Lightboxes have a nearly ubiquitous presence around the web. Lightboxes or Modal Boxes are a must have for most websites. There are so many different flavors that it can be difficult to find the perfect one. In this post we hope to highlight (to the best of our knowledge) some of the best jQuery lightbox clone scripts available, and some of their best qualities for your consideration. Hopefully this will help you find what you are looking for. So without further delay, Let’s get started.
jQuery Lightbox (Modal Box) Clones Rundown
1: Ceebox
Ceebox is an innovative lightbox that came on the scene as a result of the author Colin Fahrion not finding a lightbox solution that quite had the the capability and finesse that he was looking for. Ceebox’s elegant style combined with some sweet video embedding skills that fit the bill.
Ceebox supports: Images, Image Sets, Inline Elements, Iframes, AJAX Content, Flash, Video
2: Colorbox
Colorbox is an amazing and lightweight jQuery lightbox that has some pretty cool tricks under the hood. Jack Moore created colorbox to be completely unobtrusive, and very extensible. It has become very popular and has some great beginners guides to get you started.
Colorbox Supports: Images, Image Sets, Inline Elements, Iframes, AJAX Content
3: Easybox
Easybox is a simple yet powerful jquery lightbox clone that tops the simplicity with a hefty helping of elegance. Don’t worry about your content, with Easybox’s excellent animations and content display capabilities you will be in good hands.
Easybox Supports: Images, Image Sets, Inline Elements, Iframes, Video
4: nyroModal
What nyroModal lacks in in elegance it makes up for in overall simplicity. With a simple UI and easy to use configuration it hides the customizability that peaks its feature list. Built by developers for developers this lightbox can be customized to match any look and feel that the user is looking for.
nyroModal supports: Images, Image Sets, Inline Elements, Iframes, AJAX Content
5: Topup
Topup is an amazing jQuery lightbox that breaks some of the normal conventions of lightbox tradition to provide a dynamic UI as well as a great feature set. Paul Engel has done an amazing job pushing the envelope with this one.
Topup supports: Images, Image Sets, Inline Elements, Iframes, Flash, Video
6: tinyLightbox
tinyLightbox like many others has a simple and elegant interface. But one thing that it beats most other lightbox clones out on is overall size. Weighing in at a tiny 9.3k this little script gives you an amazing punch with a minimum amount of overhead.
tinyLightbox supports: Images, Image Sets
7: Thickbox
Thickbox is one of the old standby’s of the lightbox arena. Cody Lindley sure did a bangup job on it, inspiring scores of developers to create lightbox clones of their own. Although Thickbox is not currently maintained, it still holds its own overall.
Thickbox supports: Images, Image Sets, Inline Elements, Iframes, AJAX Content
8: Fancybox
Fancybox is according to it’s webpage still a “work in progress” but then what software isn’t? Fancybox excels at suprising the user with cool effects and slick fades. Add mouse scroll wheel support and you have made a match to rival all others.
Fancybox supports: Images, Image Sets, Inline Elements, Iframes, Flash
9: prettyPhoto
prettyPhoto is a beloved and well established jQuery lightbox clone. It is very easy to setup and flexible to match with any site. Customize it if you wish, and it is even compatible with IE6. Built in API’s make it extremely extensible and ready to serve your web clients.
prettyPhoto supports: Images, Image Sets, Inline Elements, Iframes, AJAX Content, Flash, Video
10: pirobox
pirobox finishes up our list of jQuery Lightbox Clones with its unique design and interesting approaches to the the lightbox arena. This is one amazing clone. Good job Pirolab.
pirobox supports: Images, Image Sets, Inline Elements, Flash, Video
Thanks for joining us for this rundown on jQuery Lightbox clones. that use the jQuery Javascript library. And a big thanks to planetozh.com for publishing The Lightbox Clones Matrix which helped considerably with our research.
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