picu – WordPress Photo Proofing Gallery

Description

Online Photo Proofing with WordPress

Send a collection of photographs to your client for approval.

  • With picu you can create galleries with images from your photo-shoots.
  • Send a link to your client via email as part of the workflow.
  • Once your client approves a collection, you will automatically be informed via email.
  • You can then easily retrieve your client’s selection to use in your photo administration software of choice.

All from the comfort of your own WordPress installation.

Install this plugin and say goodbye to overcomplicated communication with your clients. Shoot, upload, get Approved!

picu uses its own, independent design for proofing collections, instead of the theme’s templates. This ensures a consistent, user-friendly and easy to understand workflow for your clients and prevents a lot of compatibility issues between themes and plugins. Customization and branding options are available with our Pro modules.

Images uploaded through picu are separated from the the regular media library. This is also by design. We separate them, because proofing images are usually not finished and are not meant to be published.

If you have any questions or suggestions take a look at our documentation or ask via email. We are here to help and love to hear your feedback.

Go Pro – Our premium add-ons enable even greater functionality:

  • Brand & Customize lets you add a custom logo and adapt the client gallery to match your branding.
  • Mark & Comment allows your clients to add comments and markers to individual images.
  • Selection Options allows you to define the number of images your client needs to select to approve a collection.
  • Download enables your client to download all collections images as a .zip file.
  • Import gives you the ability to upload large amounts of images via FTP and import them directly from your web server.
  • Theft Protection helps you to prevent image theft from picu collections by adding a watermark to your uploads and more.
  • Multi-Client Support allows you to send collections to multiple recipients and receive individual selections.

Priority Support: We try our best to provide support and answer questions in the WordPress.org forums, but please be aware that one-on-one priority support via email is only guaranteed to people who bought a Pro license.

Requirements

  • PHP 7.1
  • WordPress 5.6

Website

Authors

Screenshots

  • picu in the WordPress Admin: Simply create a collection of photos and send it to your client.
  • This is how the client sees the proofing gallery. (You can choose between a dark and a light theme, btw.)
  • Once the collection is approved you'll receive an email like this.
  • Collection overview, with status indicators for approved, waiting and draft.
  • View approved images and conveniently copy filenames with one click or download the proof file.
  • Setting a collection goal. (Part of picu Pro)
  • Import images directly from your web server. (Part of picu Pro)
  • Add comments and markers to individual images. (Part of picu Pro)

Installation

  1. Upload the picu folder to your /wp-content/plugins directory.
  2. Activate the “picu” plugin in the WordPress administration interface.

FAQ

I have a problem. Where can I get help?

Please take a look at our documentation first.

Still having issues? Check out the support forum here on wp.org or reach out via our support page.

Emails are not working

Can WordPress send emails?

picu uses functions built into WordPress to send emails. If you have any email issues, please make sure your WordPress installation can send emails, eg. notifications for new comments, resetting passwords etc. If those don’t work, picu can’t send out emails either.

Receiving a notification once the client has approved a collection

An email will be sent to you, announcing that the client has approved a collection. This email will be sent to the email address specified in your user profile. In the WordPress Admin go to “Users > Your Profile” to see/change that address. Make sure it is correct and working, otherwise you won’t receive any notifications!

Changing the FROM name and address

In case picu emails end up in the client’s SPAM folder, they can either whitelist the from address (no-reply@ + your domain name) or you can use this filter to change the FROM name and address.

When viewing a collection I get a “page not found” / 404 error

In your WordPress Admin, go to “Settings > Permalinks”. There is no need to “Save Changes”, just visiting the page will flush the rewrite rules so that any changes to the permalink structure will take effect. Sometimes this needs to be done manually, eg. after changing the language of your website or after a new plugin was activated that introduced new permalinks.

I don’t see any images when viewing my collection

In 90% of cases this issue stems from using some kind of optimization or caching plugin. Please make sure to exclude picu collections from any kind of optimization or caching in the respective plugin’s settings.

picu images show up in the Media Library

This sometimes happens. Usually third party plugins tamper with the way image uploads are connected to their parent. If that connection between image and collection is lost, picu can’t filter its images from appearing the library.

picu images do not show up in the Media Library

This is intentional. 🙂 We wanted to strictly separate the images that you use in a picu collection from the images you use on your website, thereby keeping you from accidentally using an image from a collection in a blog post or in your portfolio.

