I have a club gallery and need a login block or link for them. Zen photo does not seem to work 'out of the box' - ie, no standard front page user login link or block (?).

All I could find is a 2011 post/plugin which says a function call is needed from the template page.

I used a copy of the default template and tried many positions in index.php but could not get it to work at all.

http://www.zenphoto.org/news/user_login-out

printUserLogin_out()

Example

Or just inserting in php lines after other functions with trailing ';'.

I get a blank page or the output is cut off after that.
I thought it would be much simpler to get a login link working.

That function is part of a plugin as the link you posted shows. You of course need to enabled first before you can use its function(s) on your theme. Otherwise a blank page is normal since the function does not exist.

Standard themes should all have support build in already (e.g. footer or sidebar).

That was quick! I assumed it was enabled by default - can see now it isn't.

It is working now - thanks.

I asked 6 years ago if Zen Photo gallery would become a multi-user gallery but back then the answer was "no". It was a personal gallery.

Things have changed a lot since then.
I went with Menalto as it was a multi-user gallery but sadly they gave it up. Don't like Piwigo so I'm back here.

Welcome back then!