# lokesh/lightbox2

THE original Lightbox script (v2).

Repository: https://github.com/lokesh/lightbox2
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/lightbox2
Homepage: http://lokeshdhakar.com/projects/lightbox2/
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-04-13T06:58:58+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 69/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 77, release rhythm 40, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5435, "days_push": 142, "days_rel": 186, "gap_med": 512, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 6373, forks 1719 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:42.898663+00:00)

## What it is
Lightbox2 is the original small JavaScript library for overlaying images on top of the current page, supporting single images and image sets with captions. It requires jQuery and is now in maintenance mode in favor of Lightbox3.

## Use cases
- display images in an overlay on a webpage
- create an image gallery with prev/next navigation
- add lightbox popups to a blog or portfolio site
- group related images into a browsable set
- show image captions over a darkened page background

## When to choose
- you need a tiny, battle-tested lightbox for a jQuery-based site
- you want simple HTML-attribute-based setup with no build step
- you need broad compatibility with all modern browsers

## When to avoid
- you are starting a new project - use Lightbox3 instead
- your project does not use jQuery and you want zero dependencies
- you need touch-first or highly customizable gallery features

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: ui-components, animation
- domain: frontend, web-development, media
- platform: browser
- tags: lightbox, image-overlay, image-gallery, jquery, slideshow, javascript

## Member repositories
- lokesh/lightbox2 (main) score 69

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:42.898663+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:45:11.192118+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/lokesh/lightbox2 (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:42.898663+00:00, sha ca9d4e6fa433)
  - homepage: http://lokeshdhakar.com/projects/lightbox2/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:42:32.419392+00:00, sha 17daecb307e9)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/lightbox2 (fetched 2026-08-29T08:42:32.428551+00:00, sha 98c0bbe9a472)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.