March 19, 2010
“Impact” Web Engine for Lightroom
Timothy Armes has just released a new Web Engine for Lightroom called “Impact”. The gallery fills the web browser with imagery in order to provoke the greatest emotional response from the viewer. Tim discusses the philosophy of the gallery design on his blog.
As with his first Web Engine (Elegance), Impact is distributed as a plugin which simplifies the installation process and allows Tim to keep users up to date with automatic updates.
The gallery also feature some other interesting features, such as:
Multiple image resolutions are exported and the most appropriate resolution is used when displaying the images. This ensures fast loading on mobile devices without penalising the image quality on desktop machines.
Users can bookmark images and return directly to them (the URL changes as the slideshow advances).
Designed for iPhone. The iPhone will be served with low resolution images to increase download speed. When viewed in landscape mode the navigation bar is automatically moved out of way to leave more room for the images. Finally, users may then swipe between images.
Pure HTML/Javascript – no Flash.
Image scaling is handled using some clever HTML rather than relying on Javascript. This results in a more fluid user experience when resizing the browser.
Impact is available from the Photographer’s Toolbox.