One of the coolest interface tricks of the Ajax era is the Lightbox effect — the user clicks a link to view an image or some other element, the page dims and the image is floated in a box over the “darkened” background. It looks slick and Flashy, but it’s all accomplished with JavaScript and CSS. Lokesh Dhakar’s original Lightbox script has matured well and is now at version 2.

Meanwhile, dozens of hacks, duplicates, permutations and extensions have emerged. A French blogger named Ozh has whipped up a matrix containing every one of those Lightbox clones. So, if Milkbox isn’t doing it for you, weigh its merits against Thickbox, Slimbox, Smoothbox or iBox. There are about forty Lightbox clones to choose from, and Ozh’s list can be filtered to show only those scripts which allow specific behaviors or use specific JavaScript libraries like jQuery, Mootools or Scriptaculous.

See Also:

• More Floating Photos! Introducing Lightbox JS
• iBox Does Lightbox Without the Bloat