TTG Simpleviewer-2
TTG Simpleviewer-2 allows you to easily create Simpleviewer galleries from Lightroom. TTG Simpleviewer-2 includes the standard version of Simpleviewer v2 but can also be used with Simpleviewer-Pro to allow for advanced customization options.
The new Simpleviewer 2 improves upon the original with three gallery styles (modern, compact and classic), direct Flickr integration, a fullscreen mode, larger thumbnails, automatic language support, and benefits from having been written in AS3. See the full list of changes for a detailed list of improvements in both the standard free and Pro versions of Simpleviewer 2.
TTG Simpleviewer-2 may also be used as a front-end for svBuilder, an application included with Simpleviewer-Pro that allows Pro-version options to be setup using a graphical user interface. Use Lightroom and TTG Simpleviewer-2 to create your gallery, then open your exported gallery using svBuilder to continue working with Pro-version features.
TTG Simpleviewer-2
TTG Simpleviewer-2 requires Lightroom 3 Beta 2 or greater, and is a free download. Lightroom 2 users, see Lightroom 2: The AS3 Conundrum below for the Lightroom 2 version and download.
Download Engine for LR3 Installation
Lightroom 2: The AS3 Conundrum
Download Engine for LR2 Installation
Unfortunately, current versions of Lightroom do not support the display of AS3 Flash components in the Web module’s preview. For this reason, galleries must be previewed using Lightroom’s Preview in Browser feature during the creation process. The web preview is instead used to provide documentation and information regarding the setup process for your gallery.
There are three ways to initialize Lightroom’s Preview in Browser feature:
- In the left control panel of the Web module, click the ‘Preview in Browser’ button.
- From the Web menu in the application menu bar, select ‘Preview in Browser’.
- Use the Preview in Browser keyboard shortcut, Shift-Cmd-P on a Mac or Shift-Ctrl-P on Windows.
Because it can take some time to generate a preview from large collections of images, it is recommended that you work with a small group of images when setting up your gallery, applying your gallery settings to the larger group of images only at the end of the creation process. Be sure also to save a template preset using the Template Browser so that you can reuse your settings later.
Changelog
- v1.3 ( 2010-04-27 )
- Thumbnail rows and columns can now be set to zero.
- Fixed HTML <title> entry.
- Updated Simpleviewer component to 2.03.
- LR2 version updated to support both LR2 and LR3 image watermarking.
- v1.2 ( 2010-04-05 )
- Fixed issue where gallery was using full-size images for thumbnails.
- v1.1 ( 2010-03-22 )
- Engine released for LR3 with full preview capability.
- v1.01 (2009-12-11)
- Updated to Simpleviewer 2.0.1
- v1.0 (2009-12-07)
- Initial release.
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It might be worth to point out that the PRO version of SimpleViewer2 should support color management, at least when viewed in FlashPlayer10.
How about some information on how Simpleviewer actually works? I hit export in Lightroom… I get a file dialog, then…. nothing happens. No file is created. just… nothing. I like the interface, but have absolutely no idea how to actually export something which I can then upload to my site. I really don’t have time to spend learning this either. I can’t find anything on this site which says: \This is how it works\… only stuff that says \this is what it is\.
Oh well, I guess I’ll just do it the old fashioned way… I guess my flirtation with simpleviewer lasted all of 15 minutes.
The ‘this is how it works’ information is in the preview pane of the engine, once installed. Fully documented and explained there. Exporting should cause gallery files to be saved to the location you specify. What version of Lightroom are you trying to use this with?
Ah… sorry for being so cranky last night. It seems it was a problem with Lightroom not showing that there was a process “in process”. Not sure why that was – I’ve never had that happen before. So, after I clicked “export” and typed a file/directory name, I just got… nothing. It was like nothing was happening. Anyway, I left it go overnight, and everything was fine – the various xml, html, swf, js and image files are all there. This is a rather large gallery ~380 images, so it took a while to generate the pages. This is Lightroom 2.3. Thanks for the reply!
Goodo. You know LR is up to 2.6 now, right? Bug fixes and new camera support mostly, but probably a good idea to upgrade.
Hello,
Using your LR engine w LR2 and Simple Viewer Pro 2.01 for the last coupe of days. Very nice, and practical to have right within LR. Been using SV w PS and its also great, but your thing saves the extra step of exporting to jpg, then creating the galls in PS. Thanks!
One question: You have a sharpening option w 3 degrees available. What sharpening is this? I assume an application of Unsharp Mask, but the specifics would be good to know in case we want to use it. (Any tweaking possible beyond the 3 general steps?) It’s good that it is an option and I assume when unchecked no sharpening takes place on export right?
