This is a very simple and lightweight image gallery based on the jQuery javascript framework.

The principle of this image gallery is that we dont need to render thumbnails seperatly.
The thumbnails are the big images wich are resized via CSS.

You need the jQuery javascript framework and the jGalight javascript and the css styles for the gallery.

     <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.1.5.2.min.js"></script>  
     <script type="text/javascript" src="jGalight.js"></script>  
     <link href="./styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

     <div class="gallery">  
     <div class="big_image"></div>  
       <ul>  
         <li><img src="./images/image_01.jpg" alt="Image 01"></li>  
         <li><img src="./images/image_02.jpg" alt="Image 02"></li>  
         <li><img src="./images/image_03.jpg" alt="Image 03"></li>  
       </ul>  
     </div>

You just need to call the jQuery function jGalight() on the object you want.

    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">  
    jQuery(document).ready(function() {  
        jQuery('.gallery').jGalight({effect: 'fade'});  
    });  
    </script>

Example:
http://www.liquidbass.de/demo/jGalight/