Re: Best way to display large images?

Andy Dingley <dingbat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

As to opening this page, then do it through a JavaScript popup, but
attach that to onclick of a real <a> element and still support the
simple href for those with JS turned off or poups blocked. The popup
should be smart about its sizing, based on the image.

No.

The number one rule about pop-ups is: don't.

The number two rule about pop-ups is: if you absolutely have to, only
use them for links to external sites.

The number three rule about pop-ups is: if you do use them for
internal links, you'd better have a very good reason.

A photo gallery is one of the worst places to use pop-up windows.
People are capable of using the back button to return to the gallery,
and if they want to open the picture in a new or background tab, they
will - but let them make that choice.

If you have anything other than the image - ie, any descriptive text
at all, a "smart-sized" pop-up window becomes very un-smart as soon as
they set a larger text size than yours, as it will then invoke both a
vertical scrollbar and very often a horizontal one as well, looking
very messy.

Don't worry about bandwidth. Everyone needs bandwidth adequate to fill
their screen (at reasonable levels of JPG compression, assuming basic
sensible competence by the web coder). If they've gone so far as to
deliberately select a thumbnail, then they're prepared to wait a little.

Agreed - inasmuch as it is better to present a high-quality image
after a couple of seconds than a scrappy one instantly. But
nevertheless, keep pages and images as lean as you reasonably can.

--
Stevie D
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