Digital Photo Gallery Blog

Essential Portfolio Updates

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 21:37:00 GMT

In the year since we launched the Essential Portfolio template we've loved seeing the sites you've built with it. Thanks to your feedback and suggestions we've now made some additions to the template to make it even more powerful.

Today we have released an update to Essential Portfolio with a whole host of under the hood performance improvements, as well as a new media gallery style and a new text page.

Horizontal Scrolling Gallery

The Horizontal Scrolling index view joins the existing style presets for the Media Gallery page. Side-scrolling galleries have remained a popular choice since their appearance in the early days of DPG sites and you can now enjoy them alongside all the other features Essential Portfolio has to offer.

You can mix and match the Horizontal Scrolling style with different styles for the sets and individual media views to make the perfect gallery flow for your work.

Bold Text Page

The Bold Text page has a very simple premise - large, eye-catching text perfect for a modern About or Info page. Bold Text puts your information at the forefront, makes a statement and complements image-heavy gallery pages beautifully.

The new additions come with the full range of easy to use customisation you'd expect from Essential Portfolio, so you can make your pages look just right in just a few drags of a slider.

The updated Essential Portfolio template is available in all accounts now. Existing sites built from an earlier version of the template will need to be migrated to the latest version. Get in touch if you need any help.

Introducing: Dedicated Shop

Tue, 08 Jun 2021 21:39:00 GMT

Over the last year our focus has been on giving DPG users extra value from their accounts. With live events and tours postponed or cancelled, we know that prints and other product sales are more important to you than ever. So we started from scratch to make Dedicated Shop.

Our first ever template designed especially for shops.

Until now, DPG sales features have been architected to complement other website templates - primarily galleries and portfolios. With the release of Dedicated Shop we’re bringing those features to the forefront so you can easily create incredibly powerful standalone shop websites.

The beautifully designed template comes with multiple distinctive views, presets and layout styles to make it easy to get started. Rich customisation options allow you to dive in and personalise it completely, without any coding needed.

The template has a professional cart and full checkout system to handle customer orders. It integrates with the leading payment service providers Stripe and PayPal to securely collect customer payments.

Once you’ve created and customised your site, adding new products is as simple as creating a set and attaching a product. You don’t have to worry about the layout or the the design each time you want to update your product lineup.

While a lot of our work revolved around the design of the template, we also revamped DPG’s backend sales functionality. We added product variations to allow you to sell different sizes, colours or any other variants of your products, and inventory tracking to keep track of your stock. Full support for shipping and taxes comes with a rules-based system which is totally flexible to fit your needs. You can create discount codes to share with your customers and orders are followed by an automatic confirmation email.

As before, DPG’s sales features are included in all of our paid plans and we don’t put any selling limits on your account - you can sell as many products as you want and the profits are all yours (Stripe and PayPal account fees may apply).

If you want to try Dedicated Shop, you can follow the step-by-step guide to get started now. We think you'll love it.

But now we want to hear what you think.

It’s essential that a shop website works flawlessly and we want to get it right. That’s why this template is currently in Early Release. While it's been heavily tested, we've decided to release this template to all users a little earlier than usual because we want to make sure that we take your suggestions on board before we call it done.

Read more about Early Release and how to get in touch with feature requests or any other feedback you might have.

You can see live demos of Dedicated Shop sites here. We can't wait to see what you come up with now it's in your hands.

Drop us an email if we can help with anything and happy selling!

Super Simple Shop

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 14:59:00 GMT

We’ve recently made some big improvements to DPG's Sales features. These include lots of updated layout styles for the Essential Portfolio template such as a slick new cart design, improved product view, and support for inventory tracking and product variations.

This is a great option if you want to add a simple print or merchandise shop to your existing Essential Portfolio Template.

We've added a new step-by-step support guide showing how to make an Essential Portfolio shop and create and add products to build this easy shoppable gallery.

