Squarespace Gallery: How to Add and Set One Up
To add a Squarespace gallery, click Edit on your page, click Add Section, and scroll to the Images group. Any layout with a small boxed icon in its top right corner is a gallery. Pick one, then hover the block and click Edit Gallery to add your photos.
Adding the Squarespace gallery section
Open the page and click Edit, then go to where you want the gallery and click Add Section.
Scroll down to the Images group. This is where the confusion usually starts, because the Images group contains two different things: plain image layouts and actual galleries.
Look at the top right corner of each option's thumbnail. The ones with a small boxed icon are galleries, meaning they hold multiple images you can manage as a set. The ones without it are single-image layouts.
Pick a gallery layout and it drops in with placeholder images.
Adding and arranging your photos
Hover the gallery block and click Edit Gallery. That opens the image manager, where you add, delete and reorder photos by dragging them.
Upload in the order you want them shown, because reordering forty images afterward is tedious. Galleries read left to right and top to bottom, so put your strongest image first. On a portfolio, the first image decides whether anyone scrolls.
Each image has its own settings for alt text and an optional caption or link. Fill in the alt text as you go. It takes a few seconds per image and it's what lets your work show up in image search.
Choosing the right layout
The layout should follow the shape of your images.
Grid suits consistent aspect ratios, like product shots. It looks tidy and falls apart when you mix portrait and landscape.
Masonry handles mixed shapes without cropping, which makes it the right pick for photography where the framing matters.
Slideshow and carousel save vertical space, at the cost of most visitors only ever seeing the first image.
Under Edit Section you can adjust cropping, spacing and how many images sit per row. Change the row count and check mobile afterward, since a four-across grid becomes very small squares on a phone.
Keeping the page fast
Galleries are the most common reason a Squarespace page loads slowly, because it's easy to drop thirty full-resolution photos into one and never think about it again.
Resize before uploading. 2500px on the long edge is plenty for full-width display, and most gallery images never display larger than half that. Compress them too, which typically cuts the file size by more than half with no visible difference.
Squarespace does serve responsive sizes automatically, but it can only work with what you gave it. A 12MB camera export is still a 12MB original sitting on your server.
If you already uploaded the big ones and want them back, my guide on downloading images from Squarespace covers getting the originals out.
Captions, links and lightbox
A few extras worth knowing.
Captions display under or over each image depending on layout, and they're useful for project names or client credits on a portfolio.
Each image can link somewhere, which turns a gallery into a navigation grid. That's how a lot of portfolio index pages work, with each thumbnail linking to its own case study.
And you can turn on lightbox so clicking opens the image full screen over a dimmed background instead of navigating away.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an image block and a gallery in Squarespace?
An image block holds one image. A gallery holds a set you manage together, with shared layout and spacing. In the Add Section menu, galleries have a small boxed icon in the thumbnail's top right corner.
How many images should a Squarespace gallery have?
Whatever the page needs, but every image is a download. Twenty well-chosen photos beat sixty, both for load time and because visitors stop looking long before sixty.
Can I add video to a Squarespace gallery?
Yes. In the gallery editor, click the plus icon and choose Add Video, then paste an embed link. That's also how you get a lightbox on a video.
Why does my gallery look different on mobile?
Squarespace reflows galleries to fewer columns on narrow screens. Set the row count with mobile in mind, since a four-across grid becomes very small on a phone.
Building a portfolio and want the gallery to actually sell the work? Have a look at how I handle it, then book a free call.
I'm Dylan, the designer behind Highr Labs and a Squarespace Circle Platinum Partner. I build custom Squarespace sites for businesses in Utah and across the US. More about me, or book a free call if you want to talk through a project.
