WP Featherlight – A Simple jQuery Lightbox

WP Featherlight is a simple, lightweight jQuery based WordPress plugin used to create a responsive, mobile friendly lightbox in your website. It's highly customizable and easy to use, helping you display images, videos, webpages and other content in a modal popup window.

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What We Think:

98%

Very highly recommended!

WP Featherlight – A Simple jQuery Lightbox: A Comprehensive Review

The WP Featherlight – A Simple jQuery Lightbox plugin is a free, open-source tool for WordPress users. It allows images and galleries to be presented as a lightbox in dialogs and embeds, allowing for a much more user-friendly browsing experience. It is powered by the popular jQuery library, giving it the flexibility to be easily extended and customized. It is an essential tool for WordPress sites often dealing with lots of images and other multimedia content.

WP Featherlight – A Simple jQuery Lightbox: Breakdown

A view of the jQuery lightbox in action.

The WP Featherlight – A Simple jQuery Lightbox plugin simplifies the process of displaying images and making them pleasing to the eye. Images and galleries can be presented in an attractive, easy-to-navigate dialog style.

This plugin eliminates the need for coding knowledge and complex configurations to set up a consistent lightbox display on the user's WordPress site. The lightweight plugin only requires extending one JS library and extending several jQuery functions. Once the functions are extended, the plugin takes over the responsibility of creating an eye-catching lightbox display.

The plugin provides users with a range of customization options. Users can choose from several lightbox styles, including a photo gallery-like template. They can also set up custom CSS rules to adjust the presentation to one's liking.

The plugin also supports a range of media types. In addition to images, the plugin can also display YouTube, Vimeo, and Wistia videos. Furthermore, PDFs can also be displayed.

Finally, the plugin supports a range of performance-enhancing features. The plugin is built with progressive loading in mind. Hence, the loading times for the lightbox or content is significantly reduced. The plugin also makes use of caching and lazy loading to improve usability and speed.

Pros of Using WP Featherlight – A Simple jQuery Lightbox

Cropping and resizing: WP Featherlight – A Simple jQuery Lightbox WordPress plugin offers the ability to crop and resize images to ensure they fit any application they may be used in. This helps to save time and effort of having to manually scale images, allowing for quick implementation. This feature is also helpful for keeping page load speeds to a minimum, as images will be sized properly when used.

Compatibility with WP Media Library: WP Featherlight – A Simple jQuery Lightbox plugin is compatible with WordPress’ Media Library, which makes it easy to use and implement within a WordPress site. This helps to increase efficiency and allows for easier organization of the media library. Additionally, the plugin can be set to recognize images from other sources, as well, increasing its functionality.

Easily Customizable: WP Featherlight – A Simple jQuery Lightbox plugin is customizable, allowing users to change the look and feel of the plugin as desired. This includes customizing the size, color, shape, and styling of the lightbox. Additionally, users can alter the speed of the transition effects, allowing for a more accurate and pleasing appearance.

Mobile Friendly: WP Featherlight – A Simple jQuery Lightbox plugin has been designed to be mobile friendly. This means that photos used in a lightbox will be optimized for most mobile devices, ensuring that images remain clear and easy to view. Additionally, this plugin is easy to use and navigate on a mobile device, providing a better overall user experience.

No JavaScript Knowledge Required: WP Featherlight – A Simple jQuery Lightbox plugin is accessible to both experienced and novice web developers, as no prior knowledge of JavaScript is needed to use it. All users need to do is simply install the plugin and then activate it, making it easy to begin utilizing the plugin quickly. Additionally, setting up this plugin only takes a few minutes and the included help file helps to make the process even simpler to understand.

Cons of Using WP Featherlight – A Simple jQuery Lightbox

Size Constraints: The WP Featherlight plugin is limited in size, so it may not be suitable for larger images or video clips. Furthermore, the plugin does not support embedding of external resources such as videos, audio files, PDF documents, forms, and surveys.

Error Issues: Unfortunately, the WP Featherlight plugin is not error-free and may cause errors if a user attempts to open or close a lightbox. This may occur if the plugin is not updated and can cause frustration and disruption for the user.

Customization Limitations: The plugin does not offer a wide range of customization options and only provides basic features, such as adjusting the size and position of the lightbox. Additionally, the plugin does not offer any advanced features, such as adding captions or displaying images in different sizes.

Compatibility: The WP Featherlight plugin is not compatible with some web hosts and may not be able to load correctly on certain websites. Furthermore, if the user’s browser does not support the plugin, then the lightbox will not display correctly.

Customization Conflicts: It is important to note that the WP Featherlight plugin may conflict with certain WordPress themes. Therefore, users should be aware that the plugin may not be compatible with their existing website theme, which may hinder the user’s ability to customize their website’s look and feel.

98% Very highly recommended!

In conclusion

Overall, the WP Featherlight – A Simple jQuery Lightbox plugin is a great and easy way to display images, video, and PDFs on a WordPress site. It is relatively easy to set up and configure, but also provides users with lots of customization options. Ultimately, the plugin can simplify how galleries and videos are presented on a site, creating a much better user experience.

Plugin Specifications

Version: 1.3.4
Last Updated: 4 years ago
Installs: 60,000+
WP Version: 4.0+
Tested Until: 5.6.0
PHP Version: N/A

Use Case Examples

Lightbox for User Photo Gallery
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The WP Featherlight lightbox can be used to create a user photo gallery. It works by displaying the images in an overlay window, making them easier to view. Images can be clicked on to enlarge them, and they can be moved around in the overlay window for better viewing, allowing viewers to experience the photos in a very interactive way.
Lightbox for Education Display
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Lightbox for Product Showcase Page
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Lightbox for Art & Design Portfolio
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Lightbox for Video Tutorials
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