Templates, slideshow and print

How a shared album opens is its template: a gallery of every photo, a slideshow, a long page in chapters, or a contact sheet. You choose it on the album itself, on its Preview tab, with what the page says beside the photos, and can change both at any time; they stay with the album when you turn its link off and make a new one. Whatever the template, every shared album can also play as a slideshow, run on a tablet as a photo frame, and be printed or saved as a PDF by anyone who can open it.

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Choose a template

Open the album: an album with photos opens on its Preview tab. The templates are on the left: click the card of the one the album should open in — each card is a small drawing of the page it makes, and the line under them says what the one you picked does. On the right is the album as the people you share with will get it, wherever it lands — pick the canvas under it:

• Phone and Computer — the album's page, as it opens on each.
• Link preview — the card WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack or an email shows when you paste the link, with the title and the line under it — see When you paste the link.
• Print — the pages Print / Save as PDF makes, in the layout that suits the template (the contact sheet for Contact Sheet, the album pages for the others) on A4 or US Letter; change either under the pages.
• Frame — the album as a photo frame on a tablet lying on its side.

The canvas you picked last is the one the tab opens on next time, in this browser. Photos and Share, beside Preview, are the album's other tabs.

The pick is saved as you make it. Once the link is published, the people you shared with keep seeing the old template until you publish your changes: the preview shows Your changes, and What visitors see above it switches to the album as they get it now.

The preview is the album's real page, so an album that isn't shared yet gets its link as a draft the first time you open it: nobody else can open it until you publish it on the Share tab, and it doesn't count as shared anywhere. An empty album has nothing to preview: add photos first.

One link, opened another way

To send the same people the same album in another template — the slideshow to the family group tonight, the Story to read at the weekend — you don't need another link. Once the link is published, click Copy as beside Copy link on the album's Share tab and pick the template: what you copy is the same link, opening as that one. Whoever opens it sees the same photos and the same details beside them — only the layout differs — and their views and hearts count on the album's one link. To give other people other photos or other settings, make another album for them.

Each template has a page of its own showing what it looks like: Gallery, Film, Contact Sheet and Story.

Whichever template you choose, the album holds the same photos, a link to one photo still opens that photo, and every photo opens full-screen. Templates are free on every plan.

What visitors see

On the album's Preview tab, under the template cards, What visitors see chooses what the album says besides its photos. Each change is saved as you make it and the preview shows it — on a published link, visitors see a line you turn on when you publish your changes, and stop seeing one you turn off straight away. Like the template, it is the album's, not the link's: it stays when you turn the link off and make a new one.

The date, the place and the camera appear together in one line at the bottom of a photo when a visitor opens it, under its caption. Whatever you turn off isn't just hidden on the page: it never reaches the visitor's browser. The preview card follows the same choices — no photo count while Photo count is off, no months while Date taken is.

The Gallery template

The one every album opens in unless you choose another: the album to browse, every photo whole at its own shape — nothing cropped — in the order you gave them.

• With Highlights first on (see What visitors see), the album's best photos come before all of them.
• With Date taken on, the album says under its title which days it spans — in Rows, "21 photos · July 14 – 20, 2024 · 6 days" — and with Photo count off, it leaves the count out.
• Any photo opens full-screen, a visitor can ♥ it, and Play, Download all and Print / Save as PDF are there as on any album. Every look prints as the album pages.

Gallery options

On the Preview tab, under the templates, Gallery options has one switch: Group by day, off by default. On, each day's photos are together under the day — its date, its places as far as you show them, and how many photos it has while Photo count is on. It needs Date taken on: without the dates, the photos run on as one.

Its looks

Look, under the templates on the Preview tab, lays the same album out another way — the same photos in the same order, the option above:

• Rows (the default) — the cover across the whole screen, the title and your description under it, then the photos in rows. With three highlights or more, the first three open as a spread — one large, two stacked beside it — unless they stand too tall for one; the rest follow in rows. Grouped by day, each day's date and places are in a column beside its photos, held in view as they scroll; on a phone, a line above them.
• Portfolio — the album's words in a column that stays where it is while the photos scroll past: the title, your description, its facts, the buttons and an index of its days. Beside it the cover, then every photo in columns, each going into the shortest — the highlights first, in two columns. On a phone the column heads the page.
• Exhibition — the album hung on a wall. The cover opens it in a wide mat beside the title; then every photo is framed in a mat with a label under it: its number, its place and day as far as you show them, and its caption. The highlights hang first, larger — two to a row on a computer; grouped by day, each day is a room of its own. When a visitor ♥s a photo, a red dot appears on its label — the one colour on the wall besides the photos.

Copy as offers each look by name.

Play, and the Film template

Every shared album can play as a slideshow: visitors press Play next to Download all. The photos fill the screen one after another, in the album's order — six seconds each, with a slow push-in and a soft fade into the next — and it ends on a card with the album's title (and your name, if you have set one, below). There is no sound.

