Shawshank Redemption Index May 2026
The movie The Shawshank Redemption (1994) is famously ranked as the #1 film of all time on the IMDb Top 250 Index, currently holding a near-perfect score of 9.3/10. Why it Dominates the Index
While it was a box office disappointment upon release, it has since become a "universal favorite" due to several key factors cited by critics and fans on The Independent Critic and Reddit:
Universal Themes: It is a story about hope, friendship, and resilience that resonates across cultures.
The Performances: Tim Robbins (Andy) and Morgan Freeman (Red) deliver career-defining, grounded performances.
Narrative Payoff: The film features one of the most satisfying "cathartic" endings in cinematic history.
Script & Dialogue: Adapted from Stephen King's novella, the screenplay is praised for its pacing and iconic lines (e.g., "Get busy living, or get busy dying"). Critical Reception vs. Audience Score IMDb: 9.3/10 (Top-rated movie globally).
Rotten Tomatoes: 92% Critics / 98% Audience (signifying near-unanimous acclaim). Metacritic: 82/100 (Indicates "Universal Acclaim").
💡 Key Takeaway: The "Shawshank Index" success is largely attributed to its "rewatchability"—it is a film that viewers rarely find offensive or "bad," leading to a high volume of positive scores that keep it at the top.
If you are looking for a specific financial or literary index related to the film (like the "Andy Dufresne" investment strategy), A reading guide for the original Stephen King novella?
Detailed IMDb ranking history comparing it to The Godfather?
The story follows Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a mild-mannered banker wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and her lover in 1947. Sentenced to life at Shawshank State Penitentiary, he eventually befriends Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), the prison's resident smuggler and narrator. Over two decades, Andy uses his financial expertise to assist the corrupt Warden Norton with money laundering, while secretly engineering a meticulous escape that culminates in his freedom and eventual reunion with Red in Mexico. Key Characters Movie Analysis: “The Shawshank Redemption” — Themes
The "Shawshank Redemption Index" is a conceptual framework used to evaluate the film's core themes—hope, perseverance, and institutionalization—and how they translate to real-world resilience. While often used informally in film analysis or corporate metaphors, it serves as a thorough guide to the journey from captivity to freedom. Core Components of the Index
The Hope Quotient: Defined by Andy Dufresne’s famous philosophy that "hope is a good thing... and no good thing ever dies," this metric measures an individual's ability to maintain an internal world that the external environment cannot touch.
The Institutionalization Scale: Represented by characters like Brooks Hatlen, this tracks how deeply an individual becomes dependent on a restrictive system, eventually finding the outside world too frightening to navigate . Shawshank Redemption Index
The Perseverance Variable: This examines the "get busy living, or get busy dying" mindset. It focuses on long-term determination, such as Andy’s twenty-year plan to tunnel through the prison walls. Real-World Applications
Corporate Resilience: Professionals often use the film's narrative to discuss overcoming "prison-like" corporate structures , where fixed prisoner numbers (like Andy's 37927) represent the loss of identity in large bureaucracies.
Technical Metaphors: In software development, "Shawshank Redemption" is sometimes used as a naming convention for index files or proxies to illustrate how specific requests (hostnames) are routed to the correct destination, much like Andy's careful navigation of prison systems.
Life Lessons From The Shawshank Redemption - Saankhya Mondal
Shawshank Redemption Index is a cultural term referring to the film's status as a "repeater"—a movie so watchable and frequently broadcast that it seems to be playing on cable television at almost any given time. While a box office disappointment upon its 1994 release, the film found a second life through TNT and AMC reruns, eventually becoming a staple of American basic cable. The Anatomy of the "Index"
The "Index" concept highlights how certain films transition from cinema releases to enduring television legacies: Airtime Dominance : In 2013 alone, the film accounted for of basic cable airtime, rivaled only by Mrs. Doubtfire The "TNT" Effect : After Ted Turner’s Turner Broadcasting System
purchased the film's production company, TNT began airing it nearly every week starting in 1997, which cemented its popularity with a global audience. Cross-Demographic Appeal
: Despite its nearly all-male cast, the film famously became the most-watched movie on the female-targeted OWN network, proving its universal themes of hope and friendship. Why It Stays on Top
The film's high "Index" rating isn't just about availability; it's about audience retention: IMDb Supremacy : It has held the IMDb Top 250 since 2008, surpassing The Godfather The "Stop-and-Watch" Quality
: Critics note that because the story is told in distinct segments (the library, the rooftop, the escape), viewers can jump in at any point during a broadcast and stay until the end. Legacy Value
: Warner Bros. considers the film one of the most valuable assets in its $1.5 billion library due to its consistent licensing revenue. Key Filming Locations
For fans looking to visit the real-world "Shawshank," many of the most iconic scenes were filmed in and around Mansfield, Ohio Ohio State Reformatory Historical place museum Mansfield, OH, United States Ohio State Reformatory , Mansfield, OH : Historic Prison / Museum Justification : The primary setting for Shawshank State Penitentiary Malabar Farm State Park State park Lucas, OH, United States Malabar Farm State Park , Lucas, OH : State Park Justification
: Site of the "Oak Tree" and the stone wall where Andy leaves the note Renaissance Theatre Performing arts theater Mansfield, OH, United States The Renaissance Theatre , Mansfield, OH Justification : Hosted the film's world premiere in 1994 Bissman Building Bissman Building , Mansfield, OH : Historic Building Justification The movie The Shawshank Redemption (1994) is famously
: Served as the exterior for the Brewer Hotel and Portland Daily Bugle economic value of the film's TV rights, or would you like to see a itinerary for the Shawshank Trail Expand map