Stay tuned for much more on Sales, we have some big news coming up on that front 👀

The Essential Portfolio Guide

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 21:56:00 GMT

In the three months since Essential Portfolio launched to all users we've loved seeing what you've created with it and how you've made the template your own.

To help users new to DPG, we've put together a comprehensive video tutorial for this template. It takes you through every single step - from uploading content to a deep-dive into the Design section - demonstrating everything you need to know to build a gorgeous portfolio site of your own.

You can view the full guide here or save it for later on YouTube.

New Template: Essential Portfolio

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 16:16:00 GMT

You can use DPG to make all kinds of different websites, but we know that portfolios are one of the most popular projects for our users. That’s why over the last year we’ve been hard at work building the ultimate portfolio template.

We’ve taken everything we’ve learnt from over 10 years powering sites for Photographers and other creatives and channelled it into the new template we’re calling Essential Portfolio.

It looks great out of the box and doesn’t require any complicated configuration - just fill in basic info using the new website helper, create your site and get personalising.

DPG already makes it effortless to update your websites with new content and with this template we've made it really simple to change the design too. Whether you're getting started with a brand new site or wanting a change further down the line, you can completely switch up the appearance with a few clicks.

The gallery page is designed with portfolios in mind, so it's easy to find the perfect layout to complement your images and video. You can mix and match different headers, footers, gallery styles and text pages to make the site unique to you. It works beautifully across all modern devices, so your images always look their best.

Template doesn’t mean monotonous.

The premade styles and themes make a great starting point for further customisation. Using the powerful design features in the visual editor you’re in control of all elements of the design - no coding required.

This template is for you if you need a professional portfolio site that’s straightforward to set up, but has the potential for major customisability.

Essential Portfolio is now available to all DPG users, including free accounts. Learn more about this template, follow our guide to setting it up step-by-step, or visit live demos of all the sites shown in this post.

New Template: Dedicated Blog

Tue, 11 Feb 2020 02:14:00 GMT

Our latest template to launch is called Dedicated Blog and it is, of course, focused on blogging.

We know that blogs are an essential part of your DPG toolkit, helping you to share your stories, news and latest work. This template arrives with new features and fresh designs to supercharge your blogging experience.

Index view layouts

The new index view was frequently requested by users and we think you're going to love it. We've designed six different layouts that are perfect for image-heavy posts, giving visitors a preview of your content and encouraging them to explore further.

Whether it's bold and beautiful Banner or cool and minimal Parallel, you'll find an index layout perfect for your content.

Switching between index layouts takes just one click, so refreshing your blog design is a piece of cake whenever you want a change. If you’re more of a traditionalist, you can still use the classic stream view showing posts in full, too (this blog is an example of just that).

Dedicated Blog is now available to all DPG users subscribed to Standard plan or above. Check out our guide to setting it up step-by-step, or visit live demos of all the sites shown in this post.

New template preview: Dedicated Blog

Wed, 11 Sep 2019 00:58:00 GMT

We’ve been hard at work on our Series 3 templates and are super excited to share a preview of the latest addition to the group. Dedicated Blog is a standalone template for all things blog.

It’s packed full of features to raise your blogging game including brand new index view, with six different layout designs to choose from and endless customisations.

Post templates offer a new way to format your images, videos and text to create stunning posts. Mix and match different elements such as full page-width images, columns, side-by-side images and pull quotes.

Featured posts, related posts and post navigation helps readers discover even more of your content.

This template is currently in private user testing ahead of being released to all users later this autumn. Learn more about the beta test here or email us to join:

Join the beta test.

Emoji support 💥✨🔥

Thu, 21 Feb 2019 10:27:00 GMT

We love Emoji, so we've added emoji support across the entire DPG admin system.

You can now include Emoji anywhere that you enter text. This means that you can use Emoji for keywords and set names, site navigation, about text and anything else you can think of. 🙌💃🎉

Introducing the Versatile Splash template

Tue, 14 Aug 2018 15:56:00 GMT

If you’ve taken advantage of DPG’s features to create multiple websites, you may have several homes for different facets of your work. You may also have other web presences scattered across different services such as blogs, ecommerce or other social media profiles.

