Are you looking for some ways to add some flair to your website via animation? Do you want your additions to not only look good, but function properly as well? If so, here are some methods to do so with jQuery plugins. Thanks to the plugins’ creators, you can add style and substance to your site without a lot of tedious work.
Are you looking for some ways to add some flair to your website via animation? Do you want your additions to not only look good, but function properly as well? If so, here are some methods to do so with jQuery plugins. Thanks to the plugins’ creators, you can add style and substance to your site without a lot of tedious work.
AJAX-ZOOM
If you are looking for a plugin that comes equipped with a ton of options and can integrate easily into virtually any type of website, AJAX-ZOOM might be right what the doctor ordered. Described by its creator as a single image zoom and pan viewer, AJAX-ZOOM boasts a list of over 300 options. Its functionality is similar to Google Maps due to the way it employs image tiles to quickly supply a section of the zoomed image. Compatible across all browsers and HTML5-enabled, AJAX-ZOOM is also compatible with mobile touch-screen devices such as the popular iPhone and iPad. The plugin offers such features as pinch zoom, skinning over CSS, pan and crop with mouse wheel support, and the list goes on. As for its most interesting feature, the special 360 degree rotation mode is a great option for anyone with an online store who wants to allow customers to get detailed views of products.
Visual Lightbox is a jQuery plugin that greatly simplifies the task of creating Web photo galleries. No code is required. All you have to do is drag and drop the desired photos into Visual Lightbox, hit Publish, and a gallery will be generated that also includes a Lightbox-style layover effect. Some of the plugin’s noteworthy highlights include built-in FTP, automatic thumbnail creation, the ability to add captions, various integrated themes, autostart, floating and smooth cross-fade transition, and much more.
The animation provided by the Sticky Floating Box jQuery plugin is quite useful, no matter what type of website you have. What it does is keep a side menu, or box on the side of the screen that stays put as the user scrolls down the page. This is helpful to the user because they don’t have to scroll all the way up again if they want to navigate to another part of the site. The plugin’s author re-released the plugin with new features, and you can customize parameters for the duration of the animation, the offset from the top, the delay until the animation starts, and so on.
The Lightview plugin employs jQuery to create attract overlay windows. Owners of photography sites could definitely make use of its powerful features, such as numerous predefined skins, a user-friendly API, the ability to show related content as a group, and more. You can overlay a multitude of different media such as images, YouTube clips, maps, forms, slideshows, and AJAX, just to name a few. The plugin uses HTML5 to help with cross-browser compatibility so you can please all of your viewers, no matter what browsers they choose. Lightview is easily one of the most aesthetically pleasing plugins in this list and is definitely worthy of a download, especially if you run a site that is heavy on media.
If scrolling is your necessity, then the simplyScroll jQuery plugin has the answer. It allows you to scroll or animate content in a variety of ways, such as horizontally or vertically, backwards or forwards, and manually or automatically. Looped scrolling is supported in case you want to implement an infinite effect, and users can also pause the scrolling when necessary. simplyScroll works on all the major browsers, is easy to customize, and easy to use. It even offers touch support to roll with the trend of enhanced smartphones and tablets that seem to be the craze nowadays.
Zino is a jQuery plugin that is all about displaying images in their highest form. It functions as an image and content slider, as well as a banner rotator. You can create slideshows of your favorite images, and even create multiple ones on the same page. This quality-made plugin is SEO friendly and employs valid HTML and CSS. The highly customizable nature of Zino makes it a good choice for site owners of varying tastes, and one example of such flexibility is the power to use horizontal or vertical orientation for your content. As with most of the other plugins in this list, Zino features support across browsers to give you and your visitors maximum functionality.
Another example of a solid jQuery plugin that offers content slider functionality is bxSlider. It boasts tons of options, such as random start, a ticker mode, easing transitions, horizontal, vertical, and fade transitions, plus various callback functions. You can style the slider to your liking, move multiple slides simultaneously for a carousel effect, and make use of auto controls for some added user-friendliness.
The Step Carousel Viewer allows you to display images or rich HTML in a highly attractive manner by scrolling them to the left or right. It’s ideal for any site where you want to show off images, and the functionality is both flexible and user-friendly. You can customize the plugin to fit your desired look. Auto rotation is an option, as is wraparound. Users can jump from slide to slide using arrow keys, or they can even jump to specific slides via special buttons. The customization options are what really make this jQuery plugin appealing, and the sliding animation is quite smooth as well.
Just as its name suggests, Easy Gallery 2 specializes in giving you the power to create image galleries with ease. It’s lightweight in nature and hassle-free. Easy Gallery is not the most complex jQuery plugin you will find, but if you just want to create some nice slideshow galleries with smooth animation, it should do the trick.
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