In my previous article about publishing online photo galleries, I have addressed the two major solutions available for hosting your photo galleries on your own web site. The first solution that I have talked about was to use gallery generation software that will produce all the files necessary for publishing your gallery. This article will explore some of the implementations that are available for this solution.

4. What software should you use for generating your web image galleries?

There are way too many choices available and the feature list can be both impressive and overwhelming. This kind of programs range from very basic to very complicated and also from FREE to very expensive. So what’s the best program for creating online image galleries? Well, the answer may differ depending on your purpose and needs. I tend to look for FREE software first, because I am very likely to find FREE software that will work pretty well for my needs. If the FREE software that I find turns out not to be flexible enough then I’ll look for commercial software. In this day and age, commercial software is not necessarily better than FREE software. I have tried many of these software packages over the years and I have settled on just two, so my recommendations are based on years of trial and error:

• Extreme Thumbnail Generator – this is my favorite photo gallery generation software. It comes with a 30 day trial period and costs $29.99 for the entire product and one year of free updates. This software package is the most flexible I have actually used. You can modify and save the color scheme of your choice and you can insert text or images or links into each page that the program generates. However, you have to know a little HTML if you want to make use of the flexibility available in the tool. If you don’t want to customize anything, this program will produce great looking image libraries in a snap. Check out my photo gallery from Santa Barbara, California.
  • Download your free trial here.
  • Check out the Extreme Thumbnail Generator website.
• Web Album Generator – this is a FREE package that is probably one of the easiest to use software packages available. However, it is also quite limited in the options available. If you just want to create photo galleries and publish them and don’t care much about adding extra features, then this will work fine for you. One major drawback of this software is that you can’t change the available color schemes that are provided with the software. You can only change the colors after the gallery has been generated and you can’t import it for future use.

5. Conclusion

Using a program that generates image galleries is a quick and flexible way to publish your images on the web. If you also consider the cost and effort involved, this solution is probably the best for individual photographers that want to publish their pictures on the web. However, if you’re trying to build an image library with images that can be tagged, categorized and searched, then this solution will not work for you at all. The image gallery generator programs will only generate a static image gallery that cannot be searched. The generated image galleries have a very simple structure that is file based.

How do you publish your pictures online?

I’m always interested in your own solutions. How do you publish your pictures online? Feel free to share your experience by adding a comment on this page.

Pages: 1 2

1. Host your photo galleries on your own web site.
2. Adding the right text in the right place will make your pictures visible on the Internet
3. XnView Review
4. Tutorial 9 – Share your pictures online
5. 2 Questions you must ask before publishing your pictures online

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