The past few releases of WPZOOM Portfolio have been our biggest since the plugin launched — and they push it well beyond a classic portfolio grid. You can now build a gallery straight from your Media Library without creating a single post, attach a whole album to any project, and even let clients pick and approve their photos through a private link.
Here’s a tour of what’s new in WPZOOM Portfolio:
Static Galleries: a portfolio without portfolio posts
Sometimes you don’t need projects, case studies or single pages — you just want a beautiful wall of images. The Portfolio block now has a Portfolio Items Source option: switch it from Custom Posts to Images, pick photos from the Media Library, and you’re done.
A few details we’re proud of:
- an Aspect Ratio option (1:1, 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 and more) crops every image to the same shape for a perfectly even grid — or keep Original for a more organic look;
- titles can show below the images or on hover only;
- clicking any image opens the familiar lightbox, where visitors browse the whole gallery with arrow keys.
Static galleries work in the free version — this isn’t a PRO-only feature. Read the docs →
Album Gallery: one project, many photos (PRO)
Portfolio grids traditionally show one featured image per project. With the new Album Gallery in WPZOOM Portfolio PRO, every portfolio item can carry a set of extra images — and visitors open them as a slideshow right from the grid.
Hover a project that has an album and you’ll see the new View Album action:
One click opens the full album in the lightbox, complete with captions and navigation:
Setting it up takes seconds: a new Album Gallery panel sits right under the Featured Image when you edit a portfolio post — Set album images, pick the photos, done. It’s perfect for photographers showing a whole shoot, designers presenting process shots, or agencies documenting a project from brief to launch. Read the docs →
Photo Proofing: let clients pick their photos (PRO)
This one is for photographers. Photo Proofing gives every shoot a private, link-protected gallery where your client selects the photos they want — no account, no third-party proofing service, no monthly fee.
The flow is exactly what you’d expect:
- Create a gallery under Portfolio → Photo Proofing and add the photos.
- Send your client the secret link (regenerate it anytime).
- They click to select, then approve the selection — which locks the gallery.
- You get an email with the selected filenames, ready to paste into Lightroom.
Proofing pages are hidden from search engines, unreachable without the secret key, and clients can’t download the files — delivery stays in your hands. Read the docs →
The grid itself got better, too
If you haven’t updated in a while, a quick recap of what else landed recently in both versions:
- Make Entire Item Clickable and a new On Item Click choice — send visitors to the project page or straight into the lightbox;
- Item Border Radius and refined Columns Gap controls for softer, more modern grids;
- a native Elementor widget for embedding your saved Portfolio Layouts;
- Masonry and Eccentric (PRO) layouts keep getting polish, and hover background videos can now autoplay permanently, trim clips straight from a YouTube/Vimeo URL, and capture any video frame as the featured image.
How to get the new features
- WPZOOM Portfolio (free) — update to 1.4.32 from your WordPress dashboard, or get it on WordPress.org. Static galleries, the new click options and the Elementor widget are all included.
- WPZOOM Portfolio PRO — update to 1.4.0 (an active license enables one-click updates) or see everything PRO adds — albums, photo proofing, video lightboxes and backgrounds, the Eccentric layout and more.
As always, the documentation covers every option in detail — recently rewritten from scratch, with a guide for each of the features above. If you build something nice with the new galleries, we’d love to see it!
