Proposal: turn Squarespace Portfolio projects to lightbox gallery
I’m excited to share a new plan to extend lightbox functionality for all Squarespace gallery layouts. With recent updates bringing lightbox support to Slideshow sections and Auto layouts, it's time to think about enabling lightbox for the Portfolio page’s projects.
Let’s dive into what this feature could bring and how it would work.
What are Squarespace Portfolio pages?
A Portfolio page in Squarespace is designed as a stylized landing page where each item links to a sub-page called a project. It’s a great way to organize and showcase galleries, portfolio highlights, and other creative content.
Unlike blog posts (which are limited to body blocks), portfolio projects can have a variety of sections, offering you more freedom in design.
Manage Squarespace portfolio
Portfolio Layout Options:
You can currently display projects on a portfolio page with these layout options:
Grid: Simple
Grid: Overlay
Hover: Background
Hover: Fixed
Hover: Follow Cursor
Each project item links to a unique URL — which is very similar to how the dynamic gallery feature works in Lightbox Studio. The idea is to bring this functionality to portfolio layouts, letting users click on a project and view all images directly in a lightbox, without leaving the main portfolio page.
Dynamic lightbox for Portfolio projects
The dynamic gallery feature is already a part of Lightbox Studio, so integrating it into portfolio pages would be straightforward.
Here’s how it would work:
The plugin scans each project page for a gallery.
If a gallery is found, clicking the portfolio grid item opens it directly in the lightbox.
If no gallery is found, the grid item will link to the project page as usual.
Other features to consider:
Lightbox Indicators: If the lightbox indicator is enabled, it will display on the portfolio grid item.
Custom Slugs: Since we can’t directly edit portfolio grid item links, we could identify which portfolio pages should trigger the lightbox via custom page slugs.
Conclusion
Instead of visitors being redirected to separate project pages, they can browse all your images in a beautiful, responsive lightbox gallery right on the portfolio page. This keeps the experience clean and professional while reducing distractions from page reloads.
This is just the beginning! Keep an eye out for future updates from Lightbox Studio, where we’ll be rolling out this feature and more. I’d love to hear your feedback and thoughts as we continue to develop it!
