How to generate web picture gallery offline? (no php on server)

You can use one of these (all open source):

• Sigal (my favorite, Python, demo here)
• PhotoFloat (lots of JavaScript, Python 2 (Java needed for building), demo here)
• Cataract Gallery Generator (pretty sleek design IMHO, coded in C (!), demo here)
• jigl (no JavaScript, nice design, Perl, demo here)
• BINS (no JavaScript, Perl, dated, demo here)
• Photon (dcraw support, Python, demo here (90's design))
• Imageindex (minimal, Perl, demo here)
• Lazygal (video support, Python, demo here)
• igal2 (no scaling, no EXIF, pretty minimal, uses JavaScript only for slideshow, Perl, demo here)
• Swiggle (very minimal design, no JavaScript, written in C, demo here)
• llgal (really resembles igal2, Perl, demo here)
• Curator (Python 2, no current demo available, '04 demo)
• Galrey (actually more like a PowerPoint emulator, demo here)

Some of these are mentioned in this comparison.

What about using Picasa and creating a web album (1GB limit)?

Anyway I suggest you to batch resize them (just for show'em), 5MB are definitely too much for a screen slideshow.

An excellent tool for do that is (IMO) ImageMagick you can find plenty of howtos around, but here's a sample:

i=1
for f in *.jpg ; do
  n=`printf '%08d' $i`
  convert $f -thumbnail 1000x1000 out/p$n.jpg
  convert $f -thumbnail 150x150^ -gravity center -extent 150x150 out/_p$n.jpg
  i=$[i+1]
done

It creates both big pictures (max 1000x1000) and thumbnails (150x150) in the directory ./out/. All that you have to do now is create an index.html file:

cd out/
for f in p* ; do
  echo "<a href='$f'><img src='_$f'></a>"
done > index.html

Here we go, just move the content of the ./out/ directory to somewhere in your server.

Note: It isn't the best solution to your problem, it's just a quick draft, but I think it's useful knowing such tools.

You can also use Picasa to generate static html files for display on the web, just goto Folder->Export as html page. From there you can choose a template and resize the images should you wish to.

what about giving a try to myphotoshare? it's a photofloat fork which uses a bit of php and permits to share content (original photofloat doesn't permit it).

Besides that it manages videos (original photofloat doesn't), permits sorting of albums and media, and has many customizations variables.