Lightbox permits users to view larger versions of images without having to leave the current page, and is also able to display simple slideshows. The use of the dark background, which dims the page over which the image has been overlaid, also serves to disable the remainder of the interface.
While Lightbox is dependent upon a browser's compatibility with Prototype[Prototype?:fast prototype maker cutting machine] to function,Lightbox is triggered through a standard link tag. Thus browsers that do not support JavaScript simply load the image as a separate file, losing the Lightbox effect but still retaining the ability to display the full-sized image. Even so, some compatibility problems have been identified with versions of Lightbox, in particular when displaying larger images on Firefox or Opera.
Many users have also noted that there is a lack of compatibility across the Internet Explorer range of browsers, and in particular, the newly released Internet Explorer 9. However, many times the compatibility issues can be attributed to users not reading the documentation on how to make lightbox function correctly in these browsers.