There is no widely recognized academic or financial "paper" titled the Shawshank Redemption Index
. It is possible you are referring to one of the following concepts that use the film as a metaphor or reference: 1. The "Big Mac Index" of Prisons
Economists and social researchers sometimes use "Shawshank" as a cultural shorthand when discussing the informal prison economy
—where goods like cigarettes or postage stamps act as currency. The Concept: Similar to the Big Mac Index The Economist
to measure purchasing power parity, researchers sometimes track the price of "prison luxuries" (like ramen or sneakers) to create a cost-of-living index for incarcerated populations. Shawshank Link: The film is the most famous depiction of a "fixer" (
) who manages the supply and demand of contraband, which often serves as a case study in informal markets. 2. Legal and Judicial Research The film is frequently cited in legal papers regarding wrongful convictions judicial process
Law students and professors use the "Shawshank Index" informally to describe the "hope vs. reality" disparity in parole board hearings or the statistical likelihood of exoneration based on circumstantial evidence. Reference: You can find discussions on these themes in resources like Law & Literature journals 3. Cultural and Philosophical Analysis
Academic papers in film studies often "index" the symbolic elements of the movie. Posters as an Index: Some analyses focus on the three posters
Andy uses (Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, and Raquel Welch) as an index for the passage of time and the evolution of American cultural icons. SparkNotes 4. Financial "Hope" Metaphors
In investment circles, particularly regarding "distressed assets" or "deep value" stocks, analysts occasionally use a "Shawshank Index" to describe stocks that have been "wrongfully imprisoned" (undervalued) by the market for years but have the potential for a massive "redemption" breakout.
Could this be a specific internal report or a niche blog post you encountered?
If you have more details about the topic (e.g., inflation, Bitcoin, or legal reform), I can help narrow it down. Survivorship bias: For every Andy, many more are
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption: Symbols - SparkNotes
The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 prison drama based on Stephen King's 1982 novella. It follows the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker sentenced to life for a crime he didn't commit, and his friendship with Ellis "Red" Redding. Key Plot Elements
The Crime and Sentence: Andy is sent to Shawshank State Penitentiary in 1947 for the murder of his wife and her lover.
The Library and Finances: Andy uses his banking skills to help the guards with their taxes and the warden with money laundering.
The Escape: In 1966, after nearly 20 years, Andy escapes through a tunnel he dug with a small rock hammer.
Redemption and Hope: The film’s tagline is "Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free". Andy leaves a message for Red, telling him that "hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things". Iconic Quotes
5. Criticisms & Limitations
- Survivorship bias: For every Andy, many more are broken by the system. High SRI does not guarantee success.
- No time horizon standard: When does “patience” become “stubbornness”?
- Quantification difficulty: Hard to measure “sewage length” in real life.
- Romanticizing suffering: Can be used to justify toxic persistence or exploitation.
10. Practical Appendix: Rater Rubric (summarized)
- Provide 1–4 sentence anchors per metric (example: Agency Restoration 0 = protagonist remains passive; 4 = momentary agency; 8 = sustained, consequential agency leading to liberation).
- Include sample coded excerpts and example scores from three calibration texts.
3. Conceptual Framework
-
SRI is the weighted sum of six components (normalized 0–100):
- Commercial Performance (CP)
- Critical Reception (CR)
- Audience Reception (AR)
- Cultural Penetration (CPen)
- Academic & Institutional Recognition (AIR)
- Longevity & Trend Stability (LTS)
-
SRI = w1CP + w2CR + w3AR + w4CPen + w5AIR + w6LTS, where sum(wi)=1. Default weights reflect intent: emphasize enduring influence—e.g., w1=0.10, w2=0.20, w3=0.20, w4=0.20, w5=0.15, w6=0.15.
The Components of the Index
Why does this specific film rank so high? The "Index" suggests that the film succeeds by perfectly balancing three distinct metrics:
1. The "Everyman" Accessibility
Unlike The Godfather (often the runner-up), which deals with specific organized crime dynamics, Shawshank deals with universal themes: hope, injustice, friendship, and time. It transcends culture and language. The "Index" suggests that the broader the demographic appeal, the stickier the rating.
2. The Repeat Viewership Variable
The Index is heavily influenced by re-watchability. Shawshank is a staple of cable television. It is a film people stumble upon and cannot turn off. This creates a feedback loop: only fans who love the movie enough to re-watch it frequently go out of their way to rate it online, ensuring the score remains high.
3. The "Brooks" Effect (Emotional Resonance)
Data suggests that audiences value emotional satisfaction over technical perfection. While a film like Citizen Kane might be "better" in terms of cinematography, Shawshank hits a raw emotional nerve. The Index measures heart; the final act of Andy Dufresne’s escape provides one of the most cathartic releases in cinema history.
1. What Is the Shawshank Redemption Index?
The Shawshank Redemption Index is a qualitative and quantitative metaphor for assessing an individual’s or organization’s trajectory along two axes:
- Institutionalization (how much you’ve adapted to a limiting system)
- Liberation (how much you act with hope, patience, and strategic defiance)
Inspired by Andy Dufresne’s 19-year journey through Shawshank Prison, the SRI helps answer: Are you slowly dying inside a comfortable prison, or are you tunneling toward freedom?
roundCorners - 'all' | 'top' | 'none'
Enables round corners on all corners, on just the top two, or 'none' disables all round corners (and you get square ones).
cornerRadius - 4 | 8 | 12 | 20
When round corners are enabled, this defines the corner radius in pixels.
shadowType - 'drop' | 'hybrid' | 'halo' | 'none'
Set 3D shadow effect.
