• Registered: 2012-05-02
  • Posts: 161

Topic: Pinchable Images on iPhone, Not Embedded, Sans New Window?

Steven:

Given:

- A JB-Pro gallery
- Built with jAlbum's JP-Pro skin
- So, no tricks, no embedding, etc.

Is it possible to enlarge an image by pinch-zoom (or whatever the proper term is) on an iPhone (after navigating to that image, via clicking on a thumbnail or navigating from one image to the next, and so forth)?

I realize that an image can be enlarged by the viewer by clicking on that Open In New Tab/Window icon; once the image has been opened, all by itself, in a new tab or window, the normal iOS re-size pinch mechanisms seem to work fine.

So what I'm wondering is whether this type of ad hoc viewing enlargement can be accomplished without going through that extra step of creating/downloading/opening a specific image in a separate window (just as, say, the iOS swipe gesture will get you to the next or prior image).

Thanks,

Bill P.

  • Registered: 2012-04-24
  • Posts: 5,924

Re: Pinchable Images on iPhone, Not Embedded, Sans New Window?

Unfortunately, pinch-zooming within a gallery can cause of lot of problems so Juicebox does its best to lock the viewport in a full page or expanded gallery to avoid as many of these potential pitfalls as possible.

Pinch-zooming can actually be quite difficult to do as the start of a pinch-zoom gesture can often be misinterpreted as the start of a swipe (navigation) gesture and it can be quite frustrating to try to pinch-zoom only to find that the gallery has changed the image.

Also, if you were to zoom in successfully, you'd likely have the same trouble trying to zoom out again, possibly more so as you may have only part of the image visible and all of what is visible has a swipe gesture associated with it. (It might be easier to zoom out if there was a static part of the web page visible where the pinch-zoom gesture would not be mistaken for anything else.)

Additionally, there is a further problem whereby repeated zooming in and out can sometimes change the height of a full page or expanded gallery. (The developers are aware of this and are looking into possible solutions.)

In order to avoid these problems, Juicebox tries to lock the browser viewport to prevent pinch-zooming in a full page or expanded gallery.
If you have an gallery embedded in a web page whose viewport is not locked, then you might find that you are able to pinch-zoom an image but I would not recommend it. It is much safer, as you suggest, to just open the image in a new window where it can be pinch-zoomed with ease.

In an ideal world, the ability to pinch-zoom an image within a Juicebox gallery would be great but the reality is that it can be really troublesome so it's best avoided if possible.

  • Registered: 2012-05-02
  • Posts: 161

Re: Pinchable Images on iPhone, Not Embedded, Sans New Window?

I didn't realize that much was involved. I thought maybe I was missing setting some option (although I reviewed them, before posting here) that would allow this.

Family viewers of my non-embedded galleries almost invariably want to take a closer look as some pic, and more or less instinctively these days try to pinch it larger. There's a YouTube video out there that I viewed a year or so ago: a toddler -- obviously used to playing with iPads and suchlike -- is given a paper magazine, with a printed picture showing, and the tyke is shown trying to do a pinch gesture on the picture.

In any event, thank you very much for the thorough explanation, and for your time.

Cheers,

Bill P.

  • Registered: 2012-04-24
  • Posts: 5,924

Re: Pinchable Images on iPhone, Not Embedded, Sans New Window?

You're welcome.
I know its not the answer you were hoping for but I'm happy to comment and help to clarify things if I can.