LRB Portfolio 2.51 update available.

LRB Portfolio has now been updated to version 2.51. This update has substantial under the hood changes to overcome the way Lightroom generates CSS. Now when you export (or Preview in Browser), LRB Portfolio creates a new CSS file from internal settings, but based on a template CSS file. It's taken a while to get it right.

In addition there are some new features:

A Text Width slider that allows the user to set the width of the text in the Home, About, Contact and Blank pages.
An ID Plate Offset Slider that allows the user to nudge the ID Plate for better alignment
The non Gallery pages now use a separate header file to prevent an error in IE.
The code is now W3C valid. For the record, it's possible to have useless valid code, but as some people are bothered by this, it's done.
Fixed an IE bug where the ID plate could be hidden by the menu.

There are a few other bits and pieces changed, but mostly internal stuff. This was particularly hard work, with not a lot to show for it on the surface, but it was all still needed.

New customers can purchase the plugin from the LRB Portfolio Website. Current users can get the plugin from their download link, which they were encouraged to save on purchase. Support is available at the Lightroom Forums LRB Portfolio thread.


Update: Just pushed out 2.51 with layout fixes for the mail.html file page, which had orphaned CSS. I hate it when stuff like that happens.

LRB Portfolio video

I've created a short video covering how to set up images for the LRB Portfolio galleries, along with showing how to create a gallery index page. Make sure you watch this in HD to see things better.

LRB Portfolio Featured Gallery

It's about time for a new Featured Website for LRB Portfolio. And this time it's the turn of London based photographer Robbie Ewing.

I like how Robbie has used a dark look with white bars. Simple but beautiful. I'm a big fan of simple looks for web sites. He's also used grey text which helps make the type easily readable.

Photographically, I love the night images of London, the abstracts and the still life images. The people and street images are good too, I'm just a sucker for city evening shots.

LRB Portfolio updated to 2.4

Normally updates to LRB Portfolio are monthly, but this time I've had 2 code setbacks, meaning I had to go back twice and restart the update. I'm currently trialing a versioning system to prevent this from happening in the future. Mixed with a lot of other commitments, including new plugins and galleries, it's been tough to get this one out there. Hopefully I haven't introduced other bugs in the process of fixing the ones here.

Fixed issue where the menu offset could force the gallery to the right with Cmotion in Safari.

Fixed IE issue where there would be a gap at the bottom of images. (further work may be needed)

Changed Contact form so you no longer need to edit mail.html to get the correct email address)

There are other minor changes, but these are the main ones.

As with all updates, these are free to current 1.x & 2.X users of LRB Portfolio via the download link they received on purchase. New customers interested in buying this plugin can do from from the LRB Portfolio Website.

The updated User Guide is with the plugin, but can also be downloaded from the website.

Add your LRB Portfolio gallery.

Hi folks,
It's past time for a new featured gallery, so if you have a finished website make with LRB Portfolio, please add a link in the comments and I'll pick out some for the next few features!

And yes 2.4 will be out soon.

LRB Portfolio now at 2.3

Version 2.3 of LRB Portfolio has been uploaded. The main change with this version is the addition of controls to have the menu over or under the main area, along with an offset to control the exact location of the menu.
It's a requested feature and while it might seem like a small addition, it took a lot of rewriting under the hood.

In addition a new Web Template 'Wintershade' has been added to show an example of the menu up to with an offset to help it sit in line with the Identity Plate.

As with all updates so far, this is free to current users, via the download link you received via email on purchase. Because this is a small change to the plugin, you may decide to skip this version if you're happy with the menu on the bottom!

New customers can purchase LRB Portfolio from the LRB Portfolio Website for €15. Not bad considering you can create an entire website from this product. More information is available at the website.

There will be a tutorial video to go with this release coming shortly, as time allows.

Update: 2.31 has been pushed out to solve an issue with the generated mail.php file.

Site win with LRB Portfolio

Sven Bergmann recently won a German IT company website competition with LRB Portfolio. PC Welt were looking the best designed site with good quality photos, information and originality. Sven used LRB Portfolio to design his site, and took 1st place receiving a €522 prize. The Google translation of the article is here, while Sven's site can be viewed at http://www.digitaleraugenblick.com/.

Congrats Sven!

LRB Portfolio updated to version 2.2

LRB Portfolio, the website plugin for Lightroom 2, has been updated to version 2.2. Along with bug fixes, there have been a number of additions to the program. The key addition allows a gallery index page with thumbnails slices of gallery images to link to the galleries. A sample of this in action in a real website can be seen at http://musofoto.com. This brings to 3 the number of options that can be used as the home page: A home page with a single photo (with optional text), A gallery index page, or a gallery page.

Other additions include removal of the image on the blank page to allow for video links etc. Text on the non gallery pages can be aligned left, right, or justified. Images can also be aligned, in this case, left, centre or right. A regular request is to have the names of the form titles changeable in the Contact form has been granted.

Finally an annoying bug that broke Gallery 1 only, has been fixed. Although internally the number 20 is used, Lightroom displays the number as 20.00 in the "number of images" for the gallery. This prompted a number of users to enter a decimal point when changing the default. Due to the way Lightroom handles text input, this was then interpreted as a string and caused the gallery to fail with an error. Other galleries were not affected as internal maths forced Lightroom to see it as a number. This issue has now been corrected. Lightroom still shows the decimal point, but it no longer matters if the user enters the decimal. This was actually hard to pin down, because it only affected the first gallery. I had tested the decimal point in other galleries, but not the the first one. A mix of Jorge Parra and finally Atma Singh lead to testing Gallery 1 again, revealing the error.