'drop' sets a 2-sided shadow on the right and bottom.
'hybrid' sets the full shadow on the right and bottom and a fainter half shadow on the left and top.
'halo' sets a full shadow on all 4 sides.
shadowSize - 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 24
Sets the size in pixels of the drop or halo shadow.
outerBorder - pixels (1)
Width of the border around the outside edge of the box.
If round corners are being used, the outerBorder size will not exceed the corner radius.
innerBorder - pixels (1)
Width of the inside border around the edge of the main content.
padding - pixels (24)
Width of the area between the floatbox content and the outer floatbox edges.
panelPadding - pixels (8)
Gap above and below the contents of the floatbox frame area like the caption and close buttons.
Provides the vertical spacing between the floatbox outer edge, frame content, and main content.
overlayOpacity - 0-100 (55)
Opacity of the full-screen page overlay. 0 is fully transparent, 100 is fully opaque.
controlsOpacity - 0-100 (60)
Sets the opacity of the controls that can overlay the floatbox content area:
the overlayed prev/next controls, the image resize widget at the top left, and the drag-resizer at the bottom right.
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Animations
doAnimations - true | false
Setting doAnimations to false is a short-hand way of setting resizeDuration, imageFadeDuration and overlayFadeDuration all to 0.
When doAnimations is false, startAtClick, zoomSource, crossFadeImages and splitResize become irrelevant.
crossFadeImages - true | false
The default behaviour when transitioning between two images in a gallery set is to fade out the old image and fade in the new simultaneously.
The fades are synchronized with any box resizing that might need to occur.
This behaviour can be turned off by setting crossFadeImages to false, causing the departing image to completely fade out prior to the new image beginning its fade in.
resizeDuration - 0-10 (3.5)
Controls the speed at which animated resizing occurs.
0 = no resize animation, 1 is fast, 10 is slooow.
These are unit-less numbers, and don't equate to a fixed time period.
Larger size changes will take longer than smaller size changes.
imageFadeDuration - 0-10 (3)
Controls the speed of the opacity fade-in for images as they come into the display.
0 = no image fade-in, 1 is fast, 10 is slooow. These too are unit-less numbers.
overlayFadeDuration - 0-10 (4)
Controls the speed of the opacity fade-in and fade-out for the translucent overlay which covers the host page.
0 = no overlay fading in or out, 1 is fast, 10 is slooow. Unit-less.
startAtClick - true | false
If true (and resizeDuration is not 0) floatbox will expand out from the clicked anchor and shrink back to that anchor when closed.
If false, floatbox will start and end from the center of the screen.
zoomSource - img filePath | null
Default behaviour for images is to do 'zoom' animations up from and down to the clicked anchor when opening and closing.
The image zoomed is the same image that is being shown.
The zoomSource option can be used to assign an alternate image to use for the zoom animation.
Set zoomSource to the path of an image file to be used in the animation.
Any content type can have a zoomSource image assigned to it, so you can, for example, open a form by zooming up a screen capture image of that form.
To disable the image zooming effect, set zoomSource to null.
zoomBorder - pixels (1)
Sets the border width around the zoomSource image for zooming in and out.
Default is 1px.
exitTo - id | 'click' | null
When a floatbox closes,
if showing a gallery set the default behaviour is to zoom out to a thumbnail that matches the currently showing image,
otherwise it closes out to the location of the mouse click that opened the box, or to the center of the screen.
The 'exitTo' option changes this default behaviour.
If set to a string that matches an id set on an element on the base page, the floatbox will close down to that element.
This could be useful for example if showing a shopping cart form inside a floatbox.
The floatbox can be directed to zoom down to a cart link on the page, thereby drawing attention to it.
Set exitTo to 'click' to force the floatbox to close down to the location of the initiating click rather than a matching thumbnail.
If exitTo is set to null, no animations will be done when the floatbox closes - it will just pop immediately out of existence.
splitResize - true | false
Default animated resizing of floatbox resizes width, height, top and left simultaneously.
Setting splitResize to true yeilds sequenced animation where the X and Y dimensions are resized seperately.
When split-resizing, the smallest dimension will be sized first, followed by the other larger dimension.
This avoids unaesthetic resize behaviour of initially bloating up in the larger dimension.
Note that splitResize does not take effect while 'zooming' an image in or out or while cross-fading between images in a gallery set.
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Colors
colorTheme - 'auto' | 'black' | 'white' | 'blue' | 'yellow' | 'red' | 'custom'
When colorTheme is 'auto', or no colorTheme option is specified, floatbox defaults to black for images, white for HTML content, and blue for multi-media.
Assigning a specific colorTheme setting overrides these defaults.
boxColor - css color [|css color]
'boxColor' assigns the main background color of the floatbox's frame area using any css color.
A gradient effect can also be assigned to the floatbox by setting boxColor to two css colors separated the the '|' character.
If defining a gradient, hex color formats must be used. For example: boxColor:#123456|#edca98
If a gradient is set, roundCorners will be disabled and the floatbox will have square corners.
Note that setting boxBackgroundImage can override a boxColor assignment.
overlayColor, innerBorderColor, outerBorderColor - css color
Assign any standard css color to various floatbox components using these options.
The best approach when doing extensive appearance customizations is to set the desired options in a class definition in fbClassOptions on a page or in the global classOptions section of options.js.
