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The 2 gallery sections show your photos on a page, as a photo wall, a grid or a band that moves on its own. Visitors can open any photo full size. Gallery Preview is a short teaser for your home page, and Gallery (Full) fills a gallery page. Who can do this: anyone who can edit the page. The CSS tab is for Admins and Owners.
Parker's Gallery (Full) as visitors see it: eyebrow "Gallery", heading "Photo gallery", and a Mosaic Photo Wall of about 20 puppy photos in rows of different widths.Parker's Gallery (Full) as visitors see it: eyebrow "Gallery", heading "Photo gallery", and a Mosaic Photo Wall of about 20 puppy photos in rows of different widths.

A Mosaic Photo Wall fits every photo into neat rows without cutting off the subject.

When to use it

  • To give your home page a taste of your photos, with a button to the full gallery.
  • To build a gallery page that shows every photo you’ve picked.
  • To add a band of moving photos between 2 other sections.
The 2 sections have exactly the same options. Only their starting settings differ:

Where the photos come from

A gallery shows photos from a single source, which you choose under Photo source on its Gallery tab:
  • Photo Album (hand-picked, hand-ordered): a set of photos you pick and put in order. Best for a designed page. Build albums in the Photo Albums manager first. See Photo albums.
  • Media folder (everything in a folder): every photo in one folder of your media library, newest first. Best for a big collection you keep organized. Include subfolders adds the photos in folders inside it. See Folders.
  • Photo Feed (refreshes itself from an external source): a set of photos that replaces itself on a schedule, so the gallery changes over time. See Photo feeds.
Each photo shows its alt text from the media library, as its description and as the caption in the lightbox. Each photo is also cropped around its focal point, so the subject stays in view.

Add it to a page

1

Open the page

Sign in, open the page on your site, and choose Edit in the edit bar at the top.
2

Find the spot

Select the section next to where the new one should go. A round + button appears on its top and bottom edges. On an empty page, choose Add Content in the middle.
3

Choose the section

The Add Content menu opens with its groups. Choose the section, then select it and choose Edit in its side toolbar to make it yours.
For the full walkthrough, see Add, move and remove sections. Put photos in your album, folder or feed first. A gallery with no photos is hidden, even while you edit, so an empty one is hard to find again. Then choose Add Content → Gallery → Gallery Preview or Gallery (Full). Choose Edit right away, and on the Gallery tab pick the album, folder or feed. If a gallery ever goes missing because its source is empty, add photos to the source, and it shows again.

What you can change

Select the gallery on the page and choose Edit. The editor opens beside the page, so you see each change as you make it. It has 7 tabs. Your changes go into the page’s draft. Visitors see them once the page is published with Update in the edit bar (Publish on a page never published).
The Gallery (Full) editor open on the Gallery tab beside the live gallery, with the tabs (Header, Gallery, Motion, Background, Fonts, Button, CSS), Photo source and Layout ringed.The Gallery (Full) editor open on the Gallery tab beside the live gallery, with the tabs (Header, Gallery, Motion, Background, Fonts, Button, CSS), Photo source and Layout ringed.

The gallery editor, with the gallery updating beside it.

