Your experience matters to us, and we’re committed to ongoing improvement and striving to make Sprout better for you.

For 541 weeks (and counting), we’ve been dedicated to supporting photographers and providing the best all-in-one business tool for your needs. With each update, Sprout continues to evolve and enhance your workflow.

This week, you can enjoy 23 updates. They are:

• You now have new crop options for the image collage layout in Designer Emails, including square, horizontal, vertical, and no crop.
• You can now duplicate expenses, which is excellent for recurring or frequent expenses.
• When using the Designer Email template chooser, you will see a tag for the settings group for your Designer Email templates, making it easier to find what you need.
• Questionnaire responses now display the newest responses at the top when viewed in the backend.
• Added a new [[due_date]] variable to Sprout Assistant reminders to display the actual due date of an invoice instead of the due date offset.
• Expanding or collapsing groups in settings no longer triggers a confirmation in the bottom right corner.
• The font colour for image file names in backend Galleries has been changed from grey to black to improve readability.
• Tweaked and adjusted the titling and styling in the top-right corner of invoices; it now also shows the Shoot name and date where applicable.
• Added a “Create Template” button when creating a Designer Email to convert a standalone email to a template.
• Added a better indication and visible warning when building a Booking Page if no scheduler is attached for the shoot date.
• Fixed a bug where you couldn’t open the description for a line item in an Order without refreshing.
• Now, when you add an instruction field within a Questionnaire, the editor will immediately open.
• Added a restriction so you can’t delete a shoot workflow if it’s in use by another workflow, preventing issues down the line.
• The add mileage button on the “empty” mileage list page now works correctly.
• The “Attach To” section of the date popup is more consistent and optionally displays contacts for the lead or shoot if applicable.
• Added a warning if clients try to purchase the same digital file twice.
• Fixed an issue where the client name variable wasn’t getting populated in designer emails built in a shoot or lead.
• Added a fallback label on the email list page if an email was sent to a Contact that has since been deleted.
• Fixed a bug that occurred when opening a date modal that was marked as waiting and clicking update without approving it.
• Corrected a typo in the SMTP email health check that added the wrong email address to the email contents. These emails go out once/a month as a part of “Sprout Now” to help improve email delivery and catch email issues before they happen for users.
• Fixed a styling issue that caused problems on older Apple devices when viewing a Scheduler; sometimes, it would miss the background colour on the “load more dates” button at the bottom.
• Cleaned up the “outbound email” section of the profile popup and fixed an issue that would label the wrong email as the “default” email when you first changed it, before closing the popup.
• Enabled an auto-archive email functionality that archives emails older than six months, improving list page speed by not showing older emails by default. Your older emails can still be seen by clicking the “Archived” flag in the top right corner of the email list page.

This week, you’ll also enjoy our spotlight of the week

Image Cropping for Designer Emails.

You take great pride in how your images are displayed. When you shoot vertically, it’s intentional. However, sometimes, you prefer your photos to be horizontal or square.

That’s why we added a new Image Cropping setting for the Image Collage section in Designer Emails. Now, you can choose square, vertical, or horizontal to ensure all images in a collage follow that orientation.

Alternatively, select the no crop option to keep your images as you uploaded them.

To use the Image Collage section with the new settings:

1. Go to Settings > Communication > Designer Email Templates.
2. Click New Template to create a new template.
3. Click Add Section to add a new section.
4. Choose the Image Collage section type.
5. You'll find the new Image Cropping toggles under the Style tab on the left-hand side.

Chris, a product team member who worked on this feature, shared, “As a creative myself, I understand the importance of having control over how your work is presented. Photographers are picky about their craft, so this feature allows them to show off their work exactly as they want!”

We are committed to making Sprout better for you. Continuous improvement.

For 540 weeks (and counting), we’ve been relentlessly committed to the photography industry and making the best all-in-one business tool for photographers. Sprout gets better every day.

This week, you can enjoy 11 updates. They are:

• The global search in Sprout Studio is now faster and only shows results after typing three characters, reducing delays and improving accuracy.
• Your dashboard display preferences are now saved, allowing for faster load times by customizing features like turning off dates if you don’t need them.
• The text overlay issue in the “create lead” and “create shoot” popups is fixed, providing a cleaner user experience.
• You can no longer delete a workflow if another workflow uses it, preventing issues with workflow references.
• The “copy filenames” function in galleries now correctly handles filenames with quotes and special characters.
• Your clients will now receive a warning if they attempt to order a digital file in a package they have already ordered individually, avoiding duplicate digital file purchases.
• You can now create dates for the exact hour during DST without issues.
• The “continue shopping” button in galleries works consistently.
• Sprout AI no longer generates unnecessary HTML tags, improving the quality of generated content.
• All Sprout AI functionalities have been upgraded to the OpenAI model 4o, enhancing performance and capabilities.
• The styling issue with the “expiration date” chooser in gallery settings is fixed, ensuring consistent visual presentation.
• Improvements to Sprout Studio SPF records provide more room for DNS lookups for users who manage their own SPF records.

