Lightroom
A Lightroom Export Preset for Client Galleries: When to Build One
Saving a preset takes a minute and it is worth doing. It is also the fallback, not the workflow, once proofs go up straight from the catalog. This page separates the two.
Updated September 2026
The search that lands here is practical. You want a saved recipe in Lightroom Classic so that sending proofs to a client is one click instead of three decisions you re-make every Sunday night. That preset exists, Adobe gives you a button for it, and it takes about a minute to save.
The more useful answer is where the preset sits in the order of things. If the gallery you are sending reads photos out of your catalog, the export dialog is not on the path at all. The preset stops being the workflow and becomes insurance for the exports that still go to a folder on disk.
Below is that split, kept honest in both directions. Where Adobe's interface is named, it is named only where Adobe's own published material named it, and the date it was checked is in the sources at the end.
What a preset actually saves, in Adobe's terms
In Lightroom Classic, the Export dialog is reached from File > Export, as Adobe describes it in its own Lightroom Classic tutorial. Inside that dialog, a panel named File Settings is where you choose the file format, and JPEG is one of the formats offered. Adobe presents JPEG as the common choice while noting that other formats do get requested.
Two more controls matter for anything a client will look at on a screen. There is an image sizing control, which governs the pixel dimensions of the file that comes out, and Adobe's worked example is a photo sent out at 1,000 by 1,000 pixels. There is a sharpening control, framed around sharpening for screen display rather than for paper.
Once that arrangement is the one you want, the Add button on the left side of the Export dialog saves it as a preset. Saved presets are organised into folders, including one called User Presets. Later, File > Export with Preset applies a saved one without opening the dialog at all. That last step is the whole payoff: the preset is not really about the settings, it is about never opening the dialog again.
That is the full extent of what this page will claim about Adobe's interface, and the restraint is deliberate. Adobe renames panels and moves options between Lightroom Classic releases, so treat those names as what Adobe published rather than as permanent fact, and check Adobe's Lightroom Classic user guide for the version you are running. Adobe's user guide itself could not be read on the day this page was written, so nothing here leans on it. Panel-by-panel walkthroughs you may have seen elsewhere are frequently written from memory of an older release, which is how photographers end up hunting for a control that moved two versions ago.
Why the preset ranks below a catalog publish
clientgallery.io has a two-way Lightroom Classic plugin. Proofs are published from the catalog, and the client's picks are pulled back into it afterwards. Nothing has to land in a folder on your desktop in between, and there is no second wait while a browser uploads what Lightroom just finished rendering.
That changes what a preset is for. A preset is a device for not re-making the same decisions. On a run where the proofs never pass through a hard-drive export, those decisions are not in front of you to make.
It also changes what the numbers in a preset would buy you. Proofs hosted here are compressed JPEGs of about 0.6 MB each, sized for fast viewing on a phone rather than for a print lab. We do not publish the exact dimension or the quality setting behind that figure, because it is an implementation detail that can move. What you need from it is the shape of the thing: the file your client scrolls through is not the file you would hand a printer, and it is not the file that came out of your preset either.
So the preset does not disappear. It drops one rank. It is the tool for the exports that still go to disk, and there are several of those.
The two lanes, side by side
Same four decisions, two different destinations. Only one column is yours to configure.
| Decision | Exporting to a folder on disk | Publishing proofs from the catalog |
|---|---|---|
| File format | Yours, in the File Settings panel | The gallery hosts JPEGs, and holds no RAW files or video |
| Pixel dimensions | Yours, through the image sizing control | Proofs are stored at about 0.6 MB each, sized for viewing |
| Where the file lands | A folder you pick, then an upload somewhere else | The gallery itself, on your own subdomain, with no platform branding |
| Doing it again next week | The Add button, then File > Export with Preset | The publish step is the repeat, there is nothing to re-select |
Read the right-hand column as the reason this page is shorter than you expected. A good answer to "what settings should my client gallery preset use" is often "on this path, none of them".
The exports that still deserve a saved preset
A preset earns its keep when the same export happens more than once, to a folder, at settings you would otherwise re-type. Four of those come up constantly in a working studio.
- A second editor or an assistant. They need working files on a drive, not a gallery link, and they need them the same way every time.
- A vendor, venue or agency that specified a format. Somebody sent you requirements once. Put them in a preset the day you read them, not the day you forget them.
- Your own copy before you put the shoot away. Whatever your storage habit is, it is one repeated export.
- The full-resolution set you are about to hand over. This is the big one on this platform, and it gets its own section below.
One habit is worth more than any setting inside the preset: name it for the job, not for the numbers. A preset called "Second shooter" or "Album designer" tells you when to use it a year from now. A preset named after its own settings tells you what it does and never tells you when you meant to reach for it. Since presets sit in folders under User Presets, a handful of job-named presets in one folder stays readable for a very long time.
Full resolution is a separate lane, and it is the best home for a preset
Half the people looking for a client gallery export preset are really asking how to deliver the finished files. Those are two different jobs here, and keeping them apart is what lets the proofing side stay fast.
The gallery holds proofs. Full-resolution delivery is a separate step you control: you upload a full-resolution ZIP for a gallery, it stays live for 3 days per handoff, and you can re-upload it any time the client comes back. An account carries 100 GB of standing ZIPs.
