Very Simple Video Gallery In HTML CSS (Free Download)

Welcome to a tutorial on how to create a simple video gallery in HTML CSS. So you want to showcase some of your videos, and don’t want to go through crazy video services/platforms? Here’s a simple video gallery you can copy-paste – Read on!

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Click here to download

Just click on “download zip” or do a git clone. I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

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TUTORIAL VIDEO

 

PART 1) HTML GALLERY PAGE

<!-- (A) CLOSE FULLSCREEN VIDEO -->
<div id="vClose" onclick="vtog(false)">X</div>

<!-- (B) VIDEO GALLERY -->
<div class="gallery">
  <video src="gallery/1.mp4"></video>
  <video src="gallery/2.mp4"></video>
  <video src="gallery/3.mp4"></video>
</div>

Yep, that’s all for the HTML page. Just create a <div class="gallery"> folder, and sandwich all the <video> inside. As for <div id="vClose>, this “close” button will only show when a video is playing on full screen.

 

 

PART 2) GALLERY CSS

/* (A) GALLERY WRAPPER */
/* (A1) BIG SCREENS - 3 VIDEOS PER ROW */
.gallery {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(3, minmax(0, 1fr));
  grid-gap: 10px;
  max-width: 1200px; /* optional */
  margin: 0 auto; /* optional */
}
 
/* (A2) SMALL SCREENS - 2 VIDEOS PER ROW */
@media screen and (max-width: 768px) {
  .gallery { grid-template-columns: repeat(2, minmax(0, 1fr)); }
}
 
/* (B) GALLERY VIDEOS */
/* (B1) THUMBNAIL VIDEO */
.gallery video {
  width: 100%;
  height: 200px;
  object-fit: cover; /* fill | contain | cover | scale-down */
  cursor: pointer;
}
 
/* (B2) FULLSCREEN VIDEO */
.gallery video.full {
  position: fixed;
  top: 0; left: 0; z-index: 999;
  width: 100vw; height: 100vh;
  background: #000;
  object-fit: scale-down;
}
 
/* (C) EXIT FULLSCREEN */
#vClose {
  position: fixed; display: none;
  top: 0; right: 0; z-index: 9999;
  font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;
  padding: 10px 15px;
  color: #fff;
  background: #741414;
  cursor: pointer;
}
#vClose.show { display: block; }

This may look confusing at first, but here’s a quick walkthrough:

• (B) Set the <div class="gallery"> wrapper to a grid layout. 3 videos per row on big screens, and 2 videos on small screens.
• (B1) Scale to fit the thumbnail videos.
• (B2) When the user clicks on a video, we add a .full CSS class on it. This section simply sets the selected video to fill up the entire window.
• (C) Place the “close video” button at the top right side. Hidden by default, will only show when a video is playing in fullscreen.

 

 

PART 3) GALLERY JAVASCRIPT

function vtog (v) {
  // (A) CLOSE FULLSCREEN
  if (v === false) {
    let vid = document.querySelector(".gallery .full");
    vid.classList.remove("full");
    vid.controls = false;
    vid.pause();
    document.getElementById("vClose").classList.remove("show");
  }
 
  // (B) ENGAGE FULLSCREEN
  else if (!v.classList.contains("full")) {
    v.classList.add("full");
    v.controls = true;
    v.play();
    vdocument.getElementById("vClose").classList.add("show");
  }
};
 
// (C) INIT - CLICK TO FULLSCREEN
window.addEventListener("load", () => {
  for (let v of document.querySelectorAll(".gallery video")) {
    v.onclick = () => vtog(v);
  }
});

Finally, a little bit of Javascript to drive “fullscreen videos”:

• (C) On window load, attach “click to play video in full screen”.
• (B) If the user clicks on a video, go fullscreen and show the close button.
• (A) If the user clicks on the close button, exit fullscreen and hide the close button.

The end.

 

 

 

THE VIDEO IS NOT LOADING

• Take note that different browsers support different video formats. The safest format at the time of writing is H.264 MP4 – See the Wikipedia link below for the full list.
• Depending on the browser and Internet connection, some browsers may not preload and display the thumbnail/preview.
  • You can “encourage” the browser to preload the video metadata – <video preload="metadata" src="...">. No guarantee though, it’s still up to the browser.
  • Alternatively, you can set a poster manually – <video poster="image.jpg">

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

• HTML5 Video – Wikipedia