Adobe Media Gallery
From Adobe Labs
| Table of contents |
Adobe Media Gallery (AMG) for Adobe Bridge CS3
Overview
Adobe® Media Gallery (AMG) for Adobe Bridge adds quick, powerful Web gallery creation to Adobe Photoshop® CS3, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended and the Adobe Creative Suite®. AMG makes it possible to create HTML or Flash-based galleries from any of the file formats supported by Bridge; adjust the galleries using the built-in preview; and export the results or upload them via FTP.
Download and Installation
AMG is available on both Mac and Windows. The download package includes both the plug-in as well as AMG templates, all of the Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom™ default templates, as well as the Lightroom HTML Gallery.
Adobe Media Gallery for Macintosh
Installation instructions:
- Close all applications, including Photoshop.
- Click on the link above to download & open the DMG file
- Open the AdobeMediaGalleryAll folder
- Double click on SetUp and follow the on-screen instructions to install
Adobe Media Gallery for Windows
Installation instructions:
- Close all applications, including Photoshop.
- Click on the link above to download & open the zip file
- Open the AdobeMediaGalleryAll folder
- Double click on SetUp and follow the on-screen instructions to install
You can make your own templates for Adobe Media Gallery -- the source code for the template files is available on stlab.adobe.com. For more information, see the Other Resources section below.
Known Issues
- After installing on Mac you may be prompted the first time you launch Bridge asking whether to load the new script. When you hit ok - you still need to quit and restart Bridge in order to load the Adobe Media Gallery workspace.
- Loading the "Adobe Media Gallery Panel" on Windows XP/Vista from the window menu and quiting the app crashes Bridge during exit. Load Adobe Media Gallery via the Adobe Media Gallery workspace as instructed in the quickstart guide to avoid this issue.
- Changing text in text fields does not always ‘take’ until clicking on another edit field to commit the change.
- Bridge and Adobe Media Gallery have a focus issue on Windows that prevents the user from cutting and pasting text into the Adobe Media Gallery edit fields using keyboard shortcuts. You can, however, right click to copy and paste text in the Adobe Media Gallery Panel.
- "Your Name:" and "E-Mail Address" aren't the same when switching to the Lightroom Flash Gallery or HTML Gallery template that use "Contact Info" and "Web or Mail Link:"
- Selecting a style from the “– load style -” pop-up list, it doesn’t change the pop-up to the name of the selected style. It does however load the selected style colors and layout options correctly.
- If the very first time you run Adobe Media Gallery you save a gallery before you do an "AMG Preview" or "Browser Preview" the Flash Player Trust gets written out incorrectly. Workarounds: Preview a gallery using "AMG Preview" or "Browser Preview" the very first time you run Adobe Media Gallery. If you've saved a gallery before previewing, delete the AdobeMediaGallery.cfg file and do an "AMG Preview" or "Browser Preview" before saving your gallery. See the FAQ for additional information.
- Page holds at 'loading image'. Page will build but will not display images with AMG Preview, Browser Preview or if Gallery is created by saving to location. Appears to be a problem if the original images have an apostrophy ( ' ) in the file name. Rename the orginal files without the apostrophy ( ' ) to rectify this issue.
FAQs
Q: Does Adobe Media Gallery work with Bridge CS3 2.0?
A: No. You must get the Bridge CS3 2.1 update in order to run Adobe Media Gallery.
Q: How do I start using Adobe Media Gallery after I install it?
A: You load Adobe Media Gallery by choosing it's workspace in Bridge. Go to the Window menu, select the Workspaces submenu and choose "Adobe Media Gallery." Consult the Quick Start Guide for an introduction to using Adobe Media Gallery.
Q: When I preview a gallery using AMG Preview or Browser Preview, only some of the images are displayed.
A: Adobe Media Gallery only uses the first 10 images for preview purposes. When you save or upload a gallery, Adobe Media Gallery will use all of your selected images to generate the final gallery.
Q: When I select a style from the “– load style -” it doesn’t change the pop-up to the name of the selected style.
A: Even though the name doesn’t stick, it does load the selected style colors and layout options correctly. Use can this pop-up to load a different style, or simply reset any custom colors or options you have chosen back to the default settings.
Q: After I preview the gallery and I then I change a color settings or change the name of a field, the preview doesn't automatically update to show the new color or string.
A: You must click either [AMG Preview] or [Browser Preview] to see any updates.
Q: When I preview in Browser, sometimes the style changes don't update.
A: Sometimes browsers cache the style information. Hold down the shift key and click the reload page button in the browser to force the browser to flush it's cache.