The media library would get completely crammed und confusing having hundreds or in some cases thousands of (temporary) images in there.

picu also cleans up behind itself: When you delete a collection, all images are deleted from the server automatically. (You can see how using an image elsewhere on the site would become a problem here.)

Can I help translate picu into my language?

Yes! picu has been translated by our kind users in more than ten languages. You can add translations by going to translate.wordpress.org. Choose your language, then click on “Stable (latest release)” and start adding translations.

(Please note, that you need a WordPress.org account to add translations.)

BTW: We are looking for people to help us translate our Pro modules as well. If you are interested in a free license, get in touch.

I have an idea that would make picu even better

Awesome! We are always open to feature suggestions and are always interested to learn about photographers’ workflows. Please get in touch!

Reviews

September 6, 2021
After I installed succesgully Picu Pro I got an error when accessing collections. I wrote to Support and Florian came back asking me for PHP logo in order to understand where is the issue. I sent the PHP logos. It seems Pictu Pro and my AIT theme did not work together. Florian send me back a 'hacky' solution (a short code to baypass the error) until AIT Them will update there theme. In the meantime I set up a dedicated subdomain for Picu Pro with a clean WordPress and the problem was double solved. Great support, fantastic proactive atitude. Thanks, Florian.
April 8, 2021
Having tried many of the hosted solutions for photographers, I am delighted to have found Picu - hosting all my client galleries within my own WordPress website makes sense! Plugin developers are super helpful and open to suggestions... I feel this is only the start of a journey with this awesome plugin!
August 27, 2020
The plugin works well and helps me to keep customers on my site. This helps my brand in seo and branding terms. It does what it needs to do in the free version. Especially that customers can access their collection just by typing in their email is great thing, its comfortable and gives the customer a feeling of security and control about the informations they provide. check the blog@ pciu.io for this.
March 13, 2020
I rate 4 stars only because i wait for a multiple recipients proofing solution ! But everything is great and the team is very quick to solve issues !
Read all 42 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“picu – WordPress Photo Proofing Gallery” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“picu – WordPress Photo Proofing Gallery” has been translated into 15 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “picu – WordPress Photo Proofing Gallery” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

1.6.2

Release Date: October 7th, 2021

  • Bugfixes
    • Fix a bug where the photographer would not receive an email when a collection was approved

1.6.1

Release Date: September 30th, 2021

  • Enhancements
    • Display the time (in addtion to the date) for each status in the collection status box
    • Add a Move to Trash link when editing a collection
    • Add new filter “picu_approval_mail_recipient”, to overwrite the TO email address for approval mails
    • Performance optimizations

1.6.0

Release Date: August 10th, 2021

  • Enhancements
    • Compatibility with new Pro feature to send collections to multiple clients
    • Download the proofing .txt file right from the collection overview
    • Refined approved view
    • Copy filenames based on a filter (eg. approved, not approved)
    • Update color scheme to match WordPress

1.5.9

Release Date: March 29th, 2021

  • Enhancements
    • Improved collection list shortcode, added two new attributes: status and current_user

1.5.8

Release Date: January 25th, 2021

  • Bugfix
    • It seems that one Yoast filter did cause some issues when uploading images. We will file a bug report with them shortly.

1.5.7

Release Date: January 25th, 2021

  • Enhancements
    • Improved compatibility with Yoast SEO plugin

1.5.6

Release Date: November 20th, 2020

  • Bugfixes
    • Fix a bug where a collection could not be displayed if an image description contained certain characters

1.5.5

Release Date: August 7th, 2020

  • Enhancements
    • Compatibility improvements and fixes for the upcoming WordPress 5.5 release

1.5.4

Release Date: July 31st, 2020

  • Enhancements
    • Improve light theme for delivery collections

1.5.3

Release Date: July 29th, 2020

  • Enhancements
    • WordPress 5.5 compatibility
    • Add filter for the filenames when copying approved images