Once this is done, the collection of option settings can be assigned to one or more floatboxed links simply by placing the assigned class name on them.
textColor, strongTextColor - css color
These work the same as the other color options.
'textColor' applies to the 'item x of y' display, index links, and the 'open in a new window' link.
'strongTextColor' applies to captions, info and print links, and the new window link when it's hovered.
boxBackgroundImage - img filePath
The main floatbox frame area can have a background image assigned to it to give texture or other effects.
Set boxBackgroundImage to the URL path of the image to be used as the background.
Note that when this is set, roundCorners is forced off and the floatbox will be displayed with square corners.
contentBackgroundColor - css color
The default background color of floatbox's content area is white for non-iframe HTML content and transparent for all others.
If a different background color is required for some content, the desired color can be assigned by setting the 'contentBackgroundColor' option.
Valid values are any color values that can be assigned via css.
This setting will have a visible effect ony if the content shown has some transparent areas.
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Size
autoFitImages - true | false
If set to true, large images will be proportionally scaled down to fit the current browser window dimensions before being displayed.
Note that if very large captions are assigned to an image, the caption may be dropped if auto-sizing can not leave enough room for its display.
To guarantee display of large captions, set autoFitImages to false and let the user scroll to see all of the image if necessary.
autoFitHTML - true | false
If set to true, html content will be resized down to fit within the browser window.
Aspect ratio is not maintained unless proportionalResize is specified.
autoFitHTML is ignored and always false on mobile touch devices to facilitate showing html content at its full native height.
It will also not take effect if the scrolling option is set to 'no' (because you need scrollbars to see all the content in the downsized floatbox).
autoFitMedia - true | false
If set to true, direct loaded multi-media content will be proportionally resized down to fit within the browser window.
stickyAutoFit- true | false
In a gallery set, when navigating between images, large images will be scaled to the viewport size if autoFitImages is true.
Setting stickyAutoFit to true can change this behaviour and result in new images being shown using the size state of the current image.
For example, if an image is being viewed at full size, and possibly larger than the viewport, the next image displayed will also be shown full size.
autoFitSpace - pixels (5)
The minimum space to leave between the floatbox edge and the browser window edge when autoFitting content.
measureHTML - 'auto' | 'yes' | 'no'
The measureHTML option can be set to control Floatbox's behaviour regarding auto-measuring and setting the height of html content.
The default behaviour when measureHTML is set to 'auto' is tied to the scrolling option as described in the instructions under "Let floatbox set content height".
Set measureHTML to 'yes' or 'no' to override the default behaviour described there.
enableImageResize - true | false
If enableImageResize is set to true, images that have been autoSized to fit the screen, that have been resized with drag-resizing, or are displayed larger than the current screen size can be resized using the resize tool.
inFrameResize - true | false
An image may be displayed at smaller than its native size when autoFitImages causes it to scale to fit the viewport.
The image can then be resized to its full size using the resizeTool as described below.
The default resizing behaviour is for the floatbox frame to remain at its smaller size inside the viewport
and for the image to scale up to its full size inside the floatbox frame.
It can then be dragged around inside the frame with the mouse or touch gestures.
Set inFrameResize to false to disable this behaviour and to cause the entire floatbox, including the frame, to to scale up to full size when requested.
resizeTool - 'cursor' | 'topleft' | 'both'
Sets the tool used when enableImageResize is true.
The cursor tool enables clicking on the image to resize and displays a magnifying glass to show when resizing is allowed.
The topleft tool is a small semi-transparent button in the top left corner of the image.
enableDragResize - true | false
If true, a small resize widget will be shown in the bottom right corner that people can drag with the mouse to resize the box.
Drag-resizing is always disabled on mobile touch devices because they have a better way of accomplishing the same task.
stickyDragResize - true | false
As with stickyDragMove, stickyDragResize instructs floatbox to remember dragged size changes between different items in a gallery.
The stickyDragResize option applies only to proportionally resized content (images and multi-media)
and has no effect on html content.
draggerLocation - 'frame' | 'content'
The widget that is shown when enableDragResize is enabled can be placed either in the bottom right corner of the floatbox frame
or the bottom right corner of the displayed content by setting this option. (draggerLocation is always 'frame' for media content.)
minContentWidth (140), minContentHeight (100) - pixels
minContentWidth and minContentHeight set limits as to how small the content can be scaled down when it is being drag-resized or is being auto-fit to the browser's viewport size.
These two options prevent content from becoming too tiny and may result in auto-sized floatboxes that are bigger than the viewport on small screens.
maxContentWidth (0), maxContentHeight (0) - pixels
maxContentWidth and maxContentHeight set the upper size limits for floatbox content dimensions.
When set to 0, no limit is in effect and the content will be presented at its native, specified or measured size.
If these options are applied to image content and are smaller than the image's native dimensions, the image will be resize-able up to native dimensions
(provided the enableImageResize option has not been set to false).
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Position
boxLeft, boxTop - 'auto' | pixels | 'click' | '[-]xx%'
With the default setting of 'auto' in effect for 'boxLeft' and 'boxTop', the main floatbox frame will open centered in the viewable browser screen area (with a little offset toward the top).
The 'boxLeft' and 'boxTop' options can be used to change this default box placement.
If set to simple integers, those integers will be taken as screen pixel locations at which to place the floatbox.
These pixel placement values are relative to the visible browser viewport and not to the underlying document.
If set to the string 'click', the floatbox's left and/or top edge will open at the mouse click or touch gesture location.
