- Messages
- 2,620
- Name
- Peter
- Edit My Images
- Yes
If you want to make a website and don't want to invest too much time, there's a few solutions that you might like to be aware of.
Free photo sharing services:
These include Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, Carbonmade and other ones, you can find a more extensive list (although not exhaustive by any means) here:
http://photo-sharing-services-review.toptenreviews.com/ (look on the menu on the left)
Paid photo sharing services:
These include SmugMug, Photium, Pholio, Clikpic, PBase, Zenfolio and others, some of which are listed here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_photo_sharing_websites
and here:
http://picturesync.net/?PictureSync_services.
Self-hosted solutions:
If you have a domain or a subdomain and sufficient amount of web space to go with it, you can use a gallery solution.
Dynamically generated galleries that include an administration interface for uploading photos and managing your online galleries can be quite nice, you can find a short list here:
http://opensourcecms.com/ (click on Image Galleries in the menu on the left).
I can recommend Coppermine and Gallery 2.
If you need more than a gallery, something like a personal website with a contact form and a gallery, I suggest using Jaws or Dragonfly CMS (Dragonfly integrates Coppermine gallery). There are more, but I found these two to be rather easy to setup and get going. More can be found on the http://opensourcecms.com/ website.
If you're looking for a blog-type system, then there's e.g. Wordpress. It's very popular and there's loads of themes and plug-ins available for it.
Pixelpost isn't too bad if you're looking for a photo blog either.
Again, more of them can be found on the http://opensourcecms.com/ website.
If you want a solution in Flash, try these:
Simpleviewer
Flash Gallery
Art Flash Gallery
Flash Image Gallery
I don't like them, but some people love their flashy looks.
Offline gallery generators:
Jalbum - this one's quite popular. There are similar programs, e. g. in Python, but they're not as fast to install (you will most likely need a few extra things to install before it runs) and their templates are generally... pretty ugly.
Namu6 - it's more of a personal website editor, but if you don't have many photos, it can serve you well.
What NOT to expect:
Most gallery systems will not allow you more than switching a gallery 'skin' or rearrange navigation boxes.
If you need to get a custom design made (see 'Modifying a template' below), you can either try and do it yourself (which most of the time ends up in frustration) or you can hire someone to do it for you, that can be quite costly.
You can also use free template available. They can be found for example here:
http://www.oswd.org/
http://www.openwebdesign.org/
http://www.opendesigns.org/
http://www.designvitality.com/blog/...box-100-tools-resources-and-template-sources/ (lots of other links too)
http://www.freecsstemplates.org/
Which one should you go with?
It's simple, try them all and find one that suits YOU.
If you need more, Google's your friend.
Modifying a template
If you want to edit a website template, you're almost certainly need to know some XHTML and CSS (do NOT use the WYSIWYG editors, they almost always produce junk code or they cost a fortune).
You can find their specifications at http://www.w3.org/ .
Unless you're an extremely fast learner (very few people are like that), you're likely to be quite disappointed at the beginning, because you'll realise, it can take a lot of time to learn them and even longer to learn them well and get some good practices under your skin.
Some links to get you started:
W3Schools - fairly verbose free online course of XHTML, CSS and plenty of other technologies
Google learning XHTML
Google learning CSS
Google CSS tips and tricks - A List Apart is a pretty good resource, sitepoint has some OK articles sometimes as well
CSS Zen Garden - visiting it rarely harms
Note: not all people are good designers, even with training. Hiring someone to create a custom design for you might be cheaper (time is money ) than trying to do it yourself.
To try out whether you're any good at designs, get a pencil, a paper and sketch the design roughly. If it looks good to people around you (and you're sure they're honest), then DIY might be worth a shot if you don't claim yourself to be a 'technically challenged' person.
Suggestions and complaints via PMs, please.
Free photo sharing services:
These include Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, Carbonmade and other ones, you can find a more extensive list (although not exhaustive by any means) here:
http://photo-sharing-services-review.toptenreviews.com/ (look on the menu on the left)
Paid photo sharing services:
These include SmugMug, Photium, Pholio, Clikpic, PBase, Zenfolio and others, some of which are listed here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_photo_sharing_websites
and here:
http://picturesync.net/?PictureSync_services.
Self-hosted solutions:
If you have a domain or a subdomain and sufficient amount of web space to go with it, you can use a gallery solution.
Dynamically generated galleries that include an administration interface for uploading photos and managing your online galleries can be quite nice, you can find a short list here:
http://opensourcecms.com/ (click on Image Galleries in the menu on the left).
I can recommend Coppermine and Gallery 2.
If you need more than a gallery, something like a personal website with a contact form and a gallery, I suggest using Jaws or Dragonfly CMS (Dragonfly integrates Coppermine gallery). There are more, but I found these two to be rather easy to setup and get going. More can be found on the http://opensourcecms.com/ website.
If you're looking for a blog-type system, then there's e.g. Wordpress. It's very popular and there's loads of themes and plug-ins available for it.
Pixelpost isn't too bad if you're looking for a photo blog either.
Again, more of them can be found on the http://opensourcecms.com/ website.
If you want a solution in Flash, try these:
Simpleviewer
Flash Gallery
Art Flash Gallery
Flash Image Gallery
I don't like them, but some people love their flashy looks.
Offline gallery generators:
Jalbum - this one's quite popular. There are similar programs, e. g. in Python, but they're not as fast to install (you will most likely need a few extra things to install before it runs) and their templates are generally... pretty ugly.
Namu6 - it's more of a personal website editor, but if you don't have many photos, it can serve you well.
What NOT to expect:
Most gallery systems will not allow you more than switching a gallery 'skin' or rearrange navigation boxes.
If you need to get a custom design made (see 'Modifying a template' below), you can either try and do it yourself (which most of the time ends up in frustration) or you can hire someone to do it for you, that can be quite costly.
You can also use free template available. They can be found for example here:
http://www.oswd.org/
http://www.openwebdesign.org/
http://www.opendesigns.org/
http://www.designvitality.com/blog/...box-100-tools-resources-and-template-sources/ (lots of other links too)
http://www.freecsstemplates.org/
Which one should you go with?
It's simple, try them all and find one that suits YOU.
If you need more, Google's your friend.
Modifying a template
If you want to edit a website template, you're almost certainly need to know some XHTML and CSS (do NOT use the WYSIWYG editors, they almost always produce junk code or they cost a fortune).
You can find their specifications at http://www.w3.org/ .
Unless you're an extremely fast learner (very few people are like that), you're likely to be quite disappointed at the beginning, because you'll realise, it can take a lot of time to learn them and even longer to learn them well and get some good practices under your skin.
Some links to get you started:
W3Schools - fairly verbose free online course of XHTML, CSS and plenty of other technologies
Google learning XHTML
Google learning CSS
Google CSS tips and tricks - A List Apart is a pretty good resource, sitepoint has some OK articles sometimes as well
CSS Zen Garden - visiting it rarely harms
Note: not all people are good designers, even with training. Hiring someone to create a custom design for you might be cheaper (time is money ) than trying to do it yourself.
To try out whether you're any good at designs, get a pencil, a paper and sketch the design roughly. If it looks good to people around you (and you're sure they're honest), then DIY might be worth a shot if you don't claim yourself to be a 'technically challenged' person.
Suggestions and complaints via PMs, please.