There is the option of using one of the numerous lightbox plugins to do this, but the plugin we will be creating in this tutorial has a lot of advantages over a generic lightbox script:
- Lightweight – it is created specifically for showing pages, not images;
- No UI, so the page feels like a dialog window;
- The page can close itself, and can also send messages to the parent window;
- Can optionally use a cache for faster subsequent page loads;
- Uses a neat CSS animation with a JavaScript fallback.