In our system, there are a couple of different ways to give your visitors permission to download individual images for free. The first way is through user-specific permissions that can be added within the gallery settings. The second way is through a more general "Allow Downloads" setting that can be enabled for each of your gallery categories individually.
Permission-Based Downloads
Within each gallery is a preference labeled "Permission to Download Individual Images."
Any email address that you provide in this area will be given permission to download the number of images that you define for them here. Each unique image that is downloaded will decrease the total number of images they have remaining, and downloading the same image several times will only count as a single download.
There are a couple of settings that go along with permission:
- Restrict Downloads to Specific Categories - When this box is checked, the site visitor will only be able to download images from the categories that are specifically set up as being downloadable. More information about the category permissions will be provided in the "Category Specific Downloads" description found below.
- Size - Allow your clients to download different sized images.
Size Options (longest side):
• Full Size (original size)
• Medium (2800px)
• Small (1800px)
• Web Size (1280px) - Qty - If you'd like to limit the number of images that your client can download, you can use this option to control that. If you'd like your client to be able to download as many images as they would like, select the "No Download Limit" option.
- Apply Watermark - When this box is checked, your watermark will be applied to the downloaded images according to your predefined watermark settings.
Please Note: Because this setting allows your visitors to download the original, full-resolution image files, be sure to upload a large image as your watermark file before enabling this option. You can upload your watermark file through the Marketing » Logo & Branding page.
You can provide as many different email addresses as you would like in this area, and each email address can be given its own download limit and watermark setting.
Category Specific Downloads
Downloads can be enabled for all of your site visitors, through category-specific settings.
To access the categories associated with a gallery, do the following:
- Navigate to the Photos » Galleries page.
- Find your gallery and click on the Photos option for the gallery.
- Select the Manage Categories option in the Photos droplist.
Once you're viewing the list of categories within the gallery, click the configuration icon for your category, and select the Settings option.
Within the settings for each category there's an Allow Downloads option, which can be set to either:
- No - The images in this category cannot be downloaded as free individual image downloads.
- Yes (No Watermark) in various image sizes*- The images in this category can be downloaded as free individual image downloads, with no watermarks applied to them.
- Yes (With Watermark) in various image sizes*- The images in this category can be downloaded as free individual image downloads, but your watermark will be applied to the downloaded images according to your predefined watermark settings. Please note: Because this setting allows your visitors to download the original, full-resolution image files, be sure to upload a large image as your watermark file before enabling this option. You can upload your watermark file through the Marketing » Logo & Branding page.
* - If there is an individual download permission set up within the gallery settings, and the "Restrict Downloads to Specific Categories" option has been enabled, you will only be able to select "yes" or "no" for the category download settings. This is because the image size and watermark settings are determined by the specific permission given to the user.
- If there is an individual download permission set up within the gallery settings, and the "Restrict Downloads to Specific Categories" option has NOT been enabled, you will not be able to select anything for the category permission. This is because the user has been given unrestricted access to the image categories through their permission.
- If NO individual download permissions have been set up within the gallery settings, there will be several download options within the category config area. These will include several sizes, along with several sizes with watermarks.
When the download setting is enabled, all of your gallery visitors will be able to download the individual images from within the category, for free. ❶
❶ Some Important Notes
If one or more email addresses have been given download permissions through the permission-based download settings described above, the following changes come into effect:
- Only the defined users will be able to download the individual images. No other gallery visitors will be given the option to download the individual images for free.
- The settings provided in the gallery settings will override the category settings. For example, if the "Restrict Downloads to Specific Categories" setting is left unchecked, images from all of the categories will be downloadable regardless of what the "Allow Downloads" category setting is set to.
Permissions For a Group of Email Addresses
If you would like to give permission to a group of email addresses at one time you can check this tutorial for details on how to do that.
How Your Clients See It
Any of your clients who have permission to download the individual images for free will see a Download icon on their images when they are hovered over. Clicking the icon will cause the image to be downloaded to their device.
Viewing the Downloaded Images Log
Every time an image is downloaded from one of your galleries, the download is logged. To view the download log for any of your galleries, do the following:
- From the main menu, click Photos » Photo Galleries.
- Locate the gallery that you're interested in viewing the download log details for.
- Expand the Visitors menu, and select the View Visitor Stats option.
- Scroll down the page a little bit until you see the Image Downloads table. If there are any numbers displayed within the Image Downloads table, clicking on the numbers will show you exactly what was downloaded, and when it was downloaded.