Our latest template helps you to bring these together with a beautiful splash page, the ideal starting point for visitors to discover what you’re all about. Check out our live demos here to see what you can do with it.

The Versatile Splash layout is sets-based and effortlessly adapts to the number of items you add to create the sections. So whether you’re a slashie or a multi-hyphenate, the Splash can be a gateway to all your talents (and there’s always room to grow).

The Versatile Splash template is created with the latest web technologies, scales across all modern devices and looks fantastic on mobile. It supports images, MP4 video and animated GIFs.

As this is a standalone template, it can be placed in front of any existing DPG site without the need for a rebuild. Follow our guide here to set one up for yourself.

Versatile Splash is available to all users with paid accounts now.

Improved Design Section

Thu, 29 Mar 2018 22:29:00 GMT

There are a number of updates to the design section to make it easier than ever to customise your website's theme and give you more control over the layout and presentation of your content.

We rebuilt the font management system, added a curated selection of modern webfonts and enabled slider controls for font weight and sizing.

Page controls have now been made visual, allowing you to preview settings like image size and spacing in real-time.

Also in the page section, you can now select from a number of different gallery loading animations.

All our templates have been updated to support these new design features, create a new site or migrate your existing one to try them out.

Moving to our latest templates

Tue, 02 May 2017 13:16:00 GMT

Every aspect of DPG has been optimised for all modern devices for a long time now. However, we know that some of our oldest users may still be using our first templates which don't offer all of the latest features.

If you've been with DPG from the start and are still using a template like Scaling 01 or Scaling 05, then now is a great time to create a new site and take advantage of the fully responsive new designs, new page types, inline video support and much more.

Sites built using our current templates are also easier than ever to customise using the new visual design tools, seen below.

DPG makes it quick and simple to migrate your current live site to a new design with zero downtime or disruption to your visitors. We've put together a guide to help you, right here.

If you’re using an old design, next time you have some free time, give it a try! And of course if you have any questions, you can always email us at support@digitalphotogallery.com and we'll be happy to help.

Updated Support

Mon, 29 Aug 2016 23:03:00 GMT

We are excited to announce that we've launched our brand new support system at support.digitalphotogallery.com.

We've already begun our mission to document DPG's breadth of features by converting over 100 guides to the new article format, which takes advantage of cutting-edge browser features to deliver easy to follow instructions with animated depictions of the DPG interface in action. And as with everything we do, the new support site works perfectly on any device from mobile phone to 4K display.

Behind the scenes, it's also easier for us to maintain, which means better quality and more in-depth help articles in the future.

If there's an article you'd like to see added, let us know at support@digitalphotogallery.com.

New Admin Image View

Tue, 28 Oct 2014 21:09:00 GMT

Here's a small new feature that can make a big difference to how you manage your images in DPG. Your admin interface now has the option of a thumbnail view, which shows your photos in their original aspect ratio (unlike the icon view which is a square crop of the image).

The thumbnail view is ideal for getting an overview of your work. In sets with hundreds of photos it makes it much easier to find what you're looking for and it's perfect if you need to select lots of images. Don't forget the keyboard modifiers for enhanced selections, too.

Better still, you can choose the size of the thumbnails to suit your needs - make them smaller to fit more on the screen or bigger if you've got a large monitor to play with.

Check out the video below to see how it works and then give it a try in your account. You can set thumbnails as the default view for new sets and keywords in your account settings.

Redesigned Changelog

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:34:00 GMT

Digital Photo Gallery is under constant development. The changelog has just been redesigned so it's now easier to keep up with the very latest system updates. You can visit the new changelog at changelog.digitalphotogallery.com.

Enhanced Image Selection

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:13:00 GMT

It is now even easier to make image selections in admin.digitalphotogallery.com. By using a combination of mouse and keyboard modifiers you can speed up the process of managing your images. Holding down the alt key allows you to click anywhere on an image icon to select it, while the shift key allows for quick batch selections.

