A WordPress Image Gallery Plugin

by Bill on June 2, 2008

I wrote about PicLens by cooliris a while back in this article called The Windows Vista 3D Task Switcher.

PicLens

PicLens is a very cool way to view images in a gallery. Their website says “Immersive Views Across The Web and Your favorite sites.  Full-screen. 3D.”

PicLens originally offered a piece of software that you install on your computer that would allow you to view various website images in a scrollable, zoomable, 3D wall of images.  It’s just pretty darn cool.

But, did you know you can use it for a gallery on your website or blog?  I’ve been looking at a bunch of gallery software for WordPress so I can show images and decided to give PicLens a look.  When I first discovered PicLens I emailed them and asked if there was a way to integrate it into a blog.  Well, apparantly they listened to just me ;) and responded with this WordPress plugin.

The PicLens WordPress plugin is a “lite” version of PicLens that gives you an image gallery for your blog.

Here is an example post with images.  The plugin automatically places a link at the end of the post – “Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite PicLens“.

PicLens Lite

Click Image for Larger View

After clicking on the PicLens link in above, here is the gallery that pops up:

PicLens Example Gallery

Click Image for Larger View

You get a nice simple gallery provided by PicLens.  The thumbnail images are on the bottom row.  The images start an automatic slideshow.  You can pause the slideshow and use the arrow keys to move about the images.  The Full Scren button in the lower right-hand corner of the screen displays the gallery in – full screen.

If you have the PicLens Firefox Addon installed, you’ll be able to view the gallery in the 3D world of PicLens.

There’s actually two plugins:

  1. WP PicLens
  2. Creates an immersive, full-screen slideshow presentation of photos and images in your blog. Set Plugin options in the Admin » Options » PicLens Tab.

  3. WP PicLens Slideshow Widget
  4. Adds a Dynamic HTML Slideshow Widget that creates an immersive, full-screen slideshow presentation of photos and images in your blog. Add the widget to your sidebar and set display options in the Admin » Presentation » Widgets Tab.

PicLens now supports YouTube by presenting the same 3D gallery effect only with the videos from YouTube. Pretty cool.

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

1 PK April 28, 2009 at 2:14 pm

Well If they listened to you once, then maybe they will do it again. How about asking them to add a few more options. I would like to be able to select which images are added to the piclens slideshow. e.g. all images in a folder. Have you come across a plugin that will do that? And not a widget as I use Monotone (1 column)

Pete

2 Bill April 29, 2009 at 9:48 pm

@PK – I don’t know if I completely understand what you’re talking about but have you look at nextgen – http://alexrabe.boelinger.com/wordpress-plugins/nextgen-gallery/.

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