Gallery Software

The software to successfully share images over the Internet has to perform a number of functions. Firstly, the images will probably require some manipulation to tidy them up, crop, resize, and convert them to an appropriate file format for web publishing. Thumbnails will then be created from the main images. The web pages that hold the thumbnails and images will need to be generated, and then all the files will need to be uploaded to the web server. Here we look at the gallery applications, which usually generate the gallery on the user's PC, for example Jalbum, or are hosted applications living on a web server out in Internet land, such as Gallery.

The main players for grown-up, feature-rich gallery applications are undoubtedly Gallery and Coppermine. They both contain many, many features, are themeable, and have been integrated into a number of other products such as bulletin boards and content management systems. They are often supported by hosting companies by way of a simple application installer. Downsides are complexity - It is relatively easy to get them working, however getting them just right can take you up a very steep learning curve due to the sheer number of options. Incidentally, both of these powerful applications are free.

Examples of real Gallery sites can be found at G2-sites.com.

These applications can handle almost any image hosting challenge, but in many instances something simpler can do the job, for instance the PhotoShop Elements Gallery Creator, Porta, or JAlbum, however there is almost endless choice.

Other Gallery Software

More products that might be worth considering include:

  • 12345 Photo Gallery Wizard
  • 4images gallery Nice PHP/MySQL gallery. Includes image e-mailing facility. Some knowledge of German useful.
  • !Advanced Album Editor “!” in the name - usually not a good sign.
  • Albinator Commercial PHP/MySQL gallery with lots of features.
  • AutoSiteGallery
  • Album Express
  • Birch Very nice photoblog software with a very clean and simple design. Recommended.
  • Buzzword A PHP/MySQL offering that includes a blog and a links page.
  • Comdev Photo Gallery Slick commercial PHP product with good management.
  • DAlbum Polished PHP gallery with Windows Explorer style user interface and lots of features. Worth a look.
  • DigiPhoto Gallery Free trial of this slick HTML gallery creator. Good EXIF support.
  • Diji Album
  • Encaps A multipurpose skinnable php image gallery. Easy to install and run, it does not require php or mysql skills.
  • ePhotoAlbum Lots of features.
  • Exhibit Engine A PHP/MySQL application especially suited for showing technical data.
  • FlipAlbum An unusual concept.
  • Fly Album Creates online galleries and " with it you can make a lovely digital photo album with background music for your lover, kids and friends". Hmmm. Lovely.
  • Gallery Monger for Mac users.
  • Gallery Thingie Small and quick PHP gallery. Seems to work OK.
  • htAlbum
  • IDS (Image Display System) Interesting PERL CGI script.
  • JAlbum - Simple to use, well-supported and effective HTML gallery generator.
  • jigl Simple PERL script for generating static HTML galleries
  • Lightbox 2 A script for overlaying single images or sets of images in any HTML page
  • Lightbox Photo Gallery.
  • LinPHA PHP Gallery.
  • Magic Gallery Thumbnail software Version 4.0 is a well-featured, easy to use HTML generator. 30-day free trial.
  • MediaChest Centralised access to your personal media files from anywhere. Handy for iPod owners and MP3 fans.
  • Minishowcase - Good-looking and very easy to set up.
  • My Photo Gallery A free perl/CGI script. Quite slick.
  • NeoPhoto
  • nGallery Written in Windows .NET Framework.
  • Nobugs Gallery Generator Perl script that generates HTML for uploading to your host
  • OTF Gallery Minimalistic and fast PHP gallery.
  • picKLE Simple, and surprisingly satisfying in a quirky sort of way. Amusing homepage.
  • Photo2album The free version generates small albums for sharing by email.
  • Photo Aspect A Java application.
  • Photoblog/MMS Take a picture on your mobile phone and send it straight to your photoblog. Requires PHP/MySQL.
  • Photoblox An application that can be embedded in an HTML page or blog to display images with dynamic transitions. Not for beginners, however a neat effect.
  • PhotoStore Script for selling images. Around $300.
  • phpGraphy Another simple PHP gallery.
  • PHP Pic-O-Matic Small simple PHP gallery. Slightly DIY.
  • Pixory Really not sure about this one. I quote.. "Pixory allows an author, with minimal or no work, to create a photo album and share it over the internet, directly from his/her own computer without the need for central servers". Use at your own risk.
  • Pixelpost PHP/MySQL photoblog.
  • Plogger - Fashionable PHP/MySQL gallery. Good-looking, but slightly light on features.
  • Porta This produces very clean galleries and is very easy to use.
  • PostcardViewer An unusual Flash-based gallery. Interesting and free.
  • Qdig Easy to use PHP Gallery.
  • ReaGallery.
  • SelectaPix Nice lean PHP/MySQL gallery.
  • Simple Photo Gallery Requires a bit of work (and Perl etc.) on the server.
  • SimpleViewer Not so simple to set up, but the Flash-based result is pretty cool if you like that sort of thing.
  • Singapore Another PHP Gallery.
  • SPGM Simple Picture Gallery Manager, written in PHP.
  • Spider Eyeballs Excellent name for this interesting Perl-based project.
  • TalaPhoto Handy features for digital camera owners. Runs on Macs as well as Windows.
  • TFT Gallery PHP gallery that does not need a database - very easy to add images.
  • ThumbsPlus Seems like quite a sophisticated package.
  • TurboDemo Album - Creates Flash (or .exe) albums.
  • Web Gallery Wizard Easy way to produce quite good-looking galleries. $15 and $40 versions. Free trial.
  • Web Photo Publisher A satisfyingly simple Java-based application.
  • YaPiG Yet another PHP Image Gallery. Cute pig graphic.
  • yappa-ng Yet another PHP Photo Album - Next Generation.
  • Zenith Picture Gallery Competent PHP/MySQL offering.
  • Zenphoto - Extremely simple and very good looking gallery.
  • Zeugma An open source PHP script designed to be a complete photo gallery solution.


Additional resources

  • Dynamic Drive - Source of a multitude of free original DHTML & Javascripts to use as building blocks for creating your websites. Lots of gallery and image handling scripts.