• Space pauses and plays again, ← and → go back and forward, F switches full screen on and off, and Esc closes it. On a phone or a tablet, they swipe to go back and forward and tap to pause.
• On a device set to reduce motion, the photos only fade from one to the next — nothing moves.
• It loads the photos a few at a time as it plays, never the whole album at once. Photos still being prepared are left out until they are ready.
• After Show only the new ones (see New photos since their last visit), Play plays just the new photos.

With Film, the slideshow fills the browser window when it opens; the full-screen button at the top (or F) makes it fill the screen. On an iPhone, where browsers have no full-screen mode for a web page, it fills the window.

Film options, under the template on the album's Preview tab, change how a Film album plays — when it opens and when a visitor presses Play. A change is saved at once; the people you sent a published link get it when you next publish.

• Seconds a photo: 4, 6 (the default) or 10.
• Transition: Slow zoom — the slow push-in and soft fade described above, the default — Dissolve, the fade alone, or Cut, straight to the next photo. On a device set to reduce motion it is always the fade alone.
• Captions as subtitles: each photo's caption along the bottom of the screen while it plays, on a dark band above the controls, staying when the controls fade. It needs Captions and description on under What visitors see; off by default.
• At the end: Show the album — the end card, then the album to browse, the default — or Play again, from the first photo, with no end card.

The Contact Sheet template

For the photographers you show your work to. Contact Sheet lays the album out like a film contact sheet: every photo gets the same frame, whole inside it — nothing cropped, a portrait upright in its frame — with its number under it, in the album's order. A frame keeps its number when a visitor shows only the new photos.

• With Camera, lens and settings on (see What visitors see), each frame has one line of its settings under it: focal length, aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Off, the frame has its number alone.
• The album's highlights are circled, as in red pen — the one colour on the page besides the photos. With Highlights first off, nothing is circled.
• Under the title, the sheet says how many frames it holds, how many days they span and which, and the cameras they were taken with — each only while you show it (the number of photos, the day, the camera). A line over the frames says what the circles and the numbers mean.
• A frame opens full-screen like any photo, and Play and Download all are there as on any album.
• Print / Save as PDF, next to them, opens on the contact sheet, whichever look the album is in: 24 frames to a page on A4, 20 on Letter, under the album's title, your name if you have set one, and the page number — see Print it, or save it as a PDF. Use it rather than the browser's own Print: it loads every frame first, so no page comes out with gaps.

Contact Sheet options

On the Preview tab, under the templates, Contact Sheet options shape the sheet on the screen; the printed pages stay as they are.

• Frames per row — Auto (as many as fit the window) or 4, 5 or 6 on a computer. A phone shows two, and the printed sheet four. In the Proof print look it is the frames a strip of film holds — six on Auto — and on a phone the strip keeps them and slides sideways.
• A new row each day — each day starts on a row of its own, under a heading with its number ("Day 2 · Frames 4–9"), the date and its places. It needs Date taken on (see What visitors see): without the dates, the sheet runs on as one.

Its looks

Look, under the templates on the Preview tab, draws the same sheet in another way — the same frames in the same order, their numbers, settings and circled picks, the options above:

• Clean (the default) — the sheet on the page itself.
• Proof print — a sheet of photo paper with the frames on it as strips of black film: sprocket holes, edge numbers, and along the edge the camera and the day, when you show them. Each frame's settings are under its strip, the picks circled in red. The paper stays light in the dark color scheme too.
• Lightbox — the frames as slides on a lit lightbox, each in a card mount the shape of its photo, its number and day on the mount and its settings under it; a red dot marks the picks. With a mouse or a trackpad, a loupe follows the pointer over a slide and shows it larger, loading the larger copy only then. On a touch screen there is no loupe: a tap opens the photo.

Every look prints as Clean: strips of black film would only spend the printer's ink, and a lightbox's light does not print. Copy as offers each look by name.

The Story template

Story tells a trip or a day's event as one long page, like a magazine feature: the cover and the title, the album's description as its introduction, then the photos in chapters. Media Moana makes the chapters from the album, in the order you gave it:

• A new chapter starts when the next photo was taken on another day, in another city, or more than 3 hours after the one before.
• Each chapter has a heading like "Day 2 · Kyoto", over the date. When one day has several chapters, each says which part of it — "Day 2 · Kyoto, evening". An album of a single day is headed by place; one spanning more than 30 days by date.
• Each chapter opens on one photo of its own — its first highlight when there are highlights, otherwise its first photo; the first chapter opens on the album's cover. The rest follow in the album's order, each one whole.
• Your captions appear beside their photos as quotes, and a title you give a chapter — or have drafted — heads it instead of the day and the place.

The chapters only use what you show under What visitors see: with Date taken off, no dates and no new chapter for a new day or after a pause; with Place at Country, a new chapter for a new country but not a new city; at Not shown, none for a new place — and with neither the day nor the place shown, the album is one chapter with no headings. A photo without a date or a place stays where you put it, in the chapter around it. To change which photo opens a chapter, or where one ends, arrange the album.

Visitors open any photo full-screen and page through the album as usual, and can ♥ it on the page or in the large view. Show only the new ones shows just the new photos in rows, as in the Gallery. In the Essay and the Itinerary photos rise gently into place as the page scrolls — not on a device set to reduce motion, where nothing moves; the Book does not move at all.

