New image viewer supports mobile devices

The Roman de la Rose digital library has added a custom touch-enabled image viewer to support browsers without Flash. Mobile devices which lack Flash support, such as the iPad, iPhone, and some Android phones, can now fully use the site.


In order to use the new image viewer,  turn off Flash support in the left sidebar. Clicking on the “Flash” check box will switch between the new image viewer and the Flash image viewer. By default iPhones and iPads will have Flash support turned off.


The image viewer has been tested on most modern browsers and a number of mobile devices, but undoubtedly problems remain. Please send bug reports and feedback to contactus@romandelarose.org. Bug reports should include your browser name and version.


The new image viewer has three modes, thumbnail browser, page turner, and single image viewer.

General features:

  •  Touch and gesture support on mobile devices (iPhone/iPad, Android phones/tablets)
  •  Dynamically responds to browser resizing and orientation changes

Thumbnail browser

  • Only loads thumbnails being viewed
  • Click/tap to go to page turner

Page turner

  •  Swipe or use the mouse wheel to flip pages
  •  Click/tap to go to detailed image viewer
  •  A toolbar provides buttons for navigating through the manuscript.
    •  Typing in an image name (e.g., 35r) jumps to that image
  •  Due to layout issues, the annotation display has become a draggable dialog

Image Viewer

  • Tiles large images to support zoom/pan efficiently
  • Mouse wheel or pinch to change zoom
  • Tap/click in main image display to zoom in and center
  • Tap/click on thumbnail to move view
  • Drag thumbnail selection to move view
  • Drag to move main view
  • Toolbar allows click/tap to zoom in, zoom out, and reset the view.

Known issues

  • The page turner displays uncropped images when cropped images are available.
  • The help document needs to be updated

First update of the year

It has been a while since our last update, but at long last iPad and iPhone users can view manuscript images! A non-Flash image viewer has been added. Users can now switch between image viewers using the “Flash” check box on the left sidebar. A subsequent post will describe the new image viewer in detail.

New features:

  • Added a JavaScript image viewer as an alternate to the Flash based viewer.
  • User can switch between the Flash and JavaScript viewer
  • Detect iPhone/iPad as not having flash support
  • Update JavaScript viewer when orientation or browser size changes 

Content updates:

Bug fixes:

  • Scroll image descriptions to prevent them from being cut off.