Q: When I choose "Extra Large" for my Preview Image Options, it takes much longer to render my web gallery.
A: Adobe Media Gallery uses the rendered High Quality Previews for generating galleries using Small, Medium and Large settings. If you choose Extra Large, Adobe Media Gallery uses the full size image file to generate the images which is slower than using the High Quality Previews. If High Quality Previews aren't already rendered when you go to create a gallery using the smaller preview sizes, a gallery can also take a longer time to generate.
Q: When I create a gallery using “Extra Large” for my Preview Image Options, the images are too small for the HTML Preview area.
A: If your images are smaller than selected destination size chosen in Image Options, Adobe Media Gallery will not upscale your images, and exports the images at their original size. Choose a smaller preview size in Image Options for images that are smaller in scale.
Q: There’s no Image Options for Thumbnails with the HTML template.
A: The HTML template has fixed sized thumbnails.
Q: How do I save presets/styles from Adobe Media Gallery?
A: There isn't a way to save permanent presets directly from the Adobe Media Gallery interface. Adobe Media Gallery will remember your last custom settings between sessions. You can create your own personal permanent templates you can save/load and share by editing the style.xml templates in the MediaGallery folder in the Bridge CS3 Extensions folder here:
Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Bridge CS3 Extensions/MediaGallery/resources/templates/
Windows: C:/Program Files/Common Files/Adobe/Adobe/Bridge CS3 Extensions/MediaGallery/resources/templates/
Q: The colors aren’t shared between all of the templates.
A: The first 8 templates are related Adobe Media Gallery templates: Standard (Medium Thumbnails, Left Filmstrip (Medium Thumbnails), Left Filmstrip (Large Thumbnails), Filmstrip, Journal with Filmstrip, Journal with Slideshow, and Slideshow. These 8 Galleries all share the same style and share any custom color and layout settings you choose. The Lightroom Flash Gallery stores it’s own custom color and layout settings, as does the HTML Gallery.
Q: Why is the Adobe Media Gallery panel a different color from the rest of Bridge?
A: The Adobe Media Gallery panel is created through ExtendScript and Script UI and doesn't have the same visual look and feel capabilities as the rest of Bridge.
Q: How can I make the Content panel at the bottom of the Adobe Media Gallery scroll horizontally like the Filmstrip view in Bridge or Lightroom?
A: Choose "Auto" from the Content panel's flyout menu to make the content panel scroll horizontal and save a custom workspace.
Q: I don't like the Adobe Media Gallery Workspace - It looks funny and out of proportion on different size monitors.
A: The Adobe Media Gallery workspace was created to accommodate the smallest supported monitor size. Rearrange and resize the panels into an arrangement that fits your monitor and suits your workflow. Be sure to save a custom workspace.
Q: How does the Copyright Info get applied to exported images?
A: If an image already has Copyright Info in it's metadata, Adobe Media Gallery preserves and applies the current Copyright Info on export. If the image doesn't have any Copyright Info already, the custom “Copyright Info:” entered in Adobe Media Gallery is applied to the images that are exported from Adobe Media Gallery.
Q: Is Adobe Media Gallery translated for all languages?
A: No. Adobe Media Gallery is only in English and for evaluation only.
Q: When I load the Adobe Media Gallery workspace, nothing happens.
A: Adobe Media Gallery is a script. It might not be correctly enabled as a startup script. Choose Bridge CS3>Preferences (Mac) or Edit>Preferences (Windows) and select “Startup Scripts” from the left-hand menu. Make sure that Adobe Media Gallery is enabled. If it is not, click the check box next to it’s name, close the preferences and restart Bridge.
Q: I get "Adobe Flash Player Security" dialog every time I do an "AMG Preview" or "Browser Preview" from Adobe Media Gallery.
A: This be a problem if you saved a gallery before you did an "AMG Preview" or "Browser Preview" the very first time you used Adobe Media Gallery. The Save command writes out a bad AdobeMediaGallery.cfg file. Navigate to the AdobeMediaGallery.cfg file and delete, then do an AMG Preview" or "Browser Preview" from Adobe Media Gallery. The correct AdobeMediaGallery.cfg will be generated and you shouldn't encounter this issue again.
Mac: /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/#Security/FlashPlayerTrust/AdobeMediaGallery.cfg
XP: C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\#Security\FlashPlayerTrust\AdobeMediaGallery.cfg
Vista: C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\#Security\FlashPlayerTrust\AdobeMediaGallery.cfg
Q: I get "Adobe Flash Player Security" dialog every time I preview a gallery I saved out of Adobe Media Gallery by launching the index.html file from the OS.
