PIX | Share Images Without The Cloud

I've had a problem that I suspect a lot of photographers and digi-techs have also had. I want to show a client selects, a handful of images while on set, or have someone remote view a whole folder of jpgs. The usual options are either too slow, clunky, expensive, or require handing your files off to some 3rd party server. 

In my eye, there's been gaps to fill in some of the offerings when you need to just share a couple of images or folders of them quickly. So you can stay focused on what matters on set. Whether it's AirDrop, Capture One Live/Live for Studio, Dropbox, Google Drive. It just never right for all occasions.

If you're familiar with how Faini Made works... you probably know what comes next...  

I made something,

What It Is

PIX is an an that lives in your macOS menu bar. It turns your machine into a private photo gallery server. You point it at a folder, hit Start Server, and anyone on your local network can open a browser and view images. Clean grid view, fullscreen viewer with zoom and pan, EXIF data, the works. No upload required. No account required. No subscription. 

If you need to quickly share with someone off-site, PIX also integrates with Cloudflare Tunnel, which gives your gallery a real public URL through your own domain. (For example pix-demo.fainimade.com)  Your Mac is the server, so as long as it's on and PIX is running, your gallery is live.

Why I Built It

The WeTransfer situation from a while back stuck with me. The idea that a TOS change could affect how I share work with clients was a reminder that relying on someone else's platform always comes with strings attached. I already self-host a lot of things for exactly this reason. PIX is that same thinking applied specifically to share images with minimal configuration or technical skills to setup. I also wanted something that felt good to use on both ends. Something a client could open on their phone and actually enjoy browsing through. Not just a file dump. Nothing to download or install for anyone that needs to view.

PIX isn't meant to completely replace services like Capture One Live or similar offerings but to help augment your workflow. It lacks many things that C1 Live and Live For Studio offer but also has features they don't. As always it's about having options and not having to wrack your brain to work around limitations. Having more tools should always be welcome.

How It Works
The setup takes about 30 seconds. Install PIX, click the menu bar icon, choose your folder, start the server. You get two URLs right in the menu, a local hostname that works automatically on any device on your network, and a raw IP for anything that doesn't resolve .local addresses. Share either one and you're done.There's also an option to show a QR code for the address on screen as well.

Once the server is running, anyone on your local network can view the gallery in their browser, and favorite images. You can export their selections as a .txt file that drops straight into Capture One's filename filter to select them in your session. The favorites workflow syncs essentially in real-time across every browser session and device viewing the gallery simultaneously.

There's an option to password protect the gallery. For remote sharing via the built-in Cloudflare Tunnel integration, there is a step-by-step guide for the 1-time setup to host your PIX server on your domain. With this, it's always the same address.

How do Get PIX

You can grab PIX from GitHub and a license at fainimade.com   

You can check out the browser side with a demo here: pix-demo.fainimade.com
(PW: pizza) 

PIX includes a 5-day full-featured free trial, no credit card required.   

Licenses cover two seats.

If you have questions or run into anything, you know where to find me.