PDF to Gallery · Your App Cloud
Collect the images in a PDF into a gallery
Upload the lookbook, exhibition catalog or report you have as a PDF. Say which pictures belong in the gallery, match every caption and credit to its image, and swap in originals where the PDF's copy looks soft.
From a finished page layout to a gallery people can browse.
Separate the pictures from the layout, pair each caption with its image, then look at every image full screen.
01
Say which pictures count
Attach the PDF with the upload button above. In the prompt, name what belongs in the gallery, such as the 24 looks or the plates, and what is only layout: the logo on every page, background textures, icons, the cover shot repeated inside.
02
Give the rule for captions and credits
A designer places captions where the spread has room: under a photo, in one block that reads clockwise, or on the facing page. Describe the rule your PDF follows, and say where credits sit, such as a colophon on the last page.
03
Open every image full screen
Go through the preview beside the PDF. Look for soft or blocky pictures, a crop tighter than you remember, a number printed across a photo and a caption that describes the image next to it.
Where each picture on the page ends up.
Read across each row: something printed in the PDF, its place in the gallery, and the check that confirms it. The looks, names and page numbers are invented, from a made-up fall lookbook for Bramble Row, a knitwear label in Portland, Oregon.
| On the PDF page | In the gallery | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| A full-page photo with 'LOOK 07' set in type across one corner | One image titled Look 07, with the number kept as text in the title | In a PDF, type set over a photo is often separate from the picture. See whether the number shows on the image, in the title or both, and ask for it in one place. |
| A page of four smaller photos with one caption block: 'Clockwise from top left: Fern cardigan, Moss beanie, Heath scarf, Alder socks' | Four images, each with its own caption | Clockwise order is easy to misread once the four pictures are apart. Open each image and confirm its caption names the piece actually in the frame. |
| Credits in the colophon on the last page: 'Photography: Nora Hale. Styling: Ines Duarte.' | A credit on every image, shown under the caption | A colophon credits the whole book in one place. Find any image by a second photographer, or a stock shot, and make sure it carries its own credit, not the main one. |
| Stories that open with a title page: Coastline, Mill Town, Night Market | Albums in the order the PDF runs, each with its own cover image | Count the looks in each story in the PDF and in each album. A look shot twice, close up and wide, should sit in one album with the two frames side by side. |
| A photo cropped tight to fit a narrow column | The image with the framing the page shows, or the full frame from the original file | The hidden part may not be in the PDF at all. When InDesign's export option Crop Image Data to Frames is on, only the visible portion is exported. If you want the wider shot, supply the original. |
| Drawn artwork: a hand-drawn map of the shoot locations, a stitch diagram, the label's logo | Left out, or added as an image exported from the program it was drawn in | Drawn artwork is often lines and shapes rather than one picture, so it can come through in pieces or not at all. Look for the map in the preview; if it's broken, export it from its own file. |
| The same photo twice: on the cover and again as Look 01 | One image, shown once and marked as the gallery's cover | Search the gallery for Look 01. Two copies of one frame means a duplicate to delete, and a count one higher than the PDF's looks. |
| An index page at the back with thumbnails of all 24 looks and their pages | No images. The index becomes your checklist | Thumbnails that small look blurred at full screen. Tick off each look number in the index against the gallery, so none is missing and none came from a thumbnail. |
| The page line under a caption: 'Look 07 · p. 14' | A source field on each image, such as 'Fall lookbook, p. 14' | A buyer ordering from the PDF may quote its page numbers. Open the PDF at the page three images name and check each picture is printed there. |
A PDF holds the picture the layout placed, not the photo behind it.
Each image on a PDF page was sized, cropped and often compressed for that page. The photographer's files are somewhere else, and so is permission to use them online. Settle these before you upload.
Which edition of the PDF you have
A lookbook often exists twice: a large file for the printer and a small one for email. Adobe's Smallest File Size preset, which it suggests for PDFs you plan to email, reduces image quality. Upload the print edition if you have it, or check the small one at full screen first.
Ask for the designer's package
If the PDF was laid out in InDesign, its Package command (File > Package) gathers the layout into one folder. With Copy Linked Graphics selected, that folder holds every placed image and illustration. Ask the designer for it, and use those files wherever a gallery picture looks soft or cut too tight.
What the photo license covers
A photographer may have licensed the pictures for a printed lookbook only, and stock images carry their own terms. Read the license or invoice for each source, and leave out any image whose use on a website you can't confirm.