1.5.2

Release Date: July 16th, 2020

  • Enhancements
    • Improve Delivery module integration

1.5.1

Release Date: June 19th, 2020

  • Enhancements
    • The collection password will now be accessible in the approved view (Thx Michal)
    • The collection author no longer needs to enter the password to access password protected collections (Thx Charles O.)
    • Updated Pro screen to include the Delivery module

1.5.0

Release Date: June 17th, 2020

  • Enhancements
    • New approved view
    • You can now see which images are selected even before the collection is approved
    • You can now download a text file that contains the proofing information for archiving/save keeping
    • You can now disable random collection slugs in the settings
    • You can now disable sending collection passwords with the email to the client in the settings
    • Prepare for upcoming Delivery Pro module release

1.4.13

Release Date: March 13th, 2020

  • Enhancements

    • You can now duplicate a collection, using just the unselected images (before you could use all or just the selected images)
  • Bugfixes

    • Fix an issue were full sized images could be loaded in the collection overview (Thx Charles O.)
    • Fix an issue where picu images, that were uploaded with a specific IPTC keyword, could show up in a keyword based gallery, created with the Media Library Assistant plugin (Thx Thorsten K.)
    • Fix a bug where a php notice could show up when using NextGen Gallery (Thx Helene V.)

1.4.12

Release Date: February 5th, 2020

  • Bugfixes
    • Fix a bug where a single download would link to a scaled version of the image (Thx Marcus B.)
    • Fix a bug where scaled image would be generated when duplicating a collection (Thx Alan)
    • Fix media modal alignment and improve third party plugin compatibility

1.4.11

Release Date: December 18th, 2019

  • Bugfixes
    • Include the updated stylesheet, duh!

1.4.10

Release Date: December 18th, 2019

  • Enhancements

    • Prepare for upcoming Download Pro module update
  • Bugfixes

    • Fix a bug where a button would have the wrong label when the default send method is set to manually (Thx Charles O.)

1.4.9

Release Date: November 24th, 2019

  • Enhancements
    • Add filter to change the email subject when sending a collection to a client (Thx Mohamed E.)
    • Add filter to set the default share method (Thanks Charles O.)
    • picu will not generate a “scaled” version of an image, introduced in WordPress 5.3 (Thx Sean T.)

1.4.8

Release Date: October 18th, 2019

  • Enhancements
    • Flush permalinks after collection base slug has been changed
    • Automatic redirection from old to new collection base slug
    • Add wpml-config.xml

1.4.7

Release Date: September 13th, 2019

  • Enhancements

    • Prepare for upcoming Import and Theft Protection Pro module releases
  • Bugfixes

    • Fix a bug where special characters in the description could break the collection view

1.4.6

Release Date: August 20th, 2019

  • Enhancements

    • Prepare for new Brand & Customize Pro module version
    • Improve mobile view when using the Mark & Comment Pro module
  • Bugfixes

    • Fix strings that could not be translated (Thx Charles O.)
    • Fix a PHP warning that would trigger an error message when approving a collection (Thx Shane B.)
    • Fix an error where the approval screen would indicate a client message, when there actually was none (Thx Thorsten K.)

1.4.5

Release Date: July 24th, 2019

  • Enhancements

    • Prepare for Theft Protection Pro module update
    • Integrate traduttore registry to automatically update translations for Pro modules (Thx @wearerequired)
    • Use proper way to include the password form for collections
  • Bugfixes

    • Fix a bug where the slug could not be changed when the collection has not been saved (Thx Charles O.)
    • Fix strings that could not be translated

1.4.4

Release Date: April 24th, 2019

  • Enhancements

    • When using the picu_list_collections shortcode, you can now add a message to be displayed, when no collections are found (Thx Nicolas L.)
  • Bugfixes

    • Fix a bug where single quotes would be falsely converted (Thx Charles O.)

1.4.3

Release Date: April 15th, 2019

  • Bugfixes
    • Fix a bug where the logo could not be updated in the Brand & Customize settings (Thx Pascal O.)

