Newsletter subscription page

Posted on September 19, 2017 by J-F

As you probably know, any PRO or STUDIO plan includes a newsletter mailing feature, and new customers are automatically subscribed.

To kick-start this autumn, we’ve just added a new facility that allows you to create a separate newsletter signup page:

Creating this page is simple:

  1. Create a new page under My Website / Pages, and name it, for example, “Subscribe”. The page will be added to the menu unless you uncheck the corresponding box;
  2. Add some introduction text as you please, it will be displayed above the registration box;
  3. Under Edit page / Settings, change the page type to Mailings subscription page.

Any new signup will then show up in your clients database, and on your website Timeline.


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Selling whole galleries

Posted on July 4, 2017 by PhotoDeck

It’s here! We’ve now added the possibility to sell full galleries:

So now, with PhotoDeck, you can sell both full galleries and individual images/videos, potentially at different prices within the same gallery. As far as we know this flexibility is unprecedented!

We’ve also made sure you have plenty of options when selling full galleries. In addition to high-res downloads, you can sell lower-res image/video downloads, as well as “offline” products. Offline products are not delivered digitally by the system (perfect for example to sell DVDs from a gallery).

Each gallery has its own options and prices. We’ll soon make it possible to copy the prices from another gallery in order to help you save time, but couldn’t wait to bring you what is already a complete solution ;)

You will find that popup under the Prices link for any gallery in your admin space. Please note that this feature (for downloads) is currently limited to galleries having 500 files or less.

Give it a try and let us know what you think!

UPDATE July 6: it is now possible to copy the settings from another gallery!


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Batch-pricing a gallery

Posted on June 9, 2017 by J-F

A new feature for a more efficient workflow

We’ve just added a new feature that allows you to price all files in a gallery at once, including future files. If all images/videos in a gallery have the same price, there is therefore no need anymore to select all files — this should make your workflow simpler and faster in many cases, especially if you keep uploading new files to a gallery.

This new window can easily be found under the Price link above the thumbnails when viewing a gallery in your admin space.

Stay tuned for more: this new facility is also a building block towards an upcoming feature that will allow to sell full galleries at once…


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New size option on low-res “comp” downloads

Posted on May 22, 2017 by J-F

We’ve just introduced a new size option to the free low-res “comp” downloads:

This allows you to offer downloads to your clients in sizes larger than 800×600 px. So that the download can be started in a single click, the alternative size is the same as the one used on your website (set via the gallery display style settings).

In addition, free low-res downloads applied to video clips now contain the (potentially watermarked) video itself, either in 360p or 720p size, instead of a still preview image (applies to new and updated galleries).

Free low-res “comp” downloads are a great way to give professional clients access to files they can use in layouts, for example before purchasing the high-res versions. They are watermarked if the images on your website are.


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Say hello to the new design editor!

Posted on April 30, 2017 by J-F

We’re thrilled to launch today a major update of the design customization tool, which will make it significantly easier for members to customize their website. The themes have also been updated to allow for effortless color palette customization.

Design editor update

You’ll now see a new Customize panel that replaces the old Theme styles and Theme settings pages, where everything is now nicely grouped.

Once you’ve updated your design, clicking on the “filter” icon for a component in your design (for example the social icons) will bring up all relevant design options — no more no less.

We believe this will make finding the right customization options and adjusting them much more intuitive! In addition, it is now possible to simply revert theme style options to their default, and therefore to see what you have customized.

Themes update allows effortless color palette changes

All desktop and mobile designs have been updated to bring another major customization improvement: adjust background, text and accent colors and the design can automatically adapt all its other colors, for a professional-looking yet unique matching palette! Of course, you can still customize individual colors if you wish.

Updating my design – Q&A

Q: Will anything change on my website if I update?
A: You might notice minor changes, but your customization will mostly stay intact even if you used Custom CSS code (changes to the actual theme’s HTML/CSS code will be discarded though). In doubt, take a backup first (under Advanced and don’t hit the Apply to live website button until you’ve checked your website in preview mode.

In any case, we do recommend you update your designs to benefit from future updates too!

Q: I want to take advantage of the new easy color palette customization, what do I need to do?
A: After you have updated your design, go through all the design components, and deactivate all color customization. The design will then compute the individual colors based on the 3 main global colors.

