How to Create a Lightbox Effect on WordPress Image Galleries

Are you ready to take your WordPress image galleries from ordinary to extraordinary? Enter the world of gallery lightboxes – the secret to creating stunning, interactive visual experiences on your WordPress website.

Why should you care about WordPress gallery lightboxes?

• They create a professional, polished look for your site
• They allow visitors to focus on your images without distractions
• They’re perfect for photographers, artists, and e-commerce stores showcasing products
• They improve user experience by making image navigation smooth and intuitive

But here’s the catch: WordPress doesn’t come with built-in lightbox functionality. That’s where FooBox comes in – the all-in-one lightbox plugin for all things responsive images, videos, and HTML lightboxes for WordPress.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to implement this game-changing feature using FooBox. Get ready to transform your gallery and captivate your audience like never before!

How to Create a Lightbox Effect on WordPress Image Galleries with FooBox PRO

Getting your WordPress gallery set up with a lightbox effect couldn’t be easier with FooBox. All you need to do is: 

1. Install and activate FooBox
2. Adjust the settings to enable FooBox
3.  Create a gallery and enable lightbox
4. Publish your lightbox effect gallery

Step 1. Install and Activate the Plugin

The first thing you’ll need to do is install and activate FooBox. We’ll go through the steps, using FooBox Free, available on WordPress.org, as an example.

To install your lightbox plugin, go to Plugins –> Add New and search for FooBox. It should be the first result you see.

Click on Install Now, followed by Activate. FooBox will now start working automatically on your site. You can upgrade from Free to PRO easily; you can follow these simple steps to install FooBox PRO.

Step 2. Adjust Settings to Enable FooBox

FooBox works out of the box, so you don’t need to worry about changing the settings or configurations. But for your reference, it’s important to ensure that FooBox is enabled. To check this, go to your FooBox settings. Here you’ll be asked what you want to attach FooBox to – all of the boxes should be ticked. This will allow you to open galleries, display images, and more in your lightbox. For example, if you click on any image on this page, it will open in FooBox.

In the settings, you’ll also be able to customize your lightbox. While FooBox doesn’t need any configuration to work as a simple lightbox, the large number of settings will allow you to have more control over its appearance. Here’s a quick look at some of the options available to you in FooBox PRO:

• General: Under the general setting, you can control where FooBox is enabled. For example, you can attach FooBox to WordPress galleries, standalone images, and/or specific classes.
• Look and feel: These settings give you control over the appearance of your lightbox. Apart from choosing a theme (there are 3 to choose from), you can also select colors, icons, and an opening/closing animation. In this section, you can also set how the navigation buttons are displayed.

• Captions: Including captions with your media is important, and these settings give you more options for how and when captions are displayed. For example, you can choose to show captions on hover or hide them initially. There is also the option to override the default caption title and description and to prettify ugly captions. 
• Functions: In the Functions tab, you’ll find a variety of settings that help determine the lightbox behavior. For instance, if there is more than one image in a gallery, you can enable the slideshow mode.

• Noteworthy functions include setting an error message for when items don’t load, enabling deep linking to give each media item a unique URL when opened in the lightbox, and allowing images to be viewed in full screen.

• Social Sharing:  With built-in social sharing, you can share images directly from your gallery on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and more. 
  Another useful setting here is the download option, which enables users to download the original image. 
• Advanced: Under the Advanced settings, you can tweak the functionality of FooBox, like disabling Swipe on mobile or disabling other light boxes. The advanced settings also cater to developers, should they need to debug a site, for example. 
• JS & CSS: Again, this section caters mostly to developers who want to add custom JS or CSS to FooBox. 
• Google Analytics: If you want to gather more insight into how your media is performing, then this is the ideal solution. FooBox PRO integrates with your Google Analytics to record events such as image views, deeplinked page views, or social tracking. 

Once you’ve adjusted the look and feel of FooBox, or set up behavior and tracking, save your changes. These will be applied across your site, wherever you use FooBox. 

Step 3. Create Your Gallery and Enable Lightbox

Once your lightbox is set up, you can go ahead and create your gallery. We’ll show you how to do this using FooGallery, with a quick look at the settings you need for the lightbox popup.

The next step is installing FooGallery on your WordPress site. You can install FooGallery Free from your plugins page, or purchase FooGallery PRO and install the download. Once installed, you shouldn’t need to make any changes to the general settings – everything is designed to work out of the box. All you need to do to get started is add a gallery.

You’ll then add a title and choose your media files. You can upload images or use those already in your Media Library. If you’re using FooGallery Pro, you can also add a video or pull in images from other sources. Once you have your images, you can drag and drop them, select one of the templates, and then style your gallery using the various customizations on offer.

Next, to make this a lightbox gallery, you can enable FooBox. Under the General tab of your gallery settings, depending on which template you’ve selected, you’ll see an option for selecting your lightbox. The Thumbnail Link settings should, by default, be set to open the Full-Size Image in the lightbox. You also then need to select the lightbox you want to use – here, select FooBox. 

Step 4: Publish Your Lightbox Gallery

Once everything is set up, simply click on Publish, and your gallery will be saved. Now, you can use your gallery on one of your pages or in a blog post.

If you’re using the Gutenberg block editor, you can add your gallery by selecting the FooGallery block, which can be found under Common Blocks. You’ll then be able to select the gallery you want to use from all of your current galleries. Once selected, you’ll see a preview of your gallery in the editor.

Alternatively, you can make use of the gallery shortcode to add your gallery to your page. The shortcode can be found on the right-hand side of your gallery editor. Simply click on the shortcode to add it to your clipboard. Then go to your page and use the shortcode block to paste in the code. 

Example Gallery Lightbox Effect Created With FooBox Pro 

Here’s a gallery we created using FooGallery, with FooBox PRO as our lightbox. 

To see how it works with the lightbox popup, just click on one of the images. It will open in a frame above the page, and from here, you can scroll through the other images. To close the lightbox, you can either click on the ‘X’ in the top right corner or just click on the screen behind the lightbox.

Take Your WordPress Image Galleries to the Next Level with FooBox!

FooBox isn’t just another WordPress gallery lightbox – it’s the solution that will transform your website’s visual experience. 

Don’t let your images get lost in a sea of static galleries. Upgrade your WordPress site today with FooBox PRO—the WordPress gallery lightbox plugin that turns ordinary galleries into extraordinary visual stories.

Ready to revolutionize your WordPress gallery lightbox experience? Get started with FooBox PRO today!