Free gallery creator for Windows?

December 18, 2003 1:25 PM

What would be the best freeware "gallery creator" software under windows? I have some pictures I would like to share, but I do not have to much time to learn all http/css details.
posted by MzB to Computers & Internet (18 answers total)

What's "best" for you? Easiest? Most configurable or tweakable? Most flexible? You'll probably get a ton of suggestions, but picking the right match for your needs means knowing a little about what your needs are.
posted by majick at 1:30 PM on December 18, 2003

I've used two consecutive releases of Coppermine and found it easy to install, configure, and use. I like the default interface better as a visitor, too, compared to the usual Menalto Gallery I encounter browsing. Coppermine comes with a couple of 'skins' so if one is to your liking you don't really have to do any customizing.
posted by cairnish at 1:38 PM on December 18, 2003

hey thanks cairnish - i have been thinking about installing the menalto gallery on my server... but i think i will give coppermine a shot.

www.typepad.com

has a nice very simple hosted gallery service as well.
posted by specialk420 at 1:41 PM on December 18, 2003

Snapgallery does it all for you, turning a folder of your images into html pages ready to upload to a web server.
posted by mathowie at 1:56 PM on December 18, 2003

I've been thoroughly enjoying PhotoStack . It's not as fully featured as some of the others but for ease of templating, simplicity and overall elegance, it's hard to beat. I also like their support for compliant markup. I've gone through installs of 4images, Gallery and Coppermine and found them overkill for my needs.

I also use MT for a photobloggy type deal, but without the ability to bulk upload it's better suited for a chronologically ordered display of individual photos than an 'album' oriented display.
posted by cedar at 2:00 PM on December 18, 2003

jalbum.

Java based, runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, Solaris, OS/2 Warp, numerous skins, quick, easy interface. And Free.
posted by jazon at 2:04 PM on December 18, 2003

Response by poster: Thank you all. I did not think that such advanced tools (Coopermine, Menalto) exist.
For the beginning, I want to use some basic tool which would deliver plain html that could be loaded on any site. As a second step, I would like to receive some feedback, so some scripts are OK (this is not urgent).
posted by MzB at 2:07 PM on December 18, 2003

I have been trying to find a product that does this, but on a local level (as opposed to on the web) and with searching capability. Ideally, I would like to be able to enter details of each photo such as file name, location, keywords and then be able to search on the keywords to bring up matching photos and display them. Does anyone know of a product like this?
posted by dg at 2:09 PM on December 18, 2003

Ideally, I would like to be able to enter details of each photo such as file name, location, keywords and then be able to search on the keywords to bring up matching photos and display them. Does anyone know of a product like this?

If you're a Windows user (I can't speak for other OS's), your file system will do an admirable job. I don't recall if this goes back as far as Win98, but in Win2000 and XP, you just right-click the file and click the "Summary" tab. You can then use the built-in search function in Explorer to search on those fields. Add a nice shareware image browser like ImageWalker, and you're in business.
posted by vraxoin at 2:15 PM on December 18, 2003

MzB, try out snapgallery. It's a tiny script that does what you ask.
posted by mathowie at 2:23 PM on December 18, 2003

Response by poster: dg: PhotoFinder and PhotoMesa.
snapgallery is good and works very well with medium pictures. testing next: jalbum.
posted by MzB at 2:30 PM on December 18, 2003

dg, for windows I use Thumbs Plus which creates a database of your image files, makes thumbnails, can do simple image editing [rotate, scale], but the best features I've found are the keyword, annotation, and Gallery - where you can add pictures to a gallery of images which really are just links to the original image. I wish that there was an OSS implementation of this, or a php/mysql dbase that I could write "hooks" into. Maybe I will just write one...
posted by plemeljr at 2:33 PM on December 18, 2003

I like Gallery a lot. It's easy to set up and simple enough to use on the front end so that, say, my dad can upload pictures to it without any trouble.
posted by muckster at 2:42 PM on December 18, 2003

I like snapgallery as well. I think there's a free Microsoft powertoy type downloadable wizard dealy that also makes html-galleries for upload for you, if you're on XP.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:33 PM on December 18, 2003

I like jalbum a lot as well. It even does zour ftp-uploading for you.
posted by sebas at 12:54 AM on December 19, 2003

your, not zour. Stupid Swiss keyboards.
posted by sebas at 12:55 AM on December 19, 2003

I use Limon. Don't know how it stacks up to the competition, as this is a qquestion I've needed answering for a while myself.
posted by seanyboy at 2:13 AM on December 19, 2003

Response by poster: Limon is more advanced than snapgallery, but less advanced than jalbum. If you are interested in jalbum, have a look over their forum, it helps a lot.
Thank you all for your help.
posted by MzB at 9:57 AM on December 20, 2003