Gallery cover & message

Goal: give each gallery a personal touch by setting a cover hero image and a short welcome message that your clients see at the top of the gallery.

Where to set it

The cover image and message are edited on the gallery itself, not during first creation:

  • From the Photos list, click a gallery to open it, then click Edit near the top of the page (the pencil icon), or
  • Open the gallery's photos page and switch to the Edit tab.

Both routes open the same gallery edit form. Look for the Cover message field and the Show cover image toggle.

Cover message

The Cover message box holds a short intro or welcome for this gallery — a line like "Thanks for trusting us with your wedding day!" or delivery notes for your client. It's separate from the longer Description field, and it's shown at the very top of the gallery, above the photos.

Leave it blank if you don't want a message. It appears to clients in the published gallery and in the preview, rendered as a hero message above the photo grid.

The cover message is plain text — links and formatting aren't supported, so keep it to a single friendly line or two.

Cover image (hero banner)

Flip the Show cover image toggle on to display a hero banner across the top of the gallery. With it on, you have two ways to choose the cover:

Upload a hero image

Use the Cover image uploader to add your own banner:

  • Accepted formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP, up to 10 MB.
  • Recommended size: a wide banner around 1600 × 600 px.
  • If a cover image already exists, a Remove current cover image checkbox lets you clear it.

Or pick a photo from the gallery

Instead of uploading, choose one of the gallery's own photos from the Or pick a cover from this gallery's photos dropdown. This list is only available once the gallery has uploaded photos — add photos first, then edit the gallery to pick one.

An uploaded hero image takes precedence over a picked photo cover. If both are set, the uploaded banner is shown and the picked photo is ignored. If no cover is set at all, the gallery falls back to a randomly selected photo as its thumbnail.

What clients see

Once the gallery is published (or when you use Preview), the client sees the hero banner and cover message at the top of the gallery page, above the photo grid — in both their branded portal and any shared shortlink view. Turning the toggle off, clearing the message, or removing the image simply hides that part of the page.

Leaving a studio note

Goal: flag a whole gallery as not the final deliverable — for example, unedited proofs shared before retouching — in a way the client can't miss. This is a separate, more attention-grabbing mechanism than the cover message above: instead of a passive banner, it pops up as a modal the moment the client opens the gallery.

  1. Open the gallery from Galleries → [gallery].
  2. Click the Studio Note button near the top of the page (amber once a note is set, gray otherwise).
  3. Type a short note, e.g. "These are unedited proofs — not the final retouched set.", and click Save note. It saves immediately, without reloading the page.

Clear the text and save again to remove the note. On the client's side, a saved note pops up as a modal every time they open the gallery, so it's seen before they even look at a photo. The amber Studio Note button stays visible so they can reopen it any time. A matching badge also shows on the gallery's tile in both your galleries grid and your client's, so it's visible before opening the gallery at all.

A studio note is purely informational — it doesn't disable downloads, proofing, or anything else on the gallery. Ask Milo (project chat, both team and client sides) is also aware of any studio note on a gallery, so you and your client can ask it whether a gallery is final.

Related