The stupidest HTML 5 page ever? Yes, it is!

[Note: Since I've had two friends, both "techies," point out since the original post went out that this all could be accomplished simply by bookmarking about:blank, let me just say, yes, I know - that's not the point. Go re-read the title before sending me a "helpful suggestion" about that. It's a joke, folks! ☺]

I am getting ready to embark on a project of scanning a bunch of slides my dad took during the 1970s and 1980s. Mom took a first pass at digitizing them a few years back, but I want to convert more. Unfortunately, they sold their slide sorter years ago. I've been looking at replacements, but the special-purpose ones are flimsily made and the more general-purpose "light boxes" are expensive, especially for a once-in-a-lifetime project.

Then over the weekend it hit me - I could use my iPad as a light box! It wouldn't hold as many slides as a "real" one, but it would work good enough for what I wanted it for. All I needed was a way to make the whole screen white, and preferably without requiring being online. And that's when I thought of it - a blank "offline" HTML 5 Web page would do the trick! Five minutes later I had all requisite parts written and on my main Web site. And for your "viewing pleasure," (or should that be "sorting pleasure?" ☺), here is everything you'll need to replicate it (or you can just use the link to my site):

index.html


  <html manifest="cache.manifest"><body></body></html>

cache.manifest


  CACHE MANIFEST

  CACHE:


  index.html

.htaccess


  AddType text/cache-manifest .manifest

Browse once to the page and then it can be accessed while offline on your iPad or Android tablet (or presumably your laptop, if you can fold the screen down flat...yes with my Dell Inspiron, no with my Macbook). Simply bookmark it to your "padtop" (what is the "desktop" called on a tablet, anyway?) and now you've turned your $500 tablet into a $50 light box!

Note that with slides that have a lot of white or light backgrounds you will notice the pixelation of the tablet screen, especially if looking at the slides with a magnifying glass. Not having such artifacts is the benefit of a real slide sorter or light box. But if you don't want to spend $30-$60, then you'll have to put up with the pixels.

I told you it was the stupidest HTML 5 page ever! ☺