IMAGE GALLERIES AND SLIDESHOWS IN WEBSITES

If you plan to include sets of images in your website, Galleries and Slideshows will display your images very effectively. These can be designed:

as a full page, ie stand-alone feature
or integrated inside a web page alongside other contents such as text and graphics

Examples of Image Galleries

Examples of stand-alone Image Galleries

Examples of integrated Image Galleries

Examples of Slideshows

Examples of stand-alone Slideshows

Examples of integrated Slideshows

Example of in-page Slideshow

Slideshow or Image Gallery?

Each has its merits. Chosing between the 2 options should be mainly guided by the purpose for your images. We can help you make this decision.

Slideshows

offer 'easy viewing'
unless there is a large number of images, the user usually sees all the images
give less control to the user. This could mean that a user may click off and leave the slideshow (and even the website) if the slideshow is a bit lengthy

Image Galleries

give control over which images the user wants to view if they don't want to view all the images
the user has control on how long they chose to pause on each image

Number of Images per Slideshow or Image Gallery

The more images there are, the longer the page will take to load fully for viewing. If the waiting time becomes excessive, people are likely to click off, thinking there is a problem with the page...

A Gallery or Slideshow can display from as little as 4 or 5 images.

There is no maximum number of images, but it is often preferable to split galleries and slideshows if the number of images reaches 40+. If a slideshow lsts too long, some users will click off... Galleries are best grouping images by topic.

Portrait or Landscape?

When selecting images, it is useful to remember that:

monitor screens have landscape (wider than high) proportions
mixing landscape (ie 'wider than tall') and portrait (ie 'taller than wide') images is ok but for a smoother display, especially for a slideshow, chosing images with the same orientation will give a smoother transition from one image to the next. Examples:
- Slideshow with all landscape photos
- Slideshow with photos of different sizes

Styles and Designs

Image Galleries and Slideshows can be fully customised to match the colours and styles of the website.

Image Galleries Styles

The size of the thumbnails and the size of the enlargements can be customised.

Slideshow Styles

Slideshows can be designed with a Control Panel at the top or without a Control Panel.

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