(BTW, lot of nice stuff on your site. I found you thru a message that SV Pro 2.01 update was available and now had a LR component.)
Best,
Ed
Hi Ed,
The sharpening is handled internally by Lightroom, and so I’m not entirely sure of the techniques involved. You might be able to Google some information on it. It’s intended as a type of output sharpening for screen, though. When disabled, no sharpening is applied.
I’m glad you found me, and have been finding the engine(s) useful.
Cheers,
Matt
Thanks Matt,
One more question. I just discovered, after exporting several galleries, that your engine exports the files at 240, meaning it is converting them to 240 dpi. The Photoshop version of SV Pro converts everything to 72 dpi on export.
Is there a way to set your engine to export at 72? Personally I have to have 72 for the Web galls I make. I hope this is possible somewhere in there because I really like using this from within Lightroom. (I guess a preference would be ideal, but if no preference, 72, at least or me is a must.)
Thanks,
Ed
First, Lightroom doesn’t deal in dots per inch (dpi), but in pixels per inch (ppi).
Second, Lightroom exports images from the Web module at their native ppi. This honestly makes no difference on the web, though, as both dpi and ppi only apply to printing. Whether an image is 600 pixels at 72 ppi or 600 pixels at 240 ppi, it will appear onscreen at the same size: 600 pixels is 600 pixels. And at either ppi, the images will print at the same resolution; whether 72 ppi or 240ppi only dictates the physical size of the image. The image at 72 ppi would print larger, while the image at 240 ppi would print smaller. But if you were to scale both images to the same physical dimensions, they would be identical.
To wit, it really doesn’t matter.
If you must really be persistent, though, you can use Lightroom’s Export function from the Library to export images of any size and resolution you like, and can then replace the Web exported images with those of your own specifications. So long as the file names are identical, then the gallery will use them. It’s an extra step. And like I said, it doesn’t really matter.
Thanks for the quick reply. I’m familiar with the export functions in Lightroom and of course the suggestion you mention, though to do this is a waste of time when i can do it directly from PS w the SV script. (And sorry I wrote DPI. I meant PPI and I am clear on the difference.)
With regard to screen display, PPI in fact makes no difference as you describe. 600 will render as 600 regardless of PPI setting, BUT, and this is a big but–and what caused me to discover this–it increased file size substantially, sometimes two-fold: In my testing, If you export a file from Lightroom w TTG SV with LR’s default 240 PPI export at, say, 640 by whatever, w 100% quality, the file size is, for instance 296k. Then export that same file using the SimpleVIewer Pro export script from Photoshop, which exports at 72 PPI by default, and again at 100% quality, you get a file that is, say 155k. Now this is a huge difference in file size and when you multiply this by, say, 300 images someone may want to display, well that is a lot of needless data transfer that bogs down the loading of even the 12 thumbs one may have in a gallery, along with the main image. If one is going to serve up properly optimized Web content for a client, one cannot upload a bunch of images that are needlessly large. Now one can bring down the size of the files to the size of the PS export by using a 70-80% quality setting in LR, but that degrades the image quality, so not a good trade-off, unless one has no other options, I guess. There is a perceptible difference in those compression levels.
So this was the reason or my question. I am well aware of the difference between pixels and dots and their respective applications. And I am also very concerned with the serving up of proper file sizes for client sites.
Since writing my initial question to you I see all LR export from the Web Module is 240. Initially, since I only use your module, I was thinking it was particular to your module and that you might have a setting that can be altered deeper in the program. For certain images and galleries 240 can work just fine. For others it will not, but its a LR thing, not a thing w your program. Obviously the LR Web module works quite well as is for many applications.
In any case, thanks much. As I mentioned previously, I really like the program and the other things I’ve seen on your site.
Best,
Ed
THANK YOU A LOT MATT !!
My webiste is now looking great !
Check this page http://www.joffrey-carpentier.com/ailleurs/india/
and especially “Namaste Rajasthan”
The only issue is when using Autoindex with big thumbnails like I do…
It lokks good on 20 inch screen but on smaller screens the thumbnails on the right are hidden… do you have any suggestion ?
Thanks a thousand
And by the way your website is doing very fine…what a nice shape !
Hi Jeff,
Very nice! You have beautiful images.
For the Auto Index, I would just make the thumbnails smaller, or take it down to two columns with large thumbnails. Usually a good rule to keep the entire width of the page under 980px to ensure visitors with smaller displays can see everything.