'boxLeft' and 'boxTop' can also be set to percentage values such as '-50%'.
This will cause the floatbox frame to shift position that portion of the available free space.
For example, a 'boxLeft' setting of '-50%' will move the floatbox half way to the left edge of the browser window.
Note that regardless of explicit positioning, a floatbox will reposition itself if necessary to appear within the visible viewport area
as there is not much point in displaying content off-screen.
captionPos ('bl'), caption2Pos ('tc'), infoLinkPos ('bl'), printLinkPos ('bl'), newWindowLinkPos ('tr'), itemNumberPos ('bl'), indexLinksPos ('br') - 'tl' | 'tc' | 'tr' | 'bl' | 'bc' | 'br'
These options control the positioning of the various widgets that can appear in the floatbox border area.
See the 'layout' section of the instructions for more detail if required.
Values are short-hand for top-left, top-center, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-center and bottom-right.
controlsPos - 'tl' | 'tr' | 'bl' | 'br'
Sets the positioning of the control panel in the floatbox frame.
The control panel is the grouping containing control widgets like the close button, <<prev||next>>, etc.
Values are short-hand for top-left, top-right, bottom-left and bottom-right.
outerClosePos - 'tl' | 'tr'
The round outerClose button can be shown either in the top-left or the top-right corner by setting outerClosePos to the desired value.
centerNav - true | false
The controls are positioned in one of the box's corners. Usually the < prev || next > controls are right beside the close button.
With this option you can move the nav controls to the center of the top or bottom border area, away from the close button.
enableDragMove - true | false
If true, a floatbox can be dragged around the screen by holding down the left mouse button on the floatbox frame outside of the main content area.
On mobile touch devices, drag-moving works with a single-finger move gesture.
For non-modal floatboxes (where the modal option is set to false) drag-moving is always enabled regardless of the value set for enableDragMove.
stickyDragMove - true | false
In sets of multiple floatbox items (galleries), if strickyDragMove is false the dragged location is not retained when navigating to the next item.
Floatbox will return to its centered position with each new item.
Set stickyDragMove to true to have floatbox remember its new screen position across item change-overs.
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Controls
showClose - true | false
Enables/disables display of the close button in the floatbox border area.
showOuterClose - true | false
Enables/disables display of the round external close button that can be shown at one of the top corners of a floatbox.
showPrint - true | false
If showPrint is set to true, a "Print..." link will be shown in the floatbox border area.
This print link invokes a print dialog that will print just the floatbox contents, not the underlying page.
(The "Print..." text is translated/regionalized in the language files.)
See the printCSS option for how to pass css stylings to the print content.
Print links will not be shown for cross-domain iframe content because cross-domain script blocking will prevent the printing from succeeding.
printCSS - css text | css filePath
When showPrint is enabled, you may need to provide some css to format the print content the way you like.
You can provide css settings directly as text. For example, printCSS:`h4 {color: #123456;} a img {border: 2px solid black;}`.
Or you can set printCSS to the path of an external css file and this will be applied to the print window contents.
E.g., printCSS:myPrint.css.
printText - string
Replaces the default text "Print..." (or the translated equivalent) used for the print link with text of your choice.
infoOptions - option string
Used in conjunction with the 'info' option, this allows assigning configuration options to the secondary info floatbox using the standard options attribute syntax.
Wrap the infoOptions in backquotes for correct parsing and see the instructions and demo for more details.
infoText - string
Replaces the default text "Info..." (or the translated equivalent) used for the info link with text of your choice.
For example, if you're displaying EXIF information through the info option, you may want to set infoText to "EXIF..."
showNewWindow - true | false
If showNewWindow is set to true, a "Open in a new window" link will be shown in the floatbox border area.
Clicking this link will open a new browser window or tab with the floatbox content loaded as an ordinary page.
("Open in a new window" is translated/regionalized in the language files.)
Use the showNewWindowIcon and closeOnNewWindow options in conjunction with showNewWindow.
showNewWindowIcon - true | false
This works in conjunction with the showNewWindow option.
Set showNewWindowIcon to false to disable display of the small icon beside the 'Open in new window' text.
(showNewWindowIcon is always false on rtl (right-to-left) layout pages.)
closeOnNewWindow - true | false
When set to true, floatbox will end (close) when the newWindow link (described in the options reference and instructions) is clicked.
controlsType - 'auto' | 'international' | 'english'
controlsType is closely related to the language option.
When set to 'auto', visitors with localized English language browsers will see the floatbox control graphics that contain English text such as "close" and "next"
while non-English browser users will see graphics-only controls without the English text on them.
All browsers can be set to see the graphics-only controls by setting controlsType to 'international', or force English controls with the 'english' option.
strongControls - true | false
Setting this to true makes the controls (close button, prev/next, etc) appear always in their on or hovered state.
This can be helpful when trying to match against a custom color that is set in the 'boxColor' option or in the css.
showHints - 'once' | 'yes' | 'no'
Controls display or mouseover tooltip messages for the nav and control buttons.
These tooltips are intended to be used to inform users about keyboard navigation shortcuts.
If set to 'once', each tooltip will deactivate after it has been displayed for sufficient time to be read.
They will also be deactivated if the user navigates with the associated keyboard shortcut.
If enableKeyboardNav is set to false, showHints will be set to 'no'.
outsideClickCloses - true | false
If set to true, floatbox will exit when the user clicks on the page overlay outside of the floatbox display.
imageClickCloses - true | false
If set to true, floatbox will exit when the user clicks on the displayed image.
