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Cloud Zoom is a popular fly-out jQuery zoom plugin used on many high profile retail sites.
Originally developed by Professor Cloud, this new version (from V2.0) has been completely re-engineered to fulfil the demands of modern websites and touch-enabled devices.
Now fully touch-enabled, more features, faster, smoother, WC3 valid, and with a developer's API.
A low cost commercial license ensures continued development, regular updates and technical support.
A free version of Cloud Zoom is still available for non-commercial websites only.
Gallery Elements
Most HTML elements can be turned into a Cloud Zoom gallery elements. These will load different images into a Cloud Zoom instance.
Here we've used some styled links, but you can create galleries in whatever style you want: basic links, images, carousels etc.
Lens and Zoom CSS
The lens and zoom window can be altered using regular CSS. The default CSS class for the lens is cloudzoom-lens and for the zoom, cloudzoom-zoom in the cloudzoom.css file. You can alter this if you like, or specify different classes using the lensClass and zoomClass properties.
Here we have applied a thick coloured border with more rounded corners, and added a more prominent drop shadow.
Single Image Mode
Cloud Zoom works best with two images, a low resolution image to display on the page, and a high resolution image to use as the zoom.
However, you can still use Cloud Zoom with just one image.
If you don't specify the zoomImage property, Cloud Zoom will use the same image for both page image and zoom image. Set the size of the page image to be smaller than the actual pixel size of the image used. The zoom image will appear at full size. Most modern browsers do a good job of scaling down images.
Tints
A colour tint can be applied to the smaller image when the lens is visible.
Inner Zoom
Using the innerZoom property, the lens can be made invisible for a full size inner zoom effect.
Captions
Specify a source for the caption in the captionSource property.
The source can be any HTML attribute such as title, or a selector to some HTML content. Position captions top or bottom.
Position
Using the zoomPosition property, the zoom window can be made to appear at any one of 16 predefined positions around the page image, or specify a selector to place the zoom window anywhere on the page as here.
Modal Pop-up Window (e.g. Fancy Box)
You can use Cloud Zoom with modal plugins like the excellent Fancy Box.
Note: you will need to obtain your own appropriate Fancy Box license.
As well as Cloud Zoom's own zooming, you can also make a large version of the image pop-up on the page by clicking/tapping.
Where multiple gallery images are used, Cloud Zoom will pass the correct order of images to Fancy Box.
Insert the snippet of code below into the head part of your page, after loading the Cloud Zoom and Fancy Box JavaScript files.
Cloud Zoom in Tabbed Content
Cloud Zoom works with tab plugins such as jQuery UI and jQuery Tools, or other plugins that show and hide page content.
There is no additional programming required. Just put Cloud Zoom inside the HTML of the tabbed content. Make sure you call the tab plugin initialisation before the Cloud Zoom initialisation.
Each Cloud Zoom inside the tabs can have its own unique options. Gallery elements will also work as normal, and you can still use modal plugins like Fancy Box.
Full Size Zoom
Cloud Zoom can be configured to display the entire zoom image. This is useful for a 'quick look' feature for multiple thumbnail images.
The zoom image will appear below this paragraph (using the zoomPosition option), and the 'flying' zoom animation has been turned off using the zoomFlyOut option.
