Cover Archive With LightboxPRO

Gallery26: Cover Archive With Lightbox

A square cover grid that names each picture only on hover and opens it full screen on click, where arrows and the keyboard walk the archive and a link leads into the issue itself.

Installation

Swap YOUR_EMAIL and YOUR_KEY for the email and license key on your account. Find your license key on your account page.

Radix flavor

npx shadcn add "https://ui.beste.co/r/gallery26?email=YOUR_EMAIL&license_key=YOUR_KEY"

Base UI flavor

npx shadcn add "https://ui.beste.co/r-base/gallery26?email=YOUR_EMAIL&license_key=YOUR_KEY"

This installs the block to components/beste/block/gallery26.tsx and the badge6 component it uses for the eyebrow (installed to components/beste/component/badge6.tsx).

Quick start

The installed file exports gallery26Demo alongside the block: the exact props behind the preview above. Spread it to get a working cover grid in one line.

import { Gallery26, gallery26Demo } from "@/components/beste/block/gallery26";

export default function CoversPage() {
  return <Gallery26 {...gallery26Demo} />;
}

Then replace the demo with your own props. Written out, a trimmed setup looks like this:

import { Gallery26 } from "@/components/beste/block/gallery26";

export default function CoversPage() {
  return (
    <Gallery26
      eyebrow="Covers"
      heading="Every issue has its own picture"
      readLabel="Read this issue"
      closeLabel="Close"
      covers={[
        {
          image: { src: "/covers/042.jpg", alt: "Notes across a table" },
          title: "The quote we lost on purpose",
          issue: "042",
          href: "/letters/042",
        },
      ]}
      note="Shot in the studio, on the morning the issue went out."
    />
  );
}

Props

type Cover = {
  image: CoverImage;
  title: string;
  issue: string;
  href: string;
};

type CoverImage = {
  src: string;
  alt: string;
};

Behavior notes

• Tiles are buttons rather than links, because a click opens the lightbox. The link into the issue lives inside the lightbox, so the two actions are never confused.
• The lightbox handles Escape to close and the arrow keys to move, and the listener is bound only while it is open rather than for the life of the page.
• Opening it locks body scrolling and restores the previous value on close, so the page behind does not drift while the overlay is up.
• Stepping wraps with a modulo, so the last cover leads back to the first in both directions.
• The counter reads "n of total" from state, so it stays correct however many covers you pass.
• Tile captions appear on hover over a scrim. The grid itself shows pictures only, which is the point of a cover archive.