Customized individual colors (left) vs colors automatically computed from main colors (right)

Alternatively, you can fully reset your design (via the Change design panel), but in this case all design customization (logo, fonts, …) will be lost.

Enjoy!


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Secure customers connections on all PhotoDeck websites

Posted on March 16, 2017 by J-F

Customer login and protected gallery access are now always encrypted

The update we just published this morning forces secure (HTTPS) connections on pages where a password is asked, just like on payment pages that already had that protection.

On websites that use their own custom domain, this involves a temporary domain change to a PhotoDeck URL. A secure connection always requires a security certificate specific to that domain, and we don’t have certificates for our members’ domains. We direct back to the website custom domain for pages that are not sensitive, to maintain the website branding. Ultimately our goal is to provide security certificates for custom domains without requiring members to purchase the certificates themselves, but that will be for a bit later ;)


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New: easier customer order download

Posted on January 23, 2017 by J-F

Today’s upgrade is an improvement for your customers: it allows them to download the digital files they’ve ordered, one by one.

This is especially useful on mobiles devices, where dealing with a Zip archive can be messy. Here’s a typical download email:

Customer download email example

Customer download email example

The Zip file is still offered for large orders — it’s up to your clients to use what’s most practical for them!


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Workflow improvement for orders and lightboxes

Posted on January 5, 2017 by J-F

To kick off what promises to be an intense 2017, we’ve just rolled out an improvement designed to make your life easier: now, orders and lightboxes can be managed directly in the same space as your galleries.

To view an order's images in the image management panel, open the order normally, then click on manage medias.

To view an order’s images in the image management panel, open the order normally, then click on manage medias.

This makes it much easier for example to create a new private gallery from an order or a lightbox, to replace images in an order or to change their Proof/Final state.

Lightboxes, if you've enabled that feature on your website, are now directly accessible from My Images & Videos, just below the galleries list.

Lightboxes, if you’ve enabled that feature on your website, are now directly accessible from My Images & Videos, just below the galleries list.

Bonus: Find any image set in LightRoom

You can now also easily find in LightRoom the images contained in any gallery, collection, order or lightbox (provided you’ve got unique filenames, which is always a good idea anyway!).

To do so, open e.g. a gallery, and select More > Copy list into LightRoom/Excel. From there, copy-paste the list into LightRoom’s search field.

On behalf of the PhotoDeck team, a great and successful 2017!


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4 MPixel images displayed right on your website

Posted on December 8, 2016 by J-F

We have added the “WQXGA” size to the sizes available for the display of enlarged images on your website. This is a LARGE size (max 2560 x 1600 pixels), resulting in images of about 4 million pixels displayed directly on your website!

The quality is naturally perceptibly better than the former highest size (UXGA 1600×1200), at least on very large displays.

A note of caution !

You know how we at PhotoDeck obsess about website speed. Images this large are on average twice as slow to load at UXGA images. It is not a problem when you frequently visit your own website, as images are cached in your own browser. But for a new client on an average home Internet connection, it can be noticable (and clients are often more sensitive to loading time than to the image definition).

Of course, this also means that those additional pixels are available to image thieves too.

In summary

For normal use, UXGA is probably the best compromise when quality is important. But if you accept the drawbacks stemming from displaying higher definition images, and more importantly, if your customers tend to view your images critically on a large display and behind a fast Internet connection, it can certainly make sense!

The image size can be changed via the gallery styles settings.


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New design options: custom slideshows and page backgrounds

Posted on November 14, 2016 by J-F

website_slideshows_static_splash

You probably know that you can display any gallery in slideshow mode, that’s what the Portfolio gallery style does by default. A little-less known PhotoDeck feature is the ability to add a custom slideshow to a custom content page or a gallery overview.

We’ve just completely revamped and expanded that feature.

website_slideshows_gallery_banner

Here is what’s now possible:

– display a slideshow as the background of a page
– display a slideshow as a banner which size depends on the viewer display size
– overlay text on slideshow
– show text that changes with the images
– add images to the slideshow more easily than before

website_slideshows_metadata_splash

This allows for eye-catching full-bleed frontpage slideshows (see live example), elegant banners above content pages or gallery indexes, a custom background image on your contact page… the possibilities are limitless.

Learn how to make the most of it and share on our Facebook` a screenshot what you’ve done with it!


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