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Last weekend I started working on the next version of imgZoom, the jQuery plugin that uses vector graphics to implement a smooth zoom effect on thumbnailed images. With the initial release (a couple months back), I boldly announced that I intend to one day turn it into a decent substitution for Lightbox, and I think I’m actually getting closer to that. The current version has the lightbox-esque features of displaying images in a window, and allowing to navigate between previous and next images.

I transformed one of my testing pages into a nicely-looking gallery, so if you want to take a look at the development version in action, be my guest. The gallery should work correctly in most browsers, only Internet Explorer might still have some issues — I’m working on that. As always, I’m open to feedback.

Today I released a new version of imgZoom. It’s just a minor update that fixes one bug and introduces the getOptions() API method.

I have also updated the documentation — it now includes a reference of the available API methods.

Here’s yet another jQuery plugin made by yours truly. ImgZoom creates a smooth zoom effect for thumbnailed images by doing a graceful transition from the thumbnail to the full-size image. Feel welcome to take a look at the live demo.

There are already a few jQuery plugins that do this, but as far as I know they all achieve the zoom effect by gradually changing the dimensions of HTML image elements. ImgZoom, on the other hand, utilizes the vector graphics capabilities found in browsers (including Internet Explorer), which results in really smooth animation and allows for additional effects to be incorporated into the process.

I’m releasing the plugin a bit early, as it only has about half of the functionality that I intend to implement. My long-term evil plan is to make the plugin a viable alternative to Lightbox et al, with prev/next links, keyboard support and such. Anyway, I’ll be happy to get some feedback on this premature 0.1 release — let me know if you like the plugin, whether you think it would be useful, and what features you would like to see in future versions.