A: The Flash Player has security mechanisms to prevent Flash files from accessing the internet from your local hard drive. Click on the [Settings] button in the "Adobe Flash Player Security" dialog and choose the "Edit Locations" pop-up and choose "Add Location..." to add the directories on your computer that you want to allow Flash files to run from.
Q: How do I reset all of the Adobe Media Gallery settings to their defaults?
A: Open Bridge's preferences dialog and click on Adobe Media Gallery in the left-hand column. Then click the button next to "Restore default gallery settings"
Quick Start Guide
An introduction to begin using Adobe Media Gallery, Adobe's next generation, extensible Flash and HTML web photo gallery creation tool, built on top of Bridge CS3.
Getting to Know the Adobe Media Gallery Workspace
After you install Adobe Media Gallery, you load it by choosing its workspace in Bridge.
Go to the Window menu, select the workspaces submenu and choose "Adobe Media Gallery."
The Adobe Media Gallery workspace provides panels to select images for your gallery. Design and customize the look of your gallery, and preview the look and feel of your gallery without having to leave Bridge.
The Panel on the right, titled Adobe Media Gallery is where you design and customize your gallery.
The Content panel on the bottom is where you choose the images to include in your gallery.
The AMG Preview panel is where galleries are previewed inside of Bridge.
You can further customize your workspace to suit your workflow. You can change the Content panel layout to Auto if you prefer the filmstrip view for selecting your images or rearrange panels however you like. When you are done customizing your workspace, save it. If you use AMG frequently, consider adding it as one of the default workspace preset buttons at the bottom of the Bridge window.
Previewing a Gallery
First select some images in the Content panel.
Next choose a template from the Template pop-up.
Then click the [AMG Preview] button in the Adobe Media Gallery design panel. Adobe Bridge will display a progress bar while it resizes and optimizes your images and generates your gallery for preview in the AMG Preview window. To preview in your default browser, click the [Browser Preview] button.
Please note, for speed and efficiency, only the first 10 images will be used and displayed when previewing a gallery using AMG Preview or Browser Preview. When you create a gallery by saving it locally to your computer, or upload it to your server, all of the selected images will be used.
Editing Style Information
You can edit the name of your gallery, it’s caption, a description of your gallery, as well as include contact information and copyright info. The copyright info gets included as metadata in your exported images.
If an image already has Copyright Info in it's metadata, Adobe Media Gallery preserves and applies the current Copyright Info on export. If the image doesn't have any Copyright Info already, the custom “Copyright Info:” entered in Adobe Media Gallery is applied to the images that are exported from Adobe Media Gallery.
Choose whether or not to show the title bar, the length of slide duration, as well as the transition effect of the slide show.
In addition, you can choose custom colors for your gallery. Click the color swatch and choose a color from the color pick and click [OK].
Choose a font to use for display text. Myriad for san-serif type, or Times for serif type.
You can load a style from the “- load style -” pop-up menu. Even though the name doesn’t stick, it does load the selected style colors and layout options correctly. Use can this pop-up to load a different style, or simply reset any custom colors or options you have chosen back to the default settings.
Setting the Image Options
Click on the Image Options button to display the Image Options panel.
Choose the desired size of Thumbnails and Previews. Note that the HTML Gallery only has Image Options for Preview images as it’s Thumbnails are a fixed size.
Adobe Media Gallery uses the rendered High Quality Previews for generating galleries using Small, Medium and Large settings. If you choose Extra Large, Adobe Media Gallery uses the full size image file to generate the images which is slower than using the rendered High Quality Previews.
Creating a Gallery
Click on Create Gallery button to display the Create Gallery panel.
“Gallery Name:” is the name of the folder that Adobe Media Gallery will save all of it’s generated files in.
Choose “Save to Disk” to save the files locally to your computer.
Choose [Browse] and navigate to the location you’d like to save your gallery, and click the [Save] button. Adobe Bridge will display a progress bar while it resizes and optimizes your images and generates your gallery to your selected location. A dialog will tell you when the process is complete.
Choose “Upload” to generate your gallery and upload it to your web server using FTP.
Enter your “FTP Server:” address, “Username:”, “password:”, and “Upload Folder:” and click the [Upload” button. Adobe Bridge will display a progress bar while it resizes and optimizes your images, generates your gallery and connects and uploads your gallery to your server. A dialog will tell you when the process is complete.
Other Resources
To access the source code for AMG templates, go to http://stlab.adobe.com/amg/.