Hello, I am new to Lightroom and TTL Pages. I have created a website but am having difficulty getting the image galleries to auto index and show up on the gallery page. My first gallery was created with TTG Simpleviewer2 and I uploaded it into the /galleries folder of the website, but nothing shows up on the gallery page. I read the FAQ and viewed the demo video of TTG Pages and can’t see where I am going wrong. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Doug
To get Simpleviewer-2 working with the auto index, you will need to also use either TTG Stage or TTG XML Maker.
Thanks! It’s working now.
Great engine you have here! Thanks for all the hard work.
Im using Simpleviewer 2 and the only problem I have is the grey box that comes up in the gallery when I hover the mouse over an image. Its at the bottom of the picture and in the right corner has \1/10\ indicating which picture Im on. Is it possible to remove this? I want the gallery to be free of any captions. I only want the main picture and the thumbnails of the other pictures.
Thanks and keep up the awesome work.
I am not sure what “grey box” you are referring to … ?
http://www.mattcarlinart.com/grey_box.jpg
I took a screen capture. Is it possible to disable this?
I guess you’re using Simpleviewer-2 Pro, because that’s not in the free version. Do your thing in Lightroom, then export. Open the exported gallery using the Simpleviewer-2 svBuilder application (Adobe Air required) and you should be able to access all of the Pro options there to further configure your gallery.
In lightroom in the engine list and in the preview area it says \TTG Simpleviewer 2 1.01\ . I dont see simpleviewer pro anywhere and I never downloaded it. Maybe I fell into a vortex in space and found a new feature…
The screen i captured doesnt look familiar?
Ok so I went into the web galleries folder and deleted all instances of simpleviewer and then downloaded it again from the link on this page. I reinstalled it and tested out my gallery. Same thing…grey box indicating which picture in the series Im looking at.
Okay, I found the cause. It only appears when you set the Thumbnail Position to either Top or Bottom. The overlay hosts the image counter and the caption.
There is no option to turn this off in the free version, and I’m not sure about the Pro version. You should research http://www.simpleviewer.net.
Otherwise, set your Thumbnail Position to either Left or Right.
I’m new to some of this..I have had no problem with coding in Dreamweaver and I have put together a thumbs/gallery page but I can’t seem to make it display in my web page in DW.
I’m using simpleviewer pro and ttg simpleviewer-2. Is there something else I need to get started here? I would like to see the gallerypage working before uploading to the website but the gallery does not show beyond Lightroom..down the road I will be using more of your software for a larger website but just want to get off on the right footing here..
Why are you trying to open exported content from Lightroom in DreamWeaver? Simpleviewer-2 is a Flash gallery and needs to be opened in a web-browser with the Adobe Flash Player plugin.
Ed commented about wanting to have jpeg export done at \72 ppi\ rather than with the \240 ppi\ tag that Lightroom specifies by default. As a rationale (for his belief that the ppi value had any significance other than when printing) he claimed that a given file–when exported from Photoshop (at \72 ppi and 100% quality)–results in a much smaller exported jpeg file size compared to the same file when exported by Lightroom (\at 240 ppi and also at 100% quality). He concludes that this difference in jpeg file size must be a consequence of specifying 72 vs 240 ppi). I disagree that this is a valid conclusion. Unless Lightroom uses the exact same jpeg compression engine as in Photoshop (and we don’t know that); there’s no reason the expect that the two applications will produce identical jpeg file sizes for any particular numerical quality level–ignoring the matter of \ppi\ for the moment. IMHO, the ppi is of no consequence in regard to jpeg file size.
Phil
I whole-heartedly agree with you, and couldn’t have stated the point better.
Hi,
How do you enable right click to open the photo like you could on the old version?
Thanks
Elliot
I don’t think the new Simpleviewer supports right-click opening. Instead, there’s a button for it.
I found out there is a button and the option to right click and select open in new window. However these functions only worked when I uploaded the gallery to my domain and did not work locally on my Desktop. Not sure why, but there you go – hope that helps someone else… Cheers
How can you use multiple galleries with different titles in a simpleviewer?
You can’t. You need to use one instance of Simpleviewer per gallery, with galleries hosted on separate pages.
Hello users, I tried to prepare some galleries with Simpleviewer. It function great but I want to add BACK button to each gallery. I know the one way is to use TTG stage. But I tried firs only simple edit of index.html (adding Back) but it not function. Also recommended modification of galery.xml on simpleviewer web site doesn’t function. Any suggestion?