When the navigation overlay is active (navType = overlay or both), the click-to-close space is the space left between the left and right navigation areas.
enableKeyboardNav - true | false
Enables or disables the keyboard handler for prev, next, pause/play, resize and close actions.
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Galleries
navType - 'overlay' | 'button' | 'both' | 'none'
Sets the type of navigation controls to display.
'overlay' is the "Prev/Next" image overlay.'
'button' gives "<<prev||next>>" in the controls area of the floatbox frame.
Overlay navigation is not available for html and multi-media content, just for images.
navOverlayWidth - 0-50 (35)
Sets the width in percentage of each of the left and right transparent overlay nav panels that provide navigation through mouse clicks on the displayed image.
If set to 50, each panel will be half the image width and so will meet without a gap in the middle.
40 leaves a 20% gap between panels, etc.
If image resizing is enabled and you're using the cursor tool, you'll want to leave a gap between the nav panels so that there's somewhere to click for resizing.
navOverlayPos - 0-100 (30)
When the mouse is active over an image with navType 'overlay' or 'both' set, small prev/next graphics are displayed.
This setting is the percentage height from the image top that these graphics will appear.
0 puts them right at the top, and 100 places them at the bottom of the image.
showNavOverlay - 'once' | 'yes' | 'no'
Controls display of the overlayed navigation prev and next graphics for image content.
If set to 'once', these graphics will be displayed only for the first image shown, after which they are turned off.
The idea behind this is that once people are told what the mouse does over the image, they don't need to keep seeing the prev/next graphics continuously.
When the overlay nav graphics are turned off overlay nav still works, it is just not displayed.
When both the overlay and button nav types are enabled, the button nav controls will highlight as the mouse moves over active image areas.
showItemNumber - true | false
Setting showItemNumber to false will disable the display of the 'image/page x of y' text in gallery sets.
enableWrap - true | false
Enables gallery wrapping so that selecting 'next' on the last item wraps to the first, and selecting 'prev' on the first item wraps to the last.
Because gallery viewing can start anywhere in a series of images, it is probably a good idea to leave this set to true in most circumstances.
But if you are displaying something like a series of instructions that always starts with item #1 you may want to turn wrapping off.
The enableWrap option affects only mouse and keyboard navigation.
Even when enableWrap is set to false, a slideshow will wrap if started with an item other than #1 or if the slideshow endTask is set to 'loop'.
numIndexLinks - number (0)
Index links are a grouping of numbered links that will jump floatbox to the selected item of a gallery set when clicked.
They look like this: "1 2 3 4 5 ..."
If set to 0, no index links will be shown.
If set to -1 or to a number greater than the number of items in a gallery set, all index links will be shown - one for each item in the gallery.
If set to a positive integer less than the number of gallery items, only that number of links will be shown.
For example, if maxIndexLinks = 9 for a 99 item gallery you get something like
"1 ... 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 ... 99"
showIndexThumbs - true | false
Controls the display of popup thumbnails in the indexLinks group.
If true, thumbnail popups will be displayed when an index link is hovered.
pipIndexThumbs - true | false
The default of true causes the popup thumbnails on index links to appear over-top of the content image in the corner closest to the index thumbs.
If set to false, the thumbnails will appear immediately above or below the clickable index link numbers.
maxIndexThumbSize - pixels (0)
The popup thumbnails used in the index links are taken from the img elements inside the associated anchor on your base page.
These thumbnails may be larger than you would like to see for the index links popup thumbnails.
You can limit the popup size by setting maxIndexThumbSize to the pixel size you want the thumbnail's largest dimension restricted to.
If maxIndexThumbSize is 0, the index link thumbnails will be shown at their native size.
indexThumbSource - img filePath | 'href'
When showIndexThumbs is true, the default index thumb source is the thumbnail image from a gallery item's associated anchor (link) element on the main page.
If there is no such thumbnail, or if an alternate thumbnail is desired, the path to the desired thumbnail image can be specified in the indexThumbSource option.
If indexThumbSource is assigned the value 'href', the main image linked to by the host anchor's href attribute will be used as the index thumb.
When using the 'href' setting, you'll almost always want to set maxIndexThumbSize as well.
randomOrder - true | false
Gallery sets of multiple items normally are ordered by their position in the html document.
By setting randomOrder to true, you can shuffle your gallery sets to a random order.
This can be a nice touch for some slideshows.
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Slideshows
doSlideshow - true | false
If set to true, images in a gallery set will be launched as a slideshow.
slideInterval - seconds (4.5)
This is the number of seconds to display each image in a slideshow before moving on to the next one.
Per-item intervals can be assigned to the item options of individual slideshow members.
endTask - 'stop' | 'exit' | 'loop'
Describes what to do when all images in a slideshow have been seen.
Note that if a slideshow was started on other than the 1st image, it will wrap around until all images have been seen before acting on the endTask directive.
showPlayPause - true | false
Turns display of the slideshow play & pause controls on or off.
startPaused - true | false
If true, a slideshow will start in a paused state. If false, the slideshow will auto-play on start.
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Tooltips
source - a content reference
This is the reference to the content that will be shown as the tooltip.
Commonly, source will point to a hidden div on the page with a syntax like
"source:#myDivId", but it can also be a path to any type of floatbox content.
e.g., "source:`myTooltip.html`" to bring in an external page as the tooltip.
The source can be set only in the data-fb-tooltip attribute for each tooltipped element.
attachToHost - true | false
If true, the tooltip will be placed immediately adjacent to the host element (either above or below)
and will not move with the mouse.
