The creation of image galleries ready for web publishing from the ground could be a difficult task for beginners. In order to automate the process of creation and publishing of image galleries various tools could be chosen.

For example, there are available many server side or client side scripts that only require the user to upload image files to a certain folder, but the gallery appearance and its functionality customization sometimes implies the code modifications and as a consequence scripting knowledge are required. On the other hand, certain desktop based applications that allow the web image gallery automatic generation provide a higher degree of flexibility and simplicity in usage for beginners webmasters.

Instant Gallery Maker is a Windows based software specialized in photo albums creation. The users must perform only a few mouse clicks and modify the desired options to obtain a fully functional image gallery ready for web publishing. The generated image gallery can be customized by modifying the appropriate HTML and CSS code (JavaScript or other client side scripting language is not used).

To create a new image album, the user must upload individual pictures or folders and then optionally set the title of every image, set crop alignment or rotation state. In the next step, the gallery template can be selected from various built in themes. Then , the fourth step provides the user the opportunity to set various gallery options related to the appearance, web page navigation and other functionalities.

From the general options menu entry situated in the left of main window, various advanced settings can be modified: index pages, image pages, CSS inclusion in web pages or as external file, images auto-renaming template and more. Also, there is the possibility to create a photo album for an autorun CD type by checking the checkbox that will determine the generation of an autorun.inf file.

The images titles and alternative text can be customized with the help of macro-variables. The thumbnails are generated automatically as JPEG or PNG files. In case of the JPEG files, the user can choose from a wide range of resampling filters, set the image quality. The progressive encoding option for JPEG thumbnails is also available. In the same manner the PNG thumbnails can be interlaced and saved with transparency. Thumbnails size can be customized, as well as their border, mask and shadow effects. These effects are available in for the full size images too.

The generated gallery can have a standard structure (without frames) or frames based. The navigation links and buttons have also multiple customization options. For example, the user is allowed to include in the navigation system other buttons than the ones existing by default.

Finally, after the number of rows and columns containing thumbnails is set, the gallery will be generated by pressing the corresponding button in the window marking the fifth step. After the photo album generation, it could be previewed in the web browser.

The main advantages of this software are the simplicity of usage in image gallery setup for the generation process due to a minimum number of necessary steps and direct access through the GUI to various options grouped in a logic manner into intuitive menus.

The resulted image gallery, being based only on pure HTML and CSS is compliant with actual standards, contains only search engine friendly links and content and have a professional look. The Instant Gallery Maker software is available for free download at DownloadTube website and will definitely simplify the task of image galleries creation.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 3:15 am and is filed under Windows Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.