Pixieset Downloader

Python script to download all images from a Pixieset gallery at the highest available resolution. Supports both public and password-protected galleries.

Requirements

• Python 3.14+
• uv (package and virtual environment manager)

Installation

# 1. Clone or copy the project
cd pixieset-downloader

# 2. Install dependencies (creates the virtual environment automatically)
uv sync

# 3. Install the Chromium browser for Playwright
uv run playwright install chromium

Usage

Public gallery

uv run python downloader.py --url "https://example.pixieset.com/my-gallery/"

Password-protected gallery

uv run python downloader.py --url "https://example.pixieset.com/my-gallery/" --password "1234"

Available options

Argument	Required	Default	Description
--url	Yes	—	Pixieset gallery URL
--password	No	—	Gallery password (if protected)
--output	No	./downloads	Folder where images are saved
--concurrent	No	5	Number of simultaneous downloads
--dry-run	No	—	List found image URLs without downloading

Examples

# Download to a custom folder
uv run python downloader.py --url "https://example.pixieset.com/wedding/" --output ./wedding-photos

# Download with 10 simultaneous connections
uv run python downloader.py --url "https://example.pixieset.com/wedding/" --concurrent 10

# Preview URLs without downloading
uv run python downloader.py --url "https://example.pixieset.com/wedding/" --dry-run

# All options combined
uv run python downloader.py \
  --url "https://example.pixieset.com/wedding/" \
  --password "secret" \
  --output ./wedding-photos \
  --concurrent 8

How it works

1. Navigation — Opens the gallery in a headless Chromium browser using Playwright.
2. Authentication — If --password is provided, detects the password form and submits it automatically.
3. Image loading — Automatically scrolls to the bottom of the page to trigger lazy loading of all images.
4. URL collection — Captures image URLs through three methods:
   • Intercepting HTTP responses from the Pixieset CDN in real time.
   • Extracting DOM attributes (src, data-src, data-original, data-lazy, data-image, background-image).
   • Scanning inline scripts and embedded JSON data on the page.
5. Resolution maximization — Pixieset uses size suffixes in its URLs (-small, -medium, -large, -xlarge, -xxlarge). The script replaces any suffix with -xxlarge to get the highest resolution version. If the server responds with 403/404, it falls back to the original suffix.
6. Concurrent download — Downloads images in parallel using aiohttp with a semaphore to limit concurrency. Includes automatic retries with exponential backoff.

Project structure

pixieset-downloader/
├── .venv/             # Virtual environment (created by uv)
├── pyproject.toml     # Project definition and dependencies
├── downloader.py      # Main script
└── README.md          # This file

Dependencies

Package	Purpose
playwright	Headless browser for rendering JS and scrolling
aiohttp	Concurrent and asynchronous HTTP downloads

Both are installed automatically with uv sync.

Troubleshooting

"No images found"

• Verify the URL is correct and accessible from a regular browser.
• If the gallery requires a password, make sure to pass it with --password.
• Some galleries may have non-standard structures; try opening the URL in your browser and verify that images load.

Timeout or network errors

• Increase concurrency if downloads are too slow: --concurrent 10.
• If you get many 403 errors, the server may be rate-limiting requests; reduce concurrency: --concurrent 2.

Playwright cannot find Chromium

Make sure you ran the browser installation step:

uv run playwright install chromium

Limitations

The downloaded images might still retain watermarks and potentially be of lower quality compared to the originals – which is good to support your local photographers!

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.