I’ve got a few clients who are artists, and it wasn’t long before I had to find a practical solution to satisfy their queries on how they might be able to update their image galleries without calling (and paying) me every time. One client in particular is a fairly prolific painter who wanted not only to make regular changes to the artwork she chose to display, but also be able to edit the Titles, Descriptions, Media Type, Prices, Sale Status, etc … whenever needed. It only serves to interrupt the creative process for an artist when they continually have to rely on their “web guy” to make changes whenever called for, and I won’t say were not completely reliable, but . . .
Now, I’m well aware of the many open-source Content Management Systems out there such as Gallery and Coppermine, but I also needed something easy to use because in this case especially, the clients spend most of their time at an easel, not a computer.
That’s when I stumbled upon ZenPhoto which turned out to be a complete delight, because not only is it relatively simple and stripped down, it employs Ajax technology which certainly helps impress the client with the ease in which they can edit-text-on-the-fly and drag-and-drop images to sort the galleries. Also, it’s Open-Source software which is an option I always look at first when researching a website solution, at least before paying through the nose for proprietary software simply so I can pass that cost on to the client.
So, with that, I give you ZenPhoto which I encourage you to check out, and a big shout out to the ZenMasters at zenphoto.org for a great application that has served it’s purpose well for me, and also made some artists very happy . . .
