Out of the Sandbox is excited to announced the release of Parallax 3.3, the latest version of our popular Parallax Shopify theme.
'Lazysizes' for images
Parallax now includes full integration with the "lazysizes" library for "lazy loading" of your images. This not only adds a nice fade-in effect on banner images when users scroll down your pages, but it can also make your initial page load faster by only loading the image resources needed for the part of the page that's first visible. You can also now control the background color behind the banners that the image fades in over.
Intelligent images
A related change also adds support for intelligent image loading — new behind-the-scenes code will now automatically select the best image size for the device your shopper is on and use that.
For example, a user visiting your site on a mobile device will have smaller sized versions of your images displayed. They won't notice any difference in quality, but they will likely see a boost in load times and data plan usage, which can be especially important for users on to go.
Page details template
Parallax 3.3 also introduces the page.details template option, allowing you to build your own custom page with Shopify sections. This is a great choice for "about us" pages and allows you to create more engaging page layouts.
You can explore some of the cool things we've created with this template in our four Parallax demo shops, by checking out the "Our Story" pages, which were all built with this new template:
Tons of other great features
Parallax 3.3 also adds these new sections and features:
- New contact form section for the home page
- Added background color option for Parallax banners
- Include rich text in your terms and conditions
- Support for line item properties in the side cart
- Support for rich text content in footer
- New mobile logo setting
- Updated jQuery to v3.2.1
The new version also contains a slew of behind-the-scenes updates, code optimizations and bug fixes that will keep Parallax at the top of its game, as one of our best performing and most popular themes.
We've also updated the look of our Parallax Los Angeles demo store to include some great new product photography from Jen's Pirate Booty, so be sure to explore this new look for inspiration. Remember to keep your own shops fresh by periodically updating your imagery, home page sections, and product lineup, so that your site visitors always have something new to check out!
How to get it
The easiest way to upgrade to Parallax 3.3 is to download and install our Theme Updater App. You can also read detailed upgrade instructions and more details here. Haven't picked a theme yet, or looking to switch to Parallax? Learn more about this unique theme!