Story options

On the Preview tab, under the templates, Story options hold in every look of it. A change is saved at once; the people you sent a published link get it when you next publish.

• A new chapter for each — Day and place, the rules above (the default); Day, one chapter a day wherever it went — a chapter that went to more than one place names none in its heading; or One, the whole album as one chapter, headed only by what is true of all of it.
• Contents under the title — a list of the chapters under the title, each a link to its chapter; off by default. A Book always has its contents page, and in the Itinerary the stops of the route become the links.

Its looks

Look, under the templates on the Preview tab, tells the same chapters in another way — the same photos in the same order, the same headings, the options above:

• Essay (the default) — a magazine page on a twelve-column grid. Each chapter opens on a photo across the whole screen; then a photo on its own sits beside its margin note — its number, and its place and settings while you show them — on the left and the right in turn, two side by side are offset, three share a row, and a panorama gets the full width. An upright photo's caption is set beside it, any other's under it. The page ends on one line: how many photographs, from which days, taken with which cameras — each while you show it. On a phone it is one column, each note under its photo.
• Itinerary — the album as a journey. Under the title, the route: a stop for each chapter, its day and its place. Then a line down the page with a stop at each chapter — its day and date beside it, its place (or your title) as its heading — and a small mark where a row of photos moves on to another place. A day with no photos between two chapters is a dashed stretch of the line with that day's date. With Place at Not shown, the stops go by the day alone. It ends on its days, its photographs, and from where to where.
• Book — a photo book in two-page spreads: a blank page facing the title page with your description, the contents facing the cover, then each chapter's page facing its first photo and the rest of its photos one a page; a captioned photo faces a page with its caption, and blank pages keep each chapter starting on the left. Page numbers are at the foot, and the contents give each chapter's. On a phone the spreads become single pages, without the blanks, each photo whole on its page.

Every look prints as the album pages. Copy as offers each look by name.

Use it as a photo frame

Turn a tablet or an old phone into a photo frame for someone at home: once the link is published, the album's Share tab has Use as a photo frame under Ways to send it — click Set up, then Copy frame link, and open the link on that device. It plays the album full-screen, one photo after another, round and round, and keeps the screen on.

• Photos you add show up on it by themselves within 15 minutes of publishing them, and photos you take out of the album leave it. The photo on screen is never cut short.
• Shuffle the photos, beside it, gives a frame link that plays them in a random order instead of the album's.
• On an iPad (iPadOS 16.4 or later), open the frame link in Safari, then turn on Guided Access (Settings → Accessibility → Guided Access) and triple-click the top or Home button: the frame stays on screen, and Guided Access's Display Auto-Lock set to Never keeps the screen awake. Keep the iPad plugged in. Where a browser can't keep the screen on by itself, the frame says how to set it in the device's settings — Auto-Lock on an iPad, Screen timeout on Android.
• With a password, the frame asks for it again every 12 hours, as the album asks anyone who comes back; with only the people you add, the person confirms their email again every 30 days — unless the device is signed in to Media Moana with an address on the list: then the frame goes back in by itself, and signing in from the frame brings it back to the frame. A link anyone can open never asks — the best fit for a frame.
• If you turn the link off or it expires, the frame says "This frame has been turned off". Move the expiry date on and publish, and the photos come back by themselves; a link you turned off is gone for good — make a new one and open its frame link instead.
• However long it stays on, a frame counts as one visit a day in How many people opened it.
• To see it before you send it, pick Frame under the preview on the album's Preview tab — a draft too. Watching it there counts no visit.

Print it, or save it as a PDF

Anyone who can open the album can print it — the people you share it with, and you from your own link. Print / Save as PDF, next to Download all, offers three layouts, on A4 or US Letter:

• It is made in their browser. The browser's print window opens with the pages ready; choosing Save as PDF there keeps a file to take to a print shop. Nothing is made on Media Moana's servers, and it costs you nothing — no storage, no part of your plan.
• It prints what the page shows, from the same viewing copies — each photo's larger copy for an album page or a postcard: sharp on a postcard or a contact sheet, good on a full A4 page. For large prints from a lab, allow original downloads. After Show only the new ones, it prints just the new photos.
• It waits for photos still being prepared. A larger copy is made the first time a photo is asked for, so when some aren't ready yet — or, with the watermark on, not yet watermarked — the print window says "Preparing N photos for print…" and how many are ready, and prints once they all are: usually within a minute or two. After 3 minutes it prints what is ready, a photo whose larger copy isn't made yet from its usual viewing copy. Cancel stops it, and nothing is printed.
• With the watermark on, every printed photo carries it — even when you allow original downloads — and a photo still not watermarked after those 3 minutes is left out.
• No location, as on the page: the photos carry none, and the place is written only when you show it. The link itself isn't printed on the pages.
• To see the pages first, pick Print under the preview on the album's Preview tab: the same pages, sheet by sheet, in any of the three layouts on either paper. Printing itself is on the album's page.

For a book printed and bound by a printer such as Blurb or Lulu, make a photobook instead: print-ready PDFs of the pages and the cover, from your full-size photos.