This week, you’ll also enjoy our spotlight of the week

Saved Dashboard Customizations.

Over 8 million dates are recorded in Sprout. If you have Google Calendar syncing turned on and a busy schedule with recurring dates, you likely have a lot of them, too.

Your Sprout Studio dashboard loads all your dates for the next 7 days by default every time you visit it. While this might not seem significant, parsing through 8 million dates and processing recurring ones can slow down your dashboard’s initial load time.

Many users don’t need to see their dates on the dashboard, preferring to use a calendar for that. Instead, you might want to focus on upcoming invoices, expiring galleries, and other important tasks.

So why slow down your Sprout experience unnecessarily?

Now, you turn off dates on your dashboard and save that customization settings. Here’s how:

1. Navigate to your dashboard in Sprout.
2. Click the new “Customize” button.
3. Select “By Category” to choose which categories you want to see on your dashboard.
4. Uncheck the “Dates” category if you wish to hide it from your dashboard.

That setting is saved every time you return to your dashboard, so Sprout won’t load all of your dates each time. This results in a much faster and smoother experience using Sprout!

Alex, a Senior Developer on our team, had this to say about it:

“I’ve noticed that a user’s Sprout experience can slow down if it tries to load too much at once. While it’s not a major issue on its own, the delays can add up, so I understand why our users would be excited for a more responsive Sprout. Even on my local testing account, it can sometimes take a while to get going, so this is definitely something I am going to use personally!”

Hey, there,

We've spent some time doing some big bug fixes in the software that we think you're gonna love! 👏

💡 Spotlight

• We updated the design of all of our windows to make them more cohesive and easier to use. This includes Payment Schedules, Contract Templates, Booking Proposal Messages, Gallery Messages, Scheduler Messages, and Shipping Methods.

📈 Notable Updates

• We improved contact form redirects to work even without “http” or “https”.
• We removed Sprout Assistant and notification emails when you manually add a Shoot.

🔨 General Updates

• We fixed an issue with Dashboard tasks showing incorrectly on the Lead/Shoot > Overview.
• We added user list badges and profile photos to the “emails” list page for consistency.
• We resolved an issue with duplicate Price Lists (from Sprout Library) preventing price changes.
• Deleting a task from the Lead/Shoot > Dates & Tasks page now closes the popup menu.
• The billing page now displays full plan and subscription details, including add-ons.
• We added the ability to delete outgoing emails created by Workflow Schedulers.
• We fixed Scheduler link issues after removing and re-adding a Workflow-created Scheduler.
• Changing a Workflow-created Scheduler no longer breaks the email relationship.
• We overhauled settings modals for a better user experience.
• We fixed the help/chat icon from hiding the paging buttons on list pages set to auto.

Hey, there,

We've spent some time doing some big bug fixes in the software that we think you're gonna love! 👏

💡 Spotlight

• Enhanced usability and design for the quick buy feature. When your Gallery has 1 item available for purchase, we auto-select that option when quick-buying an image.

📈 Notable Updates

• We resolved an issue with Sprout Assistant settings resetting when creating new dates.
• Users are now applied properly when applying a workflow that references multiple users.
• We corrected the expiration date display in the booking proposal settings, which previously showed "Invalid date".

🔨 General Updates

• We added a warning for exceeding the 140-character limit for one-line descriptions in price list items.
• Download sets won't be created from incomplete orders anymore.
• We resolved an error when saving any changes made in the brand modal.
• Corrected missing indentation for lists in the email preview.
• The "Attached To" button in the coupon window now works as expected.
• We made visual improvements while loading favourite submissions.
• When a date is deleted on the Dates and Tasks page, the page now reloads to reflect the change.
• When navigating back in the browser, any full-screen windows will now close or prompt you to save changes.
• The "Send Email" button now shows as expected on mobile when sending an email with an attachment.

Hey, there,

We've spent some time doing some big bug fixes in the software that we think you're gonna love! 👏

📈 Notable Updates

• AI Questionnaires will now generate correctly the first time you click the button.
• Emails that contain replies from Outlook are now formatted more consistently.

🔨 General Updates

• You can once again re-download a la carte Sprout Library items.
• Contact Forms using Form Themes with transparency for the background colour will now display correctly.
• Embedding a link in an Email Template will now work as expected.
• The "Age" column on the Gallery List page will now display in the correct timezone.
• Shop Items that have the button hidden, can now be clicked to purchase the item.
• Fixed an issue with cropping images using the focal point cropper in Designer Emails.
• The Contract List Page under a Lead/Shoot will no longer show the Trashed flag unless there's a Contract trashed specifically for that Lead/Shoot.
• The "One Image" option with no cropping has been readded to the Email Designer.

