Brief Questions Regarding Themes

memcar

Hi All,

I'm currently deciding whether to use Zenphoto or Gallery3 for a new site build. I'm edging towards Zenphoto because of the good reviews, and professional and clean looking themes - especially in the showcase.

I'd be realy grateful if anyone with experience of the program would be able to answer a couple of quick questions?

1. Are the themes used in the sites in the showcase area avaialble to download anywhere, or is it only the ones in the "themes" area that are available?

2. For a developer with all of the relevant skills (PHP, CSS, HTML etc), how easy is it to learn the Zenphoto program and to adapt existing themes? Does it take to long pick up compared to other photo gallery programs like coppermine or gallery?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Paul

sbillard

If the theme is not featured on the themes page the author has not made us aware of any download link.

As a developer, I am sure you realize that how difficult it would be to make a theme will, of course, depend on how similar what you want is to something already available. Certainly starting from scratch would be a monumental task.

Sorry, but I have no recent experience with trying to make a theme for any other gallery software. When I was at the state you are describing I decided that the design philosophy of Zenphoto would allow me to be productive sooner than with other software.

Of course much has changed since then both with Zenphoto and with the other options.

acrylian

1. The showcase does never feature sites that use themes generally available (at least those we know of which are listed on the themes section). Those sites are entirely custom ones, some are pure Zenphoto (and Zenpage) sites, some use it in combination with other systems like Wordpreses etc.

2. I am naturally not familiar with these other systems but Zenphoto is not just a gallery anymore. I think it is really flexible and if you really have all the skills you should be able to learn it quite quick. Of course that depends of you skill level and what you are actually trying to do. I am actually coming from design and can tell that the basic things are still as easy as when sbillard and I started.

The more sophisitcated stuff you wish to do the more work you have to do as well. I suggest to look at the theming tutorial on user guide to get an impression of the basics.

And of course on the Zenphoto forum no one will really suggest another system naturally...;-)

zenPhotoCharles

When I elected to use Zenphoto for my site, I tested several other systems, including the then beta of Gallery3. I found Zenphoto to be the easiest to use, the easiest to theme, and the easiest to set up. I also found its back end to be easier to understand.

memcar

Thanks a lot to everyone that replied, your help is really appreciated.

I should have been clearer with my earlier message - I am not actually a developer myself. I have someone that I have used in the past for other sites that has all of the skills I described, but I'm afraid my knowledge of those programs is somewhat basic! I know that he has experience of customising coppermine galleries so I'm assuming that for him learning to use zenphoto will hopefully not be too difficult.

The site I am working on will be fairly simple...a welcome page which links to a zenphoto gallery area. I actually don't mind the look of the default theme when the dark background is used so would be happy to use this theme.

Can anyone with experience of working with this theme (or others similar) tell me how easy it is to do things like add a custom header image in place of the existing one (which seems to be just a plain colour image with the word "gallery" and a search box, and add custom footer images and links? Also is it easy enough to alter the number of gallery thumbs per page, images per page etc?

I guess what I am really looking for is some reassurance that making basic amendments like this is quite easy and straightforward? Unfortunately my project is on a tight budget so I can't afford to go with something that will take quite a while to learn and work with.

Thanks again for the help. Forums like these are a great way for beginners and idiots like me to improve our knowledge, as well as for skilled people to ask more technical questions.

Paul

sbillard

I suspect you should ask your collegue for an assessment of Zenphoto. But I am sure that it would take him less time to make a gallery from Coppermine (which he is familiar with) than from Zenphoto which he will have to learn about.

memcar

He's away on holiday until the middle of next week so I'm just trying to get a head start. I will do that though.

I have checked out coppermine extensively but discounted it as the layout of zenphoto just seems cleaner and simpler.

Thanks anyway.