This allows the mouse to be active inside the open tooltip and thereby allows clickable links to be placed in the tooltip content.
(A tooltip can be assigned to an <area> element, but cannot be attached to it.)
moveWithMouse - true | false
Not surprisingly, if this is set to true the tooltip will move with mouse movements.
The default of false leaves the tooltip positioned at its starting location regardless of subsequent mouse moves.
placement - 'bottom' | 'top' | 'left' | 'right' | 'center'
The placement option determines where an enhanced tooltip will open in relation to the hovered element or the mouse location.
If attachToHost is set to true, the tooltip placement is relative to the host element,
otherwise it is relative to the location of the mouse cursor at the time the tooltip is invoked.
If the requested placement would make the tooltip appear partially offscreen,
the placement will be moved so that the entire tooltip shows.
timeout - seconds (0)
Number of seconds to show a tooltip before terminating it.
The default of zero sets no timeout and the tooltip will be shown as long as the mouse remains hovered.
delay - milliseconds (80)
Delay in milliseconds between the element mouseover event and the display of the tooltip.
mouseSpeed - pixels per second (120)
The mouse must be moving at a speed less than mouseSpeed in order for the tooltip to appear.
fadeDuration - 0-10 (3)
This is a unitless setting (not seconds) that controls the duration of the opacity fade in and out of the tooltip when it starts and ends.
0 is no fade and 10 is very slow.
Note fadeDuration is always 0 for Internet Explorer pre version 9 because IE is atrociously bad at fading text and tooltips usually contain text.
defaultCursor - true | false
In most browsers, the mouse cursor will change to a text selection tool whenever it is hovered over text.
Setting defaultCursor to true forces the default arrow cursor to be in effect for all of the tooltip-enabled host element.
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Context boxes
source - a content reference
This is the reference to the content that will be shown in the context box.
Commonly, source will point to a hidden div on the page with a syntax like
"source:#myDivId", but it can also be a path to any type of floatbox content.
e.g., "source:`myContext.html`" to show an external page in the context box.
The source can be set only in the data-fb-context attribute for each element that has a context box attached to it.
contextMouseButton - 'both' | 'left' | 'right'
Sets which mouse buttons will be used to trigger the display of the context box.
Mobile devices will always respond to touch gestures regardless of the contextMouseButton setting.
Please see the note in the context section of the instructions for information about the unreliability of right-clicks in some browsers.
contextCloseOnClick - true | false
A context box will always close on a mouse click (or touch gesture) outside of the box on the main page.
The default setting will close the box on a mouse click within the box as well.
Set contextCloseOnClick to false to keep the context box open after an internal click.
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Image/Thumbnail Cyclers
cycleInterval - seconds (5)
The number of seconds between each turnover of the displayed image in a set of cycling images or thumbnails.
cycleInterval can be set on individual cycle set members to provide a different delay for different items in the set.
See the cycler section of the instructions for details.
cycleFadeDuration - 0-10 (4.5)
Controls the speed of the fade in/out of the images in a set of cycling images or thumbnails.
1 is really fast, 10 is slow. Unit-less.
cyclePauseOnHover - true | false
If set to true, image and thumbnail cyclers will pause and hold the current image while the mouse is hovered over the images.
This option is ignored on mouse-less Mobile devices where the cyclers will always cycle.
cycleResumeOnHover - true | false
If set to true, image and thumbnail cyclers will start in a paused state and cycle only while the mouse is hovered over the images.
This option is ignored on mouse-less Mobile devices where the cyclers will always cycle.
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General
addVideoThumb - 'small' | 'medium' | 'large'
Floatbox can fetch video thumbnails from YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion and auto-insert these thumbnails into floatboxed anchors that reference videos from these services.
The size of the thumbnail image is based on the value of the addVideoThumb option.
Setting addVideoThumb on any anchor other than one that references a video from one of the three supported services will have no effect.
addPlayButton - 'small' | 'medium' | 'large'
Any floatboxed anchor that contains a thumbnail can have a translucent play button displayed over top of it by setting the addPlayButton option to the desired button size (small, medium or large).
The default action is to add a medium-sized play button to thumbnails added by the addVideoThumb option and do nothing with other thumbnails.
Use the addPlayButton to show a button on standard thumbnails or to change the button size for addVideoThumb thumbnails.
titleAsCaption - true | false | 'a' | 'img'
If a caption is not assigned directly with the caption option, titleAsCaption when set to true will pull a caption in from a title attribute found on the host anchor or on a thumbnail img element within that anchor.
A setting of 'a' instructs it to look at title attributes only on the anchor element and a setting of 'img' cause it to look for titles only on thumbnail img elements.
To disable the setting of captions from title attributes, set titleAsCaption to false.
See the 'caption' and 'caption2' options for details on how to set caption content.
hideObjects - true | false
If true, objects and embeds (flash, quicktime, silverlight, etc.) on the host page will be hidden while a floatbox is being displayed.
This is generally a good idea as most objects will appear on top of the floatbox display if not hidden.
Flash objects using the default wmode of 'window' have this problem (feature?).
If you set your flash objects to have a wmode of 'opaque' or 'transparent' they will not appear over top of the other content
and you won't need to enable hideObjects.
hideJava - true | false
Just like hideObjects but for Java applets.
showIE6EndOfLife - true | false
Please see the description of this in the instructions and seriously consider turning this on for all sites.
showMagCursor - 'once' | 'yes' | 'no'
Changes the mouse cursor to a small magnifying glass when the mouse is hovered over a thumbnail in a floatboxed anchor.
