Control downloads and ZIPs
Decide who can download what, and how the whole-gallery ZIP works.
What you can allow
- No downloads — viewing and print orders only. Common when prints are the product.
- Web-size only — good enough for social, not for printing elsewhere.
- Full resolution — the originals you uploaded.
- Paid downloads — clients unlock the files by paying, straight from the gallery.
You can set this per gallery, so a wedding can be full-resolution while a commercial shoot stays locked to web size.
How the ZIP works
When a client downloads the whole gallery, we don't make them hold a browser tab open for twenty minutes. The ZIP is built in the background and a download link is emailed to them when it's ready. For a large wedding that can take several minutes — the email is the signal that it's done.
That email goes to the address the client entered at the email gate, or the one they type when they request the download. If it hasn't arrived, the spam folder is the first place to look.
Paid downloads
Paid downloads use the same Stripe connection as the print store, so connecting Stripe is a prerequisite. Once a client pays, they get a downloads page of their own by email, and it keeps working — they can come back later without paying twice.
What they can buy is set under Selling downloads in the same tab: one photo at a time, a pack of a set number they choose themselves, or the whole gallery. Pricing digital downloads covers how to build that ladder.
If you price a whole-gallery package, that price is also what the paid-download unlock charges — there's only ever one number for “everything”, and it's the one on the package.
Watermarks and downloads
If watermarking is on, clients see watermarked previews. What they download depends on your download setting — paid downloads deliver the clean originals, which is the point of the arrangement. Your originals are never altered by watermarking, so switching it off restores clean previews rather than degraded ones.