1.4.2

Release Date: April 8th, 2019

  • Enhancements
    • Make picu compatibale with more plugins, that hijack image upload handling
    • Prepare for upcoming Theft Protection Pro module release

1.4.1

Release Date: April 3rd, 2019

  • Enhancements

    • Button text switches between “Publish” and “Send to Client” depending on which sharing method is selected.
  • Bugfixes

    • Collections are once again accessible when published but not yet sent. (Would return a 404 error in version 1.4.0.)
    • Fix a tinymce styling bug (Thx Bastien J.)

1.4.0

Release Date: March 22nd, 2019

  • Enhancements

    • Lazy loading!
  • Bugfixes

    • Fix lightbox view in IE 11
    • Fix duplicate filter name (Thx Christian F.)
    • Prevent Real Media Library plugin to mess with the upload screen

1.3.4

Release Date: January 31st, 2019

  • Enhancements

    • New button to reopen a collection after it has been approved
    • Use Quick Edit to set the collection status to draft, sent or approved
    • You can now duplicate either all or selected images only
  • Bugfixes

    • Fix a bug that could prevent duplication from working
    • Fix image count in collection overview

1.3.3

Release Date: January 14th, 2019

  • Enhancements

    • Include my-picu.php_example file to show available filters/hooks
    • Debug info is now only shown to administrators
  • Bugfixes

    • Fix a bug where the custom picu upload path could not be set correctly (Thx Jörg S.)
    • Fix a bug where a Pro license could not be removed

1.3.2

Release Date: November 22nd, 2018

  • Enhancements

    • Prevent Autoptimize from “optimizing” picu collections
  • Bugfixes

    • Fix a bug where collections could fail to load in IE
    • Fix a bug where collections could not be send in IE
    • Fix a bug where image meta data could cause collections not to load
    • Fix a bug where left over code would show up in the UI (D’oh!)

1.3.1

Release Date: November 8th, 2018

  • Enhancements

    • Add a new filter to disable random URL slugs
    • Introduce picu Pro
    • Update welcome and picu Pro screens
    • Update plugin name and readme content
  • Bugfixes

    • Fix a bug where picu images would show up in the Media Library (Thx David G.)
    • Fix a bug where images would be stretched beyond their natural size in the light box
    • Fix a minor bug that could throw a PHP notice
    • Fix minor bugs regarding Mark & Comment module

1.3.0

Release Date: September 25th, 2018

  • Enhancements

    • Collections now auto save!
    • Table view is now the default when viewing approved collections in the WordPress Admin
    • Prepare for upcoming Mark & Comment add-on release
    • Disable Gutenberg for picu collections (until it is ready)
    • Automatically remove picu collections from xml sitemaps generated by The SEO Framework plugin
    • Automatically remove The SEO Framework and Yoast meta boxes from the collection edit view
    • Disable NextGen Gallery “resource manager” that caused issues when viewing picu collections
  • Bugfixes

    • Fix searching by filename in the media library

1.2.1

Release Date: November 4th, 2017

  • Enhancements

    • Add image number to the lightbox view
    • Add filter that allows you adjust the from email address for picu emails
  • Bugfixes

    • Fix a bug that could prevent duplication from working
    • Fix encoding for translations

1.2.0

Release Date: July 25th, 2017

  • Enhancements

    • Add shortcode [picu_list_collections] to display a list of collections
    • Update add-ons page
    • Final preparations for Download add-on release
  • Bugfixes

    • Lightbox performance improvement for large collections

1.1.1

Release Date: May 26th, 2017

  • Enhancements

    • Copy filenames into the clipboard with one click!
    • Add blog URL and active theme to our debug page
    • Final preparations for Selection Options add-on release
  • Bugfixes

    • Remove a bug that prevented some collections from being duplicated

1.1.0

Release Date: April 14th, 2017

  • Enhancements
    • Add possibility to filter selected/unselected images in the front end
    • Add a new column to the collection overview screen, that shows how many images have been selected
    • New default image size is now 3000px wide (was 1024px before)
    • Small design refinements
    • Add filter for picu collection slug
    • JS templates will now work with asp style php tags enabled
    • Attachment pages for picu images will not show up in Yoast xml sitemaps, attachment pages will redirect to the homepage
    • Preparation for upcoming Selection Options add-on release

1.0.0

Release Date: December 9th, 2016

  • Enhancements
    • Revised notification system with more meaningful notices when saving and sending collections
    • More preparation for upcoming add-on releases
    • Speaking of add-ons: Check out https://picu.io/add-ons for the first two add-ons!