If set to 'once', the cursor will change only for the first mouseover on the thumbnail image.
Note, that some browsers cannot and will not show the custom cursor regardless of the option setting.
(Opera, most Mac browsers except Safari, and some Linux browsers are guilty of this.)
modal - true | false
When modal is true, floatbox will overlay the whole page with a translucent layer,
the underlying page will be unreachable until the box is closed,
and any secondary floatboxes will be stacked on top of any already-opened boxes.
Setting modal to false removes the translucent page overlay,
allows the underlying page to be accessed while one or more floatboxes are open,
and allows multiple open floatboxes to be re-arranged and restacked.
centerOnResize - true | false
When set to true, all open floatboxes will reposition themselves towards the center of the screen when the browser window is resized,
and will resize to fit the new window dimensions if autoResize behaviour is enabled.
disableScroll - true | false
If true, floatbox will use fixed positioning.
Fixed positioning locks floatbox in a fixed screen location that will not move in response to scrollbar actions.
Because scrolling is not available when fixed positioning is used, disableScroll is ignored if the current displayed content is larger than the available screen dimensions.
Note that some browsers (IE 6 and older Mobile Safari for example) cannot do fixed positioning and disableScroll will have no effect on these platforms.
removeScrollbars - true | false
When disableScroll is active, the scrollbars on the main page can be removed by setting removeScrollbars to true.
This will prevent unwanted scrolling of the host page underneath the floatbox when the mouse wheel is used to scroll fixed-position floatbox content.
minFlashVersion - version string (7)
When direct-loading flash, you can require that a minimum version of flash is installed on the visitor's browser.
If the required version is not present, floatbox will show a language-localized message to that effect and present a link for getting the latest flash version.
The version string must include the major version number and may include the minor and revision numbers.
For example, 10, 10.1 and '10.1.23' are all valid version strings.
The default is version 7 because earlier versions cannot play most modern flash files.
autoEndVideo - true | false
A floatbox showing a YouTube iframe embed, direct-loaded (type:flash) YouTube, QuickTime or Windows Media Player video will close automatically when the video ends unless autoEndVideo is set to false.
(Doesn't always work in IE pre version 9.)
WMP will also close if the stop button is pressed in the player's controls.
Note that videos shown as part of a multi-item gallery set will not be auto-ended.
attachTo - 'click' | elementID
Use 'attachTo' to enhance accessibility of web pages by providing correct sequencing or placement of floatbox content,
or to attach the floatbox to an ASP.NET form.
When set to 'click', the floatbox will attach in the document tree just after the element that was clicked to launch the floatbox.
To place the floatbox inside a particular element, such as a form, specify the id for that element.
More information is available in the 'Attach to a specific document element' section of the instructions.
autoTypes - 'type1|type2|...'
The autoTypes option is unique in that it can only go on a containing element that is used to propogate floatbox activation to its child elements.
(See "Activating elements" in the instructions).
The autoTypes option limits what content types will be activated within the containing div.
It is a string of valid type names separated by the '|' character, and is useful only for content types that can be indentified by their href paths and file extensions.
Valid type names are 'image', 'iframe', 'video', 'flash', 'quicktime', 'wmp', 'silverlight', 'pdf', and 'media' for all 6 multi-media types.
For example, to activate all images, flash and pdf links on a page:
<body class="floatbox" data-fb-options="autoTypes:image|flash|pdf">
zIndex - number (90000)
Floatbox's default z-indices begin at 90000.
If there is other content on a page that is set higher than this (such as maybe a navigation menu),
a larger zIndex can be assigned to the floatboxes by setting this option.
framed - true | false
Use the framed option to attach floatbox to an iframe or frameset child window.
This will constrain floatbox to the frame area only instead of having it overlay the entire top document.
For frameset pages, floatbox.js must be included in a child frame document, not in the frameset document itself,
and the 'framed' option must be set.
The 'framed' option can be set either as a querystring on the floatbox.js include line, or set to true in fbPageOptions.
See the "Constraining Floatbox..." section in the instructions for details and examples.
preloadAll ** - true | false
If true, floatbox will aggressively preload all images that are referenced by floatboxed anchors.
This makes floatbox quite responsive because images are available and can be displayed as soon as the site visitor clicks on or navigates to one.
If you wish to lighten your server and network load, you can set preloadAll to false.
When preloadAll is false, the first image found on a page will be preloaded and gallery sets will preload the next image in sequence when an image from the set is shown.
Without preloadAll set, a site visitor may get the spinning loader graphic while waiting for an image to download.
language ** - 'auto' | 'en' | ... (see the languages folder)
Floatbox provides international localization through the json files in the languages folder.
When the language option is set to 'auto', floatbox will detect the visitor's browser language preference and use that language for its tooltips and other text.
You can force a particular language by setting it here.
Doing this will set that language for everyone visiting your site, regardless of where they are coming from.
floatboxClass ** ('floatbox'), cyclerClass ** ('fbCycler'), tooltipClass ** ('fbTooltip'), contextClass ** ('fbContext') - className
The class names that are used to activate floatbox elements can be changed in order to avoid conflicts with other html and css.
For example, if the 'floatbox' class is already used for other purposes, the floatboxClass option could be changed to 'floater' or any other unused class name.
The floatboxClass option can accept multiple class names by separating them with a '|' character (e.g., floatbox|foo|bar.
This can be helpful when working with CMS platforms that allow assignment of only one class to any particular element.