radogado

Rado’s Native Lightbox instantly upgrades every WordPress gallery into a beautiful, full-screen lightbox carousel. Just activate and go — your existing galleries are transformed automatically, no shortcodes to learn, no settings pages to configure.
Built on <a href="https://nativecarousel.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Native Carousel</a>, it uses the browser’s own scroll-snapping instead of heavy animation libraries. The result is buttery-smooth swiping on phones, fluid keyboard navigation on desktops, and a total footprint of roughly 13 KB — smaller than a single thumbnail image.
Why this plugin?
<ul>
<li>Zero configuration — activate it and every gallery on your site becomes a lightbox carousel. Deactivate it and galleries revert to normal. Nothing is written to your database.</li>
<li>Truly lightweight — ~13 KB total (JS + CSS). No jQuery, no frameworks, no external requests. Your PageSpeed score stays intact.</li>
<li>Works with any theme — Twenty Twenty-Five, Astra, GeneratePress, or anything else. The plugin bundles everything it needs.</li>
<li>Accessible by default — full keyboard navigation, focus trapping in the lightbox, screen-reader labels on every control, and <code>prefers-reduced-motion</code> support.</li>
<li>Native scroll-snap — hardware-accelerated, 60 fps swiping powered by the browser itself, not JavaScript animation loops.</li>
<li>Dark mode aware — the lightbox overlay adapts to the visitor’s system color scheme automatically.</li>
</ul>
Features at a glance:
<ul>
<li>Full-screen lightbox with swipe, keyboard and mouse-wheel navigation</li>
<li>Compact thumbnail index strip with scrollable overflow</li>
<li>“Thumbnails only” toggle in both the Block Editor sidebar and Classic Editor settings</li>
<li>Endless (infinite loop) navigation</li>
<li>Lazy-loaded images with low-resolution placeholder blur while loading</li>
<li>Captions and alt text fully preserved</li>
<li>Featured-image click opens the matching gallery slide on single posts</li>
<li>Editor performance guard — caps image sizes in the block editor to prevent crashes with large galleries</li>
</ul>
How it works:
The plugin intercepts gallery rendering at display time and outputs <a href="https://nativecarousel.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Native Carousel</a> HTML markup. Your post content is never modified — the transformation is purely visual and fully reversible.
<h3>Third-party source code</h3>
This plugin bundles minified assets from Native Carousel, an open-source carousel component (GPL-2.0-or-later).
<ul>
<li>Homepage & documentation: <a href="https://nativecarousel.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">https://nativecarousel.com/</a></li>
<li>Source code repository: <a href="https://github.com/radogado/n-carousel" rel="nofollow ugc">https://github.com/radogado/n-carousel</a></li>
</ul>
The following files in <code>assets/</code> are the minified production builds:
<ul>
<li><code>n-carousel.min.js</code> — carousel runtime</li>
<li><code>n-carousel-preload.min.js</code> — image preloader</li>
<li><code>n-carousel.min.css</code> — carousel styles</li>
</ul>
The unminified, human-readable source is available in the GitHub repository linked above. No build tools are needed to work with this plugin’s own code — <code>gallery-lightbox.css</code> and the admin JavaScript files are shipped unminified and readable.
This plugin is also maintained as part of the niui theme project: 
<a href="https://gitlab.com/spacest/niui/-/tree/main/rados-native-lightbox" rel="nofollow ugc">https://gitlab.com/spacest/niui/-/tree/main/rados-native-lightbox</a>

Rado's Native Lightbox

Transforms WordPress galleries into lightweight lightbox carousels. Works with any theme — only ~13 KB.

Kevin Batdorf

Unlimited Photos is a Gutenberg block plugin that integrates into the core image block, providing a way to view, search, and import over 3 million free-to-use* photos, images, and digital art.
To use it, when adding a block, search for ‘unlimited photos’ or add an image block and press the blue camera icon.
NEW: Search for images from the media tab (WordPress 6.3+).
Looking for that stock photo that perfectly matches your recipe, blog post, or news article? Or the perfect current event pic that describes exactly the intensity your story conveys? Writing a blog post for your business? Unlimited photos has exactly what you are looking for, for free*.
Search AI-generated images built from platforms like stable diffusion, Dall-E, Midjourney, and more.
<ul>
<li>See the FAQ section for specific license info. AI-generated images are free for personal use but may require a license for commercial use.</li>
</ul>
<h4>More info</h4>
<ul>
<li>Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/kevinbatdorf" rel="nofollow ugc">@kevinbatdorf</a> on Twitter</li>
<li>View on <a href="https://github.com/KevinBatdorf/unsplash-block-plugin" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a></li>
</ul>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Search millions of photos, AI-generated images, textures, wallpapers, and more.</li>
<li>Always view the latest photos</li>
<li>Your search is saved so you can always pick up where you left off.</li>
<li>Import photos right into the core image block (and the media library too)</li>
<li>Search anything, or select from a predefined list</li>
<li>No lock-in, delete at any time and nothing changes</li>
</ul>
<h4>Note</h4>
<ul>
<li>Image search uses the Unsplash AI at unsplash.com</li>
<li>AI search uses the Lexica API at lexica.com</li>
</ul>
<h4>Terms of Use & Privacy</h4>
While using this plugin you will interact with an API at <a href="https://unsplash-api-search.vercel.app/" rel="nofollow ugc">unsplash-api-search.vercel.app</a> that returns images based on your search terms. Referral information (IP address, domain, and the content being requested) is sent to the server. No additional information is tracked.
You may audit the server code at its <a href="https://github.com/KevinBatdorf/unsplash-api" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub repository</a>.
The server is hosted on <a href="https://vercel.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Vercel</a>, and by connecting to their servers, you also agree to their <a href="https://vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy" rel="nofollow ugc">privacy policy</a> and <a href="https://vercel.com/legal/terms" rel="nofollow ugc">terms</a> as well.
<a href="https://unsplash-api-search.vercel.app/terms.html" rel="nofollow ugc">General API terms</a>

Unlimited Photos – Unsplash and Lexica images

Search from millions of stock photos, AI-generated imagry, textures, wallpapers, and more.

Rado's Native Lightbox vs Unlimited Photos – Unsplash and Lexica images