The UI has been updated with the changes and additional material, including more hints and tips, have been added to the User Guide. I will be creating a video to go along with this shortly.

All further information about the gallery, including purchase information and User Guide can be found at LRBPortfolio.com. Current users can download this update from their download link. As mentioned previously, this update also comes with a price increase to €15 to cover the ongoing costs of producing the additional features and bug fixes.

Read More

Update: If you're getting a error relating to com.lightroom-blog.lrbportfolio, try downloading again

LRB Portfolio: Adding single images to the menu

While there is an option to have either text or images in the menu in LRB Portfolio, sometimes you only need one image there. A prime example would be if you were link to an external stock site where you are represented. I'm not with Retna, the sample presented here, but I know a few people who are, so I thought it would make a nice example.

All you need to do is put the image in the resources/images folder, as explained in the User Guide. Then instead of entering text in the External Link name, add a standard img call. In this case <img src="resources/images/retna.jpg" height="25">. The image will now appear in the menu.

LRB Portfolio 2.2 progress and feedback request.

With the madness of the Galway Arts Festival and the Galway Races now over, my insomnia has given me time to work on new features for the next release of LRB Portfolio (version 2.2).

First up is that the annoying file opening when using Google analytics has been tamed. Thanks to Matthew Campagna for help with that.

The main change though, and it's a big enough feature for a dot release, is that you can now create a gallery index as the home page. As you can also have either Gallery 1 as the home page, or the original homepage, this needed quite a lot of trickery in the background. I've also allowed for 2 image widths so you can accommodate all 6 galleries in a reasonable width, or have a wider set for lower gallery numbers. The selection also takes care of the width to keep the index images centered. Yes, that was fun :).

Anyhow here's a sample gallery to look at and get feedback from. LRB Portfolio 2.2. Dev Sample Website

Update: I've added a 2nd gallery version with a slightly different layout, different colours, and a normal scrolling gallery, rather than the CMotion one in the first version: LRB Portfolio 2.2. Dev Sample Website Version 2


Please let me know how this looks in your browser. What do you think of it? Please remember that if you haven't used this plugin that all the colours are chanagle, as well as a host of other features including image size. These sample galleries are sized for people with low screen res and slower internet. Yours can be as wide or big as you like. What I'm asking for feedback on is the gallery index page idea. Is it worth adding?

Further feature-wise, I'm in the process of allowing you to set the text alignment for the Home, About, Contact and Blank pages. Also I'm adding the ability to edit the Contact Form titles (like 'Name', 'Email Address', etc).The base code is in place and working, but I need to add the text controls.


Also, LRB Portfolio has been on introductory offer forever, so with this release, I will be increasing the price to €15. Upgrades to existing users for all version 2 releases will be free of course, so those buying now can benefit from the lower price.

Interim Fix for Facebook link in LRB Portfolio.

I've been aware that there is an issue with the Facebook link in the Contact section of LRB Portfolio. I thought it was due to the '?' in the profile address. As it turns out it was much simpler and much more my fault. The fix is very easy, so while I've already fixed it for a future update, you can easily fix it yourself. This will save one of the precious downloads. If in doubt, backup the gallery first.

1. Open Preferences.
2. In the Presets Tab, click 'Show Lightroom Presets Folder'.
3. This opens an Explorer/Finder Window.
4. Open the Folder 'Web Galleries'
5. Look for LRB_Portfolio.lrwebengine.
5. On Mac, right (or control) click on this and choose 'Show Package Contents. For PC users this is just an ordinary folder.
6. Locate the file contact.html and open it in a text editor (NOT a word processor).
7. Around line 90, search for Facbook and change it to Facebook.
8. Save the file and restart Lightroom.

Aternatively, the exported contact.html (or whatever you named it) will show <a href="nil">, replace the nil with the correct link.

LRB Portfolio 2.12 update now available

I've updated LRB Portfolio to 2.12. As with all other versions, this is available at your download link. To update, redownload the file.
This is a bugfix release with the following fixes:

• Fixed a Firefox issue where it puts borders around the menu images when images were selected.
• Deleted an erroneous file called " head.html", which was being read as "head.html" on PC.
• Fixed a bug which broke the new charset options

For more info about LRB Portfolio, check out the LRB Portfolio Website.

YAU: Yet another update. LRB Portfolio up to version 2.1

The 24 minute long video demonstrating Version 2.1 of LRB Portfolio, has resolution in the form of an update to LRB Portfolio.
Since the video was created I've added a few small changes: Twitter, Facebook and MySpace contact options, along with a user field. I've also changes the code to allow those using Windows Servers to see their images! These servers block access to folders called bin, and the default image folder for Lightroom is called... bin.
Compared to Version 2.0, there is a massive UI change in this version.
Finally: You can have however many images you like in any gallery. Yep.. the slider is gone and you deal with it on a gallery by gallery basis. The only catch is you HAVE to use consecutive galleries.
To Download, please use your Download link if you are a current user, you know, the one that was emailed to you when you bought and were told to keep safe? Yes that one. New customers can purchase from the LRB Portfolio website.

Please direct support questions to the support thread.