].pageX;
startY = event.pageY || event.touches[0].pageY;
}
});
body.addEventListener('touchmove', function (event) {
if (event.target === lightboxContent || event.target === lightboxContent.querySelector('img')) {
endX = event.pageX || event.touches[0].pageX;
endY = event.pageY || event.touches[0].pageY;
}
});
document.addEventListener('touchend', function (event) {
if (event.target === lightboxContent || event.target === lightboxContent.querySelector('img')) {
var distanceX = startX - endX;
var distanceY = startY - endY;
// event.changedTouches[0].pageX
if (Math.abs(distanceX) > Math.abs(distanceY)) {
if (distanceX > 0) {
nextLightbox();
} else {
previousLightbox();
}
} else {
hideLightbox();
}
}
console.log(event);
});
lightboxPrevious.addEventListener('click', function (event) {
previousLightbox();
});
document.addEventListener('keyup', function (event) {
if (event.keyCode === 37 && (body.classList.contains('js-lightbox-loading') || body.classList.contains('js-lightbox-active'))) {
previousLightbox();
}
});
lightboxNext.addEventListener('click', function (event) {
nextLightbox();
});
document.addEventListener('keyup', function (event) {
if (event.keyCode === 39 && (body.classList.contains('js-lightbox-loading') || body.classList.contains('js-lightbox-active'))) {
nextLightbox();
}
});
for (var pl = 0, pll = photoLink.length; pl < pll; pl++) {
lightboxImages.push(photoLink[pl].getAttribute('data-src-full'));
photoLink[pl].addEventListener('click', function (event) {
event.preventDefault();
showLightbox(this.getAttribute('data-src-full'));
});
}
That’s all! hopefully, you have successfully created a simple JavaScript lightbox gallery. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to comment below.