Thank you
Hi I’ve been trying to use the simpleviewer-2 101 combining it with Stage 1.14. So that I can have a menu bar. I’ve Followed the instructions about designing the page and then exporting to a folder titled simpleviewer. Then creating my page in stage and exporting this. Then dragging the simpleviewer folder into the stage folder. However when I view this page on the web all i see is the stage design. Simpleviewer does not appear. What could I be doing wrong?
Well, the first thing you’re doing wrong is not providing me a URL to look at along with your question. ;-P
In TTG Stage, there are options for both Simpleviewer and Simpleviewer-2; make sure you’ve selected the right version. Otherwise, I will have to see it before I can say anything more.
I had a trial TTG Pages plug in that expired. Purchased the plug-in, downloaded, put it in Web Galleries but it remains dimmed when I try to add to LR. Imac g5 OS 10.4.11, LR 2.6
Hi John,
Not quite sure what you’ve got going on, but here’s my general advice and some clarification.
TTG demos to not expire; they are simply limited in functionality. If you’re purchased the full version of the web engine, please remove the demo version from your Web Galleries folder and restart Lightroom before using. Web engines do not “dim” indicating availability; if the engine is shown in your Engines list in the Web Module, then you should be able to use it. I hope that solves your problem.
Cheers,
Matt
No luck! Tried to install plug-in (TTG Pages) on another computer (laptop) and the same “dim” thing happened. I either get and error messge saying incorrect path. When I installed the demo I had to drag and drop the plugin to LR, now when I tried that LR reopens and when I navigate to Web Galleries folder it is empty, the plug in that I had here is missing entirely. Thanks for your prompt response.
Hi John,
I really don’t know what you’re talking about with this “dimming” issue. Your description does not match with any known behavior in Lightroom’s Web module. If an engine appears in your Engines list, then you can select it to use it. If it cannot be used, then it doesn’t appear in the list.
Are you following the installation instructions properly?
I downloaded and installed Simpleviewer-2 into Lightroom. Everything seems to be working fine. However, I cannot figure out how add a background image. Do I have to upload the image to a folder on the server first, and then add that information as the background image path or do I have to load the background image into a folder on my system and add the path from that info?
Please explain,
Thank you
The easiest method is to set the path such that the background image is located within the gallery folder, then to copy that image to the correct location post-export.
I’ve finally had a chance to play a bit with Simpleviewer-2, and my hope/expectation was that it would produce a color-corrected image display. I thought that the possibility to enable color-correction is one of the main advantages of AS3. However it appears that the Flash images still suffer from a great amount of oversaturation when viewed with a wide-gamut monitor (such as my NEQ LCD2690). So, am I correct that Simpleviewer-2 does not contain the few lines of AS3 code which enables color-correction? Is this something you can add (or make an option)?
Phil
Hi Phil,
Barking up the wrong tree. I don’t make Simpleviewer; I merely wrap it in a web engine for Lightroom. You’ll be wanting to visit the forum at http://www.simpleviewer.net.
Cheers,
Matt
Hi,
Is there a limit up to 50 images per export? I love the new gallery layout, but need more images :/
thanks
The engine will export up to 1,000 images, though the free version of Simpleviewer is limited to 50 images. The Pro version of Simpleviewer can be purchased from http://www.simpleviewer.net and supports galleries of up to 500 images.
I am trying out the lightroom beta 3. I substituted the pro files that I purchased with the ones in the lightroom beta 3 folder.
Now nothing works.
I also tried just switching out the swf file and nothing worked, so I opened the xml file and renamed the viewer.swf to simpleviewer.swf and that didn’t work either.
Some photos do show, but nothing will be saved to a folder. And the photos that do show up aren’t in the usual simpleviewer format.
Will it be possible to use simpleviewer pro with lightroom 3?
And I too need to process this all in Dreamweaver because I have to add on a description of the product I am selling.
1. Simpleviewer-2 cannot be used in Lightroom 3 Beta.
2. I have nothing to do with the Airtight Simpleviewer Gallery included with Lightroom.
3. TTG Simpleviewer-2 is a separate thing and intended to be used as a workaround for the fact that Simpleviewer-2 will not run as a native web engine in either LR2 or LR3 Beta. You might give it a try; instructions are included when run in Lightroom.
I’m playing around with Simpleviewer-2 free download. I previewed a gallery in my browser which I like. But I can’t find the folder that Simpleviewer created with all the files on my hard drive. Is the folder not created until I export, and at this stage of just viewing in browser there is no folder?
Thank you,
Lorey
Lightroom doesn’t create a folder until you export. When you Preview in Browser, it creates the gallery in temporary folders, then deletes it.
Hi your link for the TTG Simpleviewer-2 plugin is not working. How can I get hold of this plugin?
