Change the look and feel of my galleries

Gallery styles determine how your photos are displayed and the browsing experience for your visitors. SmugMug offers five unique gallery styles to choose from, allowing you to customize your galleries and showcase your photos exactly as you want. 

Choose a Gallery Style

Each gallery style has unique display options:

Collage Landscape

• Displays your photos in a collage emphasizing landscape-oriented images.
• Supports Cover Images.

Collage Portrait

• Displays your photos in a collage emphasizing portrait-oriented images.
• Supports Cover Images.

SmugMug

• Thumbnails are on the left, with the main display image on the right.

Thumbnails

• Displays only thumbnails. Clicking a thumbnail shows a larger version in Lightbox mode.
• Supports Cover Images.

Journal

• Create a visual story with large images and in-depth captions to describe people, places, and events.

Change the gallery style for a single gallery

1. Navigate to your Site.
2. Browse to the gallery you want to customize.
3. Select Gallery Style from the section bar drop-down menu.
4. Choose your preferred style.

Change the gallery style using gallery settings

1. Open your gallery in either the Organizer or on your Site.
2. Click the Settings button to open your Gallery Settings.
3. Open the Appearance tab.
4. Select the gallery style.
5. Click Save. 

Change the gallery style for multiple galleries

1. Go to the Organizer.
2. Select the galleries you want to change.
3. Click the settings button to open Bulk Gallery Settings.
4. Choose the Appearance tab.
5. Check the box next to Gallery Style and select your preferred style from the drop-down menu.
6. Click Save.

Tip: If you select a folder in the Organizer, bulk settings will apply to all galleries within that folder, no matter how deeply nested they are.

Set a default gallery style for new galleries

To set a default gallery style for all new galleries:

1. Create a Gallery Preset including your preferred gallery style. 
2. Set the preset as your default for new galleries.

Use a Cover Image

The collage and thumbnail gallery styles allow you to use a cover image to create a stunning visual at the top of your gallery.

To add a cover image:

1. Go to Organize and select a gallery.
2. Click Settings > Appearance > Gallery Style.
3. Choose Thumbnails, Collage Landscape, or Collage Portrait.
4. Toggle the Gallery Cover Image option to ON.
5. Select a photo from your gallery (make sure it’s not hidden).
6. Click Save.

You can also set a cover image by navigating to Site, viewing a gallery, and selecting Settings from the section bar. Then follow steps 3–6 above.

Want to reposition your cover image?
Click the directional-arrows icon in the top-right corner of your cover image, drag the photo until it looks perfect, and hit Save.

Customize your gallery:

Note: You must have a Power, Portfolio, or Pro account to customize gallery styles. For a detailed look at customizing your gallery styles, see our article here. 

1. Go to your Site, navigate to a gallery, and click Customize Design.
2. Select the Entire Site or the All Galleries design level.
3. Hover over the Galleries content block and click the wrench tool.
4. Choose the gallery style you want to edit from the list.
5. Adjust settings and click Done.

You can also control the layout of the photos in your galleries through the Customizer:

1. While logged in, select Site from the navigation bar.
2. Choose Customize Design and go to the Layout tab.
3. Select the Entire Site or the All Galleries design level.
4. Choose between a Stretchy or Fixed-width layout.
   • The Stretchy layout automatically adapts to the viewer’s screen size.
   • The Fixed-width layout keeps a consistent width, regardless of screen size.

Back to top