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Mirage

	4.0
35 votes

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Sample album

Developed by: ctwist

Support forum: Mirage forum

Nr of downloads: 36294
Last updated: 2 Oct 2009
Created: 5 Apr 2006

Install skin

Click "Install skin" and choose to open with the Jalbum application.

You can also install the skin by unzipping
this file into the skin folder.

Description:
Most of the Jalbum skins are intended to show photograph albums. However, I needed to show an artist's portfolio, and the requirements are a bit different. Although Mirage is intended to display art, it also works well for photo albums, as long as you don't want to show photo meta-data (e.g. aperture, focal length).

1) Why use the Mirage skin?
- If you want to create an art gallery, I think this is the best available skin.
- The "variants" feature allows a slide page to contain thumbnails of related images, videos and web pages. This provides a more focussed view than an index page.
- The "superimposed" feature allows you to combine a main image and a secondary image on the same slide page. This can provide extra impact.
- If you want to include videos in your album, your choice of skins is limited. Mirage supports the major video formats, and handles cross-browser inconsistencies.
- With any skin, it is possible to combine multiple albums into a master album, but this is complicated. Mirage simplifies this task by allowing an album to contain Windows shortcuts or Internet shortcuts; this lets you easily copy and paste your albums (or portions of albums). Each linked album can be created with any skin.
- An album can contain thumbnail links to web pages. This allows you to include external content that complements your photo collection.
- The number of index page columns can be automatically adjusted, so that the thumbnails fit any browser window.
- It is optimised for the best image quality. E.g. compare the folder thumbnails with those from other skins; in many cases you will see a difference. This is because all thumbnails are created with the correct dimensions during album generation, instead of using the web browser's resizing feature.
- Flash-free presentation displays images without distractions.

2) Other features:
- Index pages:
>> Each folder is depicted by a "folder icon" that contains an embedded thumbnail of any image on the current drive.
>> A "For Sale" label is superimposed on the thumbnails of paintings that are for sale.
>> A "New" label is superimposed on the thumbnails of new paintings.
>> Multiple index pages are supported (by setting "number of rows" to a non-zero value). Unlike other skins that I have tested, navigation through the slides doesn't allow you to go beyond the limits of the current index page.
- An album can contain image (JPG, GIF, PNG), video (MPG, AVI, MOV, MP4, WMV, DivX, Xvid, FLV, SWF), PDF files and shortcuts to other albums or web pages. Video and PDF files are usually embedded, so that they blend with the album's overall appearance.
- 31 styles are included.
- The skin displays correctly in Internet Explorer 6 & 7, Firefox 3 and Safari 3 & 4. I have avoided non-standard HTML extensions, so it should work in other web browsers.

Mirage version 5.6:

Enhancements:
- If a thumbnail title is wider than the maximum thumbnail width, it wraps.
- A shortcut's URL is shown in its settings.
- For a variant image, a new setting allows you to choose its thumbnail.
- A new index page setting provides alternative positions for the footer.
- Improved validation for the settings: you can't type an invalid character in a numeric field, and you can't enter a value outside its range.
- When resizing a transparent variant, the transparent colour is replaced by the style's background colour.
- Folder titles can be hidden.
- A Java 1.5 version is included as an optional alternative (this is experimental).

Bug fixes:
- This is compatible with Jalbum 8.5.
- Linked variants and superimposed images were missing from the album. (since 5.5)
- A Java exception could occur when switching from another skin to Mirage. (since 5.5)
- A Java exception could occur when choosing a linked folder's thumbnail image. (since 5.5)
- If an album's description contained a double quote, it could have caused some formatting errors on the root index page. (since 5.5)
- A linked variant GIF image is not converted to a JPG unless it needs to be resized. This ensures that it retains its transparency and animation (unlinked GIFs were already converted correctly).
- Various problems with file choosers have been fixed.
- Sometimes, there was a dotted border around the last button, thumbnail or hyperlink that was clicked. This has been removed.
- For some variants, a tooltip could not be entered. (since 5.5)
- For variant images, the setting "New window" has been removed. This was not used. (since 5.5)

Previous versions (12)

Comments

ctwist says:

I intentionally enforce Java 1.6, because most people now use this version, I want to ensure that I take advantage of the 1.6 improvements, and I have not tested with Java 1.5. However, I also include a Java 1.5 version of mirage.jar; I mention this in readme.pdf.

Posted 1 month ago

davidekholm says:

Hi. Noticed that Mirage requires Java 1.6. If that is indeed not the case, just add these compiler flags and your compiled code will execute on Java 1.5 too:
javac -source 1.5 -target 1.5

Posted 1 month ago

miki52 says:

This skin is excellent job. It works. Mr.Chris, keep up the good work. I love that you do. All the very best in your job. Regards from Europa...Miki

Posted 7 months ago

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