When the pictures go public
A lookbook often reaches buyers and press weeks before launch day. Decide whether the gallery waits for that date, or opens early to people who sign in, which makes it an app with data. Check that the releases signed by the people pictured cover a public website too.
An illustrative starting point
Every picture on its own, with its caption.
One image per look, plate or figure, each with its caption, credit and the PDF page it came from, grouped by story or chapter.
Full screen, in the PDF's order
Ask for a large view of each image with its caption, credit and number, and next and previous buttons that follow the order the pages ran. The gallery opens in a browser, including on phones, so check that a tall look fits a phone screen without losing the hem.
A way back to the printed page
Ask for each image to keep its look, plate or figure number and a source page. A buyer quoting page 14 and a visitor sending a link to Look 07 then mean the same picture, and you can compare the two when a question comes in.
Filters built from the captions
Lookbook captions already name the piece and its colorway, as in 'Fern cardigan in oat'. Ask for those as fields, so buyers can filter by garment or color. Then compare the oat filter with the PDF: every oat piece, and nothing else.
Unreleased stories behind sign-in
Keep a story buyers see before launch in an album with the access you describe for each collection. Open that album's address in a private window before launch day and confirm that no image appears.
Requests for the full-size file
Ask for a button under each image where a journalist leaves a name, an outlet and the look they want. Keeping those requests and emailing each one to you need a backend. Send a test request for Look 07 and check the email names Look 07, not the picture beside it.
Together in your app cloud
The pieces behind the possibility.
Choose the models and services that support the experience you want to create.
File storage
A home for your documents and media
Vision models
Make sense of images and documents
Authentication
Give the right people access
Email
Keep conversations moving
A little more context
Good questions.
Why not just send people the PDF?
Keep the PDF for buyers who print it. But in a PDF, finding Look 19 means scrolling past two whole stories, and nobody can link to a single photo. In a gallery you can give each image its own address and caption, show it at screen size rather than page size, and let people browse by story or color.
Will the images be as sharp as my originals?
Only if the PDF kept them that way. A PDF made for email often has smaller, compressed photos. Open several at full screen on a laptop. Where knit texture turns to smudge or edges look blocky, use the original file from the designer or photographer.
How do captions end up with the right image?
Name the pages where the rule changes, since a lookbook's opening spread often breaks the pattern the rest follows. Give one page as a sample in the prompt, such as 'page 12: top left is the Fern cardigan, top right the Moss beanie'. Then open every image from a page that held several photos, and check that each caption names what is in that frame.
Can figures from a report become gallery images?
Check each one in the preview. Photos are pictures inside the PDF, but charts and diagrams are often drawn from lines and text, and can arrive incomplete or not at all. Export any broken figure as an image from the program that made it, and add it with its figure number and caption.
Can a model check that captions match the pictures?
You can add a step where a Vision model compares each caption with its image and flags pairs that may not match, such as 'Heath scarf' under a photo of socks. Check the model is available for your app, and test the step by swapping two captions on purpose. A person reviews each flag and still spot-checks the rest. Model usage is metered separately.
What should alt text say for a lookbook image?
What a buyer who can't see the photo needs: the garments, their colors and the setting, such as 'Oat cable-knit cardigan over a rust wool skirt, on a rocky beach'. Don't repeat the caption word for word, because a screen reader reads both. A caption names one piece, so alt text drafted from captions, by you or the building assistant in Studio, can miss the skirt, the boots or the beach. Read each one against its photo.
What happens when next season's lookbook comes out?
An upload is a snapshot, so the gallery keeps showing the fall looks until you act. Bring in the new PDF on purpose as new albums, then compare the look count with its index page. Decide whether last season stays as an archive, with the season in every album title.
Which plan does a gallery made from a PDF need?
Free, when it only shows images, captions and credits to anyone who visits: that is a one-page site. Albums behind sign-in, saved or emailed requests and a caption check by a Vision model need a backend, which makes it an app with data, and putting it live needs a paid plan. Model and service usage is metered separately. Check current plans on the pricing page.
Explore Pricing for plans, included capabilities, and usage details.
Keep exploring.
Plan a gallery with private client albums ↗
See the outcome and the capabilities behind it.
When the PDF is your portfolio ↗
If the PDF shows your own projects to win clients, plan a site around a handful of them and the story behind each.
Understand data and context ↗
Give information the right place in your app.
Prepare to publish ↗
Check the experience you will share.
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