The contents of that ZIP are a plain Lightroom export to a folder, done the same way for every client, at whatever the deliverable for your work actually is. That is the strongest argument for a saved preset anywhere on this page. Build one for the delivery set, name it for the delivery, and the proofing side never needs a preset at all.
The ceilings, so you can size the rest of the workflow
Numbers worth knowing before you build a habit on top of any of this. They are fair-use ceilings rather than tiers to climb, and the plan does not change when you approach them.
| Limit | Figure |
|---|---|
| Photos in one gallery | 1,000 |
| Proofs held on a paid account | 250 GB, which is hundreds of thousands of proofs |
| Proofs held on a free account | 5 GB |
| Standing full-resolution ZIPs per account | 100 GB |
| How long a full-resolution ZIP stays live | 3 days per handoff, re-uploadable any time |
| Price | 10 $ a month, or 100 $ a year, which is 8.33 $ a month |
The reason the price stays flat is in the first column. Galleries hold proof JPEGs, not RAW files and not video, and your masters stay in your own storage where they already are. A platform that warehouses masters has to charge for storage, and then the storage tier becomes the product.
If you are in the cloud Lightroom app instead
Worth saying plainly, because everything above assumes an Export dialog you may not have. Adobe describes Lightroom Classic as "optimized for desktop use" and lists it in its own comparison as desktop only, with files on a local hard drive, while the cloud-based Lightroom app works across desktop, mobile and web. The two-way plugin described here is a Lightroom Classic plugin.
If you live in the cloud app, or in Capture One, or in anything else, the catalog publish is not available to you and the whole preset question comes back. Export your JPEGs the way you already do and upload them through the web. The gallery, the branding, the client picks and the download behave the same for your client. What you lose is the round trip, and that is exactly the case where a saved export recipe is worth the minute it takes.
For the round trip itself, the two guides below cover it end to end.
Sources
Adobe interface names on this page come from Adobe-owned pages fetched on 11 September 2026. Adobe's Lightroom Classic user guide refused every request that day, so no claim here depends on it, and no panel or option is named beyond the list below.
- Adobe, "Export and print photos from Lightroom Classic" (File > Export, the File Settings panel, JPEG as an offered format, the image sizing control and its 1,000 by 1,000 pixel example, the sharpening control, the Add button, User Presets, File > Export with Preset), fetched 11 September 2026, https://www.adobe.com/learn/lightroom-classic/web/export-print-photos
- Adobe, "Adobe Lightroom" (Lightroom Classic optimized for desktop use, the cloud app across desktop, mobile and web), fetched 11 September 2026, https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom.html
- Adobe, "Lightroom Classic" (comparison rows: desktop only, files on a local hard drive), fetched 11 September 2026, https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom-classic.html
- clientgallery.io product behaviour (10 $ a month or 100 $ a year, proofs compressed to about 0.6 MB each, 1,000 photos per gallery, 250 GB of proofs per paid account, 5 GB free, the full-resolution ZIP live 3 days per handoff with 100 GB standing per account, JPEGs only with no RAW or video, own subdomain with no platform branding), verified against the product on 2 September 2026, https://clientgallery.io/
- clientgallery.io Lightroom Classic plugin (publishing proofs from the catalog and pulling client picks back in), verified against the product on 2 September 2026, https://clientgallery.io/lightroom
Frequently asked
Is there a client gallery export preset I can download?
No, and be suspicious of one that is offered to you. Presets are saved on your own machine with the Add button in the Export dialog and live in folders such as User Presets. A downloadable preset is somebody's guess at your deliverable, baked into whatever Lightroom Classic release they were running when they saved it.
Do I need an export preset at all if I publish from my catalog?
Not for proofing. The two-way Lightroom Classic plugin publishes proofs out of the catalog, so nothing passes through a hard-drive export on that run. Keep a preset for the exports that still go to a folder: a second editor, a vendor with requirements, and the full-resolution set you hand over.
What should a proofing preset control?
Three things, and Adobe exposes all three. The file format, chosen in the File Settings panel, where JPEG is offered. The image sizing control, which sets the pixel dimensions of the file that comes out. And the sharpening control, set for screen rather than for paper. Anything past those three is beyond what this page can source.
What pixel size should client proofs be?
For a gallery here you do not choose it: proofs are compressed to about 0.6 MB each and sized for fast viewing, and the exact dimension is not something we publish. For an export to disk, size it for where the file will actually be looked at. Adobe's own tutorial example sends a photo out at 1,000 by 1,000 pixels, which is an example rather than a recommendation.
How do I deliver full-resolution files if the gallery holds proofs?
As a separate step. You upload a full-resolution ZIP for the gallery, it stays live for 3 days per handoff, and you can re-upload it whenever the client comes back. An account carries 100 GB of standing ZIPs. That ZIP is a plain export to a folder, which makes it the single best place to use a saved preset.
Where do saved presets live, and how do I reuse one?
The Add button on the left side of the Export dialog saves the current arrangement, and saved presets sit in folders including User Presets. To reuse one without opening the dialog, use File > Export with Preset. Panel names and positions can change between Lightroom Classic releases, so check Adobe's user guide for your version.
Does any of this apply to the cloud Lightroom app?
The preset question does, the catalog publish does not. Adobe describes Lightroom Classic as optimized for desktop use and lists it as desktop only with files on a local hard drive, and the two-way plugin is a Lightroom Classic plugin. From the cloud app you export JPEGs as usual and upload them through the web, which is exactly when a saved preset is worth building.
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