The words above the photos. Each part is optional.
  • Eyebrow: a short line above the heading. It starts as “Gallery”.
  • Heading: the section’s title. Leave it empty to hide the heading. To show just the photos, clear the eyebrow and intro line too.
  • Intro line: one short sentence under the heading.
  • Header alignment: Center or Left.
Each part also has a weight, and the eyebrow and intro have a size. Each color can be set separately for the dark and light themes.
Extra effects for the photos themselves, all off by default. They’re separate from the 3 moving layouts, which you choose under Layout on the Gallery tab.
  • Ambient drift: a very slow pan and zoom on every photo. Choose Subtle — barely perceptible or Noticeable — a clear slow drift.
  • Scroll depth: photos slide at different speeds as the visitor scrolls, for a sense of depth. Walls only.
  • Shuffle the photos: every few seconds, some photos glide past each other and trade places. Grid (uniform) only. Photos trading places at once sets how many take part, from 2 to 6.
  • Rotate photos automatically: photos change a few at a time, swapped for others from the same source. Walls only.
When Rotate photos automatically is on, you also choose:
  • How a photo changes: Cross-fade is the quietest of 7 styles. The others include Slide in, Zoom through and Turn over — the tile flips like a card.
  • Which photos change next: Scattered — spread across the wall, or a Wave, Columns or Rows sweep.
  • How often photos change, Photos changing at once and How long a change takes.
  • Photos held in reserve: how many extra photos wait their turn, up to 500. More means a longer wait before a visitor sees a repeat.
Rotation needs more photos in the source than the gallery shows, so set Maximum photos lower than the source holds. If you like, turn on Ambient drift too. With the whole wall gently moving, each photo change blends in more softly.
Give the section its own background color, from your site’s palette or a custom color. See What every section shares.
Use a different typeface for parts of this section only, such as the heading. Leave it empty to use the page’s fonts, which normally come from Site design → Typography. See What every section shares.
One optional button below the photos, such as “See the gallery” linking to your gallery page. It starts empty and shows only once it has both a label and a link. See Buttons and card styles.
Custom styles for this section only. Admins and Owners can change this tab. See Custom CSS.

Looks you can make

A Gallery Preview on the home page: heading "From the gallery", 8 photos in a Grid of 4 columns, and a "See the gallery" button below.A Gallery Preview on the home page: heading "From the gallery", 8 photos in a Grid of 4 columns, and a "See the gallery" button below.

A home page teaser that leads to the full gallery.

A home page teaser. Add a Gallery Preview, choose Grid (uniform) with 4 Columns, and add a “See the gallery” button on the Button tab.
A Scrolling Banner of puppy photos moving right to left between two sections, with soft faded ends and the pause button.A Scrolling Banner of puppy photos moving right to left between two sections, with soft faded ends and the pause button.

A moving band of photos between two sections.

A band of moving photos. Choose Scrolling Banner (one moving row), clear the Eyebrow and Heading, and set Card style to Plain — no chrome.
A Spotlight layout: one large photo on the left with 7 smaller squares around it, then the next group with its large photo on the right.A Spotlight layout: one large photo on the left with 7 smaller squares around it, then the next group with its large photo on the right.

Spotlight puts one photo in the lead, then fills in around it.

A magazine-style page. Choose Spotlight (hero + grid), set Corner radius to Rounded, and Gap between tiles to Roomy.
A Masonry wall mid-change: 2 tiles cross-fading to new photos while the rest stay put.A Masonry wall mid-change: 2 tiles cross-fading to new photos while the rest stay put.

A wall that keeps showing new photos while visitors watch.

A gallery that keeps changing. Pick a Photo Feed, set Maximum photos to 20, then turn on Ambient drift and Rotate photos automatically on the Motion tab.

Good to know

  • No photos, no section. If the album, folder or feed is empty, the gallery stays hidden, even while you edit.
  • Moving galleries can be paused. Whenever a gallery moves on its own, it gets a pause button automatically. Visitors who prefer less motion don’t see the drift, scroll depth, shuffle or rotation.
  • Motion plays for visitors only. While you edit, drift, scroll depth, shuffle and rotation don’t run, so you can arrange things calmly. They also stay off when animations are off in Motion. The 3 moving layouts keep moving in both cases.
  • Write alt text for your photos in the media library. It describes each photo for people using screen readers, and it’s the caption in the lightbox.
  • Where it fits. Both gallery sections are full width. They aren’t offered inside columns or on blog posts.

Appearance options

Most sections also share a few tabs that work the same everywhere:
  • Background: set the color behind the section, separately for the dark and light themes.
  • Fonts: use a different typeface for parts of this section only.
  • CSS: add custom styles to this section. Admins and Owners can change it.
See What every section shares for every option.

Photo albums

pick and order the photos a gallery shows.

Photo feeds

a set of photos that refreshes itself.

Folders

organize your media library, then show a whole folder.

Instagram Feed

show your Instagram posts instead.