Portfolio appearance

Portfolio Appearance controls the portfolio cover and identity. Gallery Appearance controls that gallery's header, portfolio thumbnail, and photo grid.

A preset is a coordinated starting point. You can then refine its cover layout, height, type, color, background, contrast, image layout, columns, and spacing where those controls apply.

A preset changes several appearance settings together, including the cover layout, height, typography, colors, and contrast. In portfolio Appearance it also sets the gallery overview. In gallery Appearance it sets the photo layout, columns, and spacing. Choosing another preset can replace custom choices in those controls.

Your photos, selected cover and thumbnail images, focus points, titles, introduction or description, and name/logo display choice stay unchanged. Select Customize to refine the result.

Undo preset restores the appearance settings from before the first preset you tried in the current editing session, rather than stepping back through each preset. It also replaces any later edits to those restored settings. It is a temporary editor action, not a history of saved designs. Save keeps your draft; publish when you want visitors to see it.

Under Name and logo, choose Name, Logo, or Logo + name. Add a logo in Branding if you have not uploaded one. Logo size appears when the logo is part of the selected display.

Logo size ranges from 50% to 200%; Reset returns it to 100%. This scales the logo’s responsive display size, not its file dimensions. Logo + name starts with a narrower logo allowance than Logo alone, leaving room for the name. Title size and font controls change the name separately.

Text position also positions the name and logo group. Check both Desktop and Mobile, especially for wide logos or long names. If Studio warns that a logo may look soft, use a larger source image or reduce its size.

Under Name and logo, show your name, a logo, or both when a logo is available. Typography controls change the name; they do not alter a logo image or the introduction.

Choose a built-in title style or a custom Google Font. Set the available weight and title size, then check the actual title at both viewport sizes.

Page background controls the surface behind your galleries and other page content. Choose Light background or Dark background for a fixed appearance. Match device follows each visitor’s light or dark device preference, so check both appearances before publishing.

Cover background is separate from Page background. Split, Text cover, and Title only offer a light or dark cover background with contrasting text. A dark cover can sit above a light page, or the reverse. Full image uses Text color instead because the photograph fills the cover.

Background tone changes the plain backgrounds: Neutral uses white and near-black, Warm adds a subtle warm tint, and Cool adds a subtle cool tint. The tone applies to both light and dark surfaces, including plain cover backgrounds. It does not tint your photographs. The small color swatches exaggerate the difference; use the page preview to judge the actual result.

In portfolio Appearance, adjust how gallery thumbnails appear on the overview. Cropped fills the selected frame, Contained preserves the full image inside a frame, and Justified aligns complete images in rows. Choose columns and spacing, then check both desktop and mobile previews.

Use a separate portfolio thumbnail for a gallery when its header photograph does not work at the smaller overview size. The gallery’s own photo layout is controlled separately.

Maximum columns lets you choose 1, 2, or 3 columns. The layout uses fewer columns on smaller screens or when there are fewer galleries. For Justified, image proportions also affect how photographs fit into rows.

Compact spacing brings thumbnails closer together, Balanced uses the standard gaps, and Spacious adds more room between them. Gallery width changes the overall width of the overview: Narrow leaves larger side margins, while Wide uses more of a large screen. Both keep the layout bounded; a single-column overview remains narrower to avoid oversized thumbnails.

Thumbnail shape is available for Cropped: Landscape 4:3, Square 1:1, or Portrait 3:4. Contained and Justified show complete photographs instead. Open a gallery’s Appearance editor to choose its thumbnail and adjust the crop where available.

Short cover leaves more room for galleries near the top of the page. Tall cover gives the cover more space while allowing the page below to begin coming into view. Full-screen cover gives the opening cover the screen height. Text and layout can require extra room, particularly on smaller screens, so compare Desktop and Mobile rather than expecting an identical crop.

Title only fits its height to the title and supporting content, so the Cover height control is hidden. This gives visitors a compact introduction before the galleries.

Full image offers Top left, Bottom left, Centered, Centered high, and Centered low. Split and Text cover offer Top left, Bottom left, and Centered. Title only offers Left and Centered. Positions that do not suit the selected layout are hidden; changing to a layout that cannot use the current position centers the text.

On Full image covers, Text color chooses black or white lettering. Select a color that stands out against the area behind your title, then use Text contrast if the photograph needs help supporting it.

No contrast overlay leaves the photograph without an added contrast overlay. Light contrast overlay adds a gentler treatment; Strong contrast overlay makes it more pronounced. “Light” describes the strength, not the color: white text uses a dark treatment and black text uses a light treatment.

The treatment follows the text placement: left-aligned text uses a gradient near the text, while centered positions use a broader overlay. It changes the displayed cover, not the original photo. Check the title and introduction in both Desktop and Mobile; moving the text can work better than increasing contrast.

Split, Text cover, and Title only place text on a plain background, so Text contrast is hidden. Use Cover background for those layouts.

In gallery Appearance, enable Show titles and captions if you want text in the grid: it appears over photos on hover and below photos on touch screens.

Under Gallery navigation, choose Automatic, Choose next gallery, or Hide links. Automatic follows your published portfolio order. A custom next gallery must be Public, unprotected, and contain photos. The navigation appears only when more than one eligible gallery exists. Save, preview, and publish to update it.

A focus point protects the important part of a photograph when it fills a frame. It does not alter the original. Automatic suggestions are a starting point; review the subject in both desktop and mobile crops.