Thanks
I just tried both download links above, for LR3 and LR2 versions, and they’re working fine. Please make sure you’re on the correct page — http://lr.theturninggate.net/flash-galleries/ttg-simpleviewer-2/ — and not the equivalent page at the site’s old address.
Hey thanks for that. For some reason I was getting the wrong page. It’s all installed now.
Hi,
I am working on a website for my photography business (the gallery I have up now is only temporary), and I would like to use simpleviewer.
I am going to do the multiple gallery in one page thing, which I have figured out, but the thing I can’t figure out is how to add my own background image, like I could in v1.9
I have looked around and can’t find any mention of it except for the
“so.addParam(“wmode”, “transparent”);” thing. I would really appreciate knowing if there is a simple way to do it like the “backgroundImagePath=”xyz”" from v1.9
Thanks!
I think backgrounds may be a Pro-version feature in SImpleviewer-2. You should contact Airtight Interactive or use the forums at http://www.simpleviewer.net.
Is this version of SV limited? I can’t seem to get it to output more than 50 slides per gallery although in LR2 it appears to be outputting all the images.
Thanks in advance.
Bruce
The free version of Simpleviewer-2 maxes out at 50 images. The Pro version maxes out at 500. See http://www.simpleviewer.net for details.
Hi Matt,
Awesome solution here, thank you. I am trying to make a gallery that doesn’t include the thumbnails, but does include the caption. According to the folks at SimpleViewer, I can do this by setting my thumbnail columns to “0.” However, using your latest extension and lightroom 3 beta 2, the minimum the the column and/or row slider will go is “1.” is there a work around for this besides manually changing the XML?
Thank you!
Sean
Matt –
One other thing: when I use LR3b2 to make my galleries using the TTG SimpleViewer-2 extension, all my galleries end up with the same HTML title:
“”
I have entries in for Album and Gallery title, but they don’t show up, any ideas?
There will be fixes for both in the next update.
Hi-
I’ve been using Lightroom to make galleries and discovered that Simpleviewer Pro exists. I downloaded TTG Simpleviewer 2.1.2 and got that working. But I can not get Simpleviewer Pro to work in Lightroom. I have done a lot of research and put all the files in the right folders, but can not get it working. Any advice?? And if Lightroom isn’t the best way to use Simpleviewer Pro, what is the best interface? I tried to do everything they said to get SiteBuilder working but that only has created problems. It’s be nice if Simpleviewer had a phone number to talk to someone.
All you should need to do is replace the
simpleviewer.swffile in the web engine with the Pro version. Export a gallery from Lightroom, then load that gallery using the Pro version’s included svBuilder application to further customize it with the additional Pro version features.Ahhh, thank you so much. I was thinking that all this can be done through Lightroom. You are the best!!!!!! I’m sure there’ll be more questions though.
I purchased simpleviewer pro, and replaced the swf file in the ttg_simpleviewer-2_LR2.lrwebengine package per the instructions, and restarted LR, but I’m still getting the simpleviewer bug in the bottom right of my published pages, so I guess I’m still working in the free version. What can I do?
Thanks.
There may be a setting in the Pro version you need to toggle to remove the mark; I’m really not sure. You can use the svBuilder application that comes with the Pro version to open your exported LR galleries in order to configure them with the Pro options.
Just tried to download the file – but the links seem to be broken. Any solution and / or an alternative download link?
Many thanks!
The links above are not broken. Try again.
Works in FF with “Save link as…”! But just clicking on the link gives me a 404 error. Anyhow, the gallery is great stuff! Many thanks for this – I’m using it (almost) since the first release…
Generated thumbnails for ultra-wide panoramas (e.g. 5:1 aspect ratio) are extremely low quality. I assume the image is resized to fit in a 75×75 box (resulting in 75×15 pixels or example) then stretched to fill the box – resulting in low quality. Any way to change the resizing process ? e.g. resizing the SHORTEST side to 75, then cropping to 75×75 would fix this issue.
example:
http://www.tracksofnature.com/albums/ttg/
image on right is pano, image on left is one of the original images (from somewhere in the middle of the pano).
tx
stefaan
here are few things i miss from previous 1.9 version:
• vAlign=”top” hAlign=”center”
• also i would like to be able to adjust title text SIZE. i can do it manually in gallery.xml, but’s extra step.
• and finally support for transparent background.
could those be implemented ?
The web engine currently supports all of the options available in the free version of Simpleviewer-2. If you want additional options, you will need either to purchase Simpleviewer-2 Pro or send your requests to Airtight Interactive.