FTP Uploads

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:16:00 GMT

If you regularly upload large sets of images or if you'd like to upload without having to log in, this feature is for you.

The new FTP users panel on the upload screen allows you to create an unlimited amount of virtual FTP users, each of which can be mapped to a set within DPG. Images can then be uploaded using your favourite FTP client, preserving metadata and set structure.

There are numerous uses for this new feature, here are a just a few examples:

Upload from your desktop using cross-platform FTP software like Cyberduck.

Mount a virtual disk for drag-and-drop uploading using Transmit 4.

Publish directly from Adobe Lightroom using the FTP Publisher plugin.

Upload straight from your iPhone or iPad using Filterstorm 2.

Shoot live to the system using a wireless enabled camera system like the Canon EOS 5D Mark II + WFT-E4 II.

If you come up with your own uses for the virtual FTP let me know by commenting or emailing.

Introducing templates

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:54:00 GMT

Every Digital Photo Gallery account has access to an ever growing library of HTML5-based website templates, all of which look amazing when viewed on anything from iPads through to huge desktop displays. The graphical admin interface means you don't need to know any code to design and update a site, but if you already have the skills, you have full control of the style sheets and custom jQuery libraries that each site is built with.

Watch the video to see just how easy it is to create a new website and see below for samples of a few of the templates that are available to all users right now.

Chrome Web Store

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 06:01:00 GMT

Digital Photo Gallery is now listed in the Chrome Web Store.

Improved image integration for blogs

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:19:00 GMT

If you regularly add images to a DPG powered blog, you're sure to appreciate the improved image posting features. Click on the 'Insert/edit image' icon when editing a blog post to access the new options.

URL shortener

Mon, 10 May 2010 13:04:00 GMT

I've written a new URL shortener that ties in with many of DPG's services. You can shorten your own URLs by visiting http://dpg.bz/shorten.

File export: PDF contact sheets and more

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:15:00 GMT

With the new export feature you can easily generate PDF contact sheets for printing and client approval. You can also produce text, CSV and MD5 files to cross-reference and verify file uploads.

iPad support

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:00:00 GMT

In preparation for today's iPad launch I've spent some time optimising the DPG admin interface for use on Apple mobile devices.

Carry your image library everywhere

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 03:29:00 GMT

I've added a new feature to make it even easier to access your full resolution image library, no matter where you are.

Next steps

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:43:00 GMT

If you've been keeping up with the changelog, you will have seen many months of almost daily updates to the admin sections of Digital Photo Gallery. From today, the focus is switching to building amazing sites and templates, while making the site building process as fast and intuitive as it can be.

I will be working my way through the registration list and sending out invitation codes shortly. If you have signed up, please be patient, it will be worth the wait.

In the meantime, I will be posting a series of tutorial movies to this blog so you can get started as soon as you receive your invitation.

Introduction video

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:55:00 GMT

A short movie highlighting some of the main features of Digital Photo Gallery.

Register your interest

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:37:00 GMT

https://accounts.digitalphotogallery.com/register

Custom admin menus

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:21:00 GMT

You can now add custom navigation items that allow you to quickly jump to all of your favourite sections of the DPG admin site. To add a location, click on the star in the top right hand corner of any of the admin pages and to remove, simply click the star again.

Code validation

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:57:00 GMT

A new feature for the website builder is automatic validation of CSS and JavaScript code. Validation is performed every time a file is saved and provides a line number and brief description of any errors to aid with debugging.

Import images from a web page

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:04:00 GMT

A newly added feature is the ability to import images from any standard web page, images can be imported straight into sets and even information such as image titles are retained.

Increased image processing speed

Tue, 19 May 2009 06:43:00 GMT

Today I activated the new faster image processing servers, my early tests show that you should see around a 4X speed increase in all image related operations. Click here for an example of working with a 24.4MP image.