0.9.5

Release Date: October 11th, 2016
* Enhancements
* Preparation for upcoming add-on releases

  • Bugfixes
    • Removes an embarrassing bug which added “test: ” before email subjects

0.9.4

Release Date: August 16th, 2016

  • Enhancements
    • You can now duplicate collections
    • Update how picu sends emails
    • Prevent picu collections form showing up in Yoast SEO’s xml sitemaps
    • More preparation for upcoming add-on releases

0.9.3

Release Date: June 7th, 2016

  • Enhancements
    • Add rudimentary print css
    • Add page with debug information under settings
    • picu can now be translated by everyone via https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/picu
    • Update Add-Ons page
    • Preparation for upcoming add-on releases

0.9.2

Release Date: April 21st, 2016

  • Enhancements

    • Add filter to change the default filename separator, see picu FAQs for details
    • Add Finnish translation (Thx Rami & Tom)
  • Bugfixes

    • Make picu compatible with (some) caching plugins

0.9.1

Release Date: March 12th, 2016

  • Enhancements
    • Redirect clients to the homepage after they submitted their selection
    • Implemented a hook to change the default email message
    • Small styling enhancements

0.9.0

Release Date: January 22nd, 2016

  • Enhancements
    • picu now (officially) supports password protection for collections
    • Added a dialog box when trying to edit a collection that has already been sent to the client
    • Added a loading indicator when saving/sending collections in the front end
    • Lots of small styling enhancements

0.8.2

Release Date: December 29th, 2015

  • Enhancements

    • Added new labels for our Custom Post Type “Collections” (WordPress 4.4+)
    • Added a new filter for customizations through Add-Ons
  • Bugfixes

    • Fixed a conflict on some admin screens when $current_screen wasn’t set

0.8.1

Release Date: December 9th, 2015

  • Enhancements

    • Added support for native responsive images (WordPress 4.4+)
    • Updated German translations
  • Bugfixes

    • Fixed a display error in the backend for WP 4.4+

0.8.0

Release Date: November 25th, 2015

  • Enhancements

    • Completely redesigned backend UI!
    • Added the possibility for other sharing options (instead of email)
    • Re-Organized some files behind the scenes
  • Bugfixes

    • Fixed size of thumbnails in backend after upload
    • Fixed a bug on the welcome screen
    • Fixed width of Add-On boxes for large screens

0.7.5

Release Date: October 29th, 2015

  • Enhancements

    • Update translations
    • Added licensing functionality for picu add-ons
  • Bugfixes

    • Fixed a bug where a collection would not be displayed correctly
    • Fixed a bug where email content was not formated correctly

0.7.4

Release Date: October 23rd, 2015

  • Enhancements

    • Display maximum file size limit for image uploads
    • HTML emails are now sent by default (can be turned off in Settings)
    • Added some missing translations
    • Added custom hooks and more small preparations for picu add-ons
  • Bugfixes

    • Add versioning to js/css files to make sure the right files are loaded, regardless of caching
    • Fixed some display bugs in IE

0.7.3

Release Date: October 7th, 2015

  • Enhancements
    • HTML email notifications
    • Improved compatibility with other plugins
    • Added more under-the-hood goodness to prepare for future updates and the release of picu add-ons

0.7.2

Release Date: September 12th, 2015

  • Enhancements

    • Added a new list view and filter to check approved images in the backend
    • Added preview thumbnails to theme settings
    • Added filter hooks to backbone templates and collections, models & views
  • Bugfixes

    • Remove double admin page titles

0.7.1

Release Date: September 7th, 2015

  • Enhancements

    • Added the photographers email address as CC in emails to the client
  • Bugfixes

    • Fixed confirmation emails to the photographer when a collection is approved
    • Fixed a bug where images were displayed in the wrong order
    • Fixed a bug where admin notices were displayed in the wrong places
    • Fixed password protection for collections
    • Fixed uninstall routine for multisite installations

0.7.0

Release Date: September 1th, 2015

  • First official release (public beta) to the WordPress.org repo.