Hey, there,

We've spent some time doing some big bug fixes in the software that we think you're gonna love! 👏

📈 Notable Updates

• Watermarks are now applied correctly in Virtual IPS Galleries.
• Clicking "yes" to skip uploading duplicates will now work as intended.
• Fixed a scenario in which replying to Pretty Emails from Outlook on Windows was causing the reply chain to appear broken.

🔨 General Updates

• Removed Gravatar to speed up Userlists.
• Made it so the client-side rounding done on an Order also matches the same rounding scheme as the backend.
• You can now properly scroll in the window that opens on the calendar when you have a bunch of dates.
• Fixed a typo on mobile Schedulers that said "Tueday" instead of "Tuesday".
• You can now check the Terms & Conditions box when trying to subscribe to the Read-Only plan through the /read-only link.
• Dropdown menus no longer have excessive space in them when searching for a Contact in the Email window and Email Marketing Lists.
• Corrected an issue where the <figure> tag was causing excessive left/right spacing on Emails.
• We added the "Add to Cart" button back in a gallery when purchasing the entire gallery of images.

Hey, there,

We've spent some time doing some big bug fixes in the software that we think you're gonna love! 👏

📈 Notable Updates

• Auto-credits for Products and Services added to a Booking Proposal will now properly be created on the Shoot.
• Moved the "Category" and "Attached File" sections into the main body of the Expense window to make it more efficient to quickly fill out.
• In Gallery Settings, pasting a password into the field for non-logged-in clients will now trigger the auto-save.

🔨 General Updates

• The fulfillment trays for individual Order Line Items will no longer have erratic open/close behaviour.
• After updating Design Proof settings you'll no longer be randomly redirected to the front end of the Design Proof.
• The "Booking Proposal" panel will no longer show up in Shoots.
• $0 Orders will no longer show as having been paid by a coupon unless that's the case.
• You can now add links to the "one-line description" in a Shop.
• Gallery Folders that are created as part of a Template with folders added will now create a URL for the folder.
• The "Receipt for an order from a gallery" Sprout Assistant email will now correctly open when accessed from the backend of a Gallery.
• Corrected some styling oddities in the "Suggest Replacements" modal in a Design Proof. Sometimes the image would overlap with the buttons at the bottom.
• Corrected the tooltip text when hovering over the Email button in a Design Proof.
• Corrected an issue that prevented new accounts from getting the Default Cover Styles.

Hey, there,

We've spent some time doing some big bug fixes in the software that we think you're gonna love! 👏

📈 Notable Updates

• Added all of the mobile fixes for Schedulers to Schedulers embedded in a Booking Page/Booking Proposal.
• We added paging for Email Campaign lists to make the campaigns load faster.
• Optimized how Email Campaigns with a large number of recipients to make it save much faster.

🔨 General Updates

• Sending Emails from a Design Proof will now use the correct Brand.
• The ‘Allow Quick Buy’ toggle setting will now properly copy over when a Gallery Template is applied.
• Corrected an issue where sometimes Download Sets would produce zips with 0-byte images.
• Download Presets that have a Watermark, but the Watermark is currently turned will no longer break downloaded images.
• Special characters in the name of Orders will not stop people from paying anymore.
• Fixed an issue that was allowing the editing of Google-created dates.
• Fixed an issue attaching additional users to a Shoot.

Hey, there,

We've spent some time doing some big bug fixes in the software that we think you're gonna love! 👏

💡 Spotlight

• We made the experience with embedded Schedulers on mobile more intuitive and consistent.

📈 Notable Updates

• When reviewing the log for tracked clicks in an Email Campaign, it will now correctly show the Email address of who clicked for each click event.
• Contact Form submission speed has been increased.

🔨 General Updates

• Better support for Shoot Types that contain an apostrophe. Previously these Shoot Types could cause duplicates or strange behavior when trying to enable/disable them on Contact Forms.
• When an existing Client logs into a Contact Form, any fields that get auto-filled with their details will now be hidden dynamically.
• Fixed an issue where a Print that has options/choices that were all deleted could not be purchased from a Gallery in some cases.

Hey, there,

We've spent some time doing some big bug fixes in the software that we think you're gonna love! 👏

📈 Notable Updates

• The [[shoot_date_detailed]] variable will now include the timezone as part of its display.

🔨 General Updates

• In the Pricelist "Display" settings, the correct icon will show instead of always defaulting to the same one.
• Refactored the logic that determines what sizes are available for Prints within a Shop. In some cases, sizes were being hidden that shouldn't have been.
• Corrected an issue when in some cases you couldn't download single images when watermarks were involved.