Image Guidelines
The Marketplace is filled to the brim with images, so we go to great lengths to ensure they are made according to optimal specifications. When images are done properly, pages load quickly and products look amazing.
Table of Contents
Product Images
We want your products to look immaculate, but image optimization is also vitally important. After much testing, we have determined the “optimal” method for handling product images. Similarly, we want all main product images to share a similar aesthetic so the marketplace retains its visual flow (which our supporters enjoy and appreciate).
Image sizes are to be 2,000 pixel by 2,000 pixel JPG images. We personally used Photoshop for this. We personally tried using PNGs at first, but our internal image compression and optimization tools turned some of the product PNGs grayscale (which is quite tragic considering our vibrant branding). It has to do with how colors are encoded into images. All of that is to say, use high quality JPGs, please. For your own sake. Site efficiency is a pleasant bonus.
All main images must have a white background. We have the responsibility of ensuring that our merchants are successful, and white main product images lead to an elegant, beautiful aesthetic while also serving as a visual stimulant. Twice over, enforcing this benefits the entire merchant network, as incosequential as it may seem at face value.
Stick to five images or less, unless you are selling traditional artwork. Artists who create hand-made artwork like sketches and sculptures get 10 images. Most products will not and should not require more than that.
If you are using Printful for your merchandise: When Printful adds a product to your store, it will also add one image per variation of said product. Those initial images are low quality and small, and you should delete them out. Instead of those, in your Printful store dashboard (on the Printful website) you can manually download any mockups you want from your product list. Download a PNG version of the mockup of your choice (which is naturally 2,000 pixels by 2,000 pixels), then manually add a white background to it in Photoshop (for example), and export it as a high quality JPG. [dephoro] uses the “Ghost” style mockups if you like that aesthetic, but there are many other great choices.
Merchant Store Images
As a merchant, you get two front-facing images and another couple images for SEO. Below are the “optimal settings” for each of those images.
The large store banner image (which is visible on your merchant storefront as well as the merchant listings page) is 1,000 pixels wide by 500 pixels tall. Whereas the product images should be JPGs, this banner can be a PNG if you so choose. As with all of your images, we encourage you to export this one with the highest quality settings possible, especially considering it is so publicly visible.
The profile picture is the smaller, circular picture that appears on your merchant storefront and store listing card. We personally use a 500 pixel by 500 pixel circular variant of our graphic logo for this. A smaller size would probably be better, but we would suggest not going smaller than 200 pixels by 200 pixels. Keep in mind that it will be used on a darker background. As with the store banner, you are welcome to use a PNG for this image should you so choose.
The “Store SEO” tab on your merchant dashboard contains areas for a couple other image upload areas. These will show up if a link to your store is shared online, as the preview image (and description) that people will see. This one is a bit tricky, as it displays differently depending on where it is shared. We used a 2,000 pixel by 2,000 pixel square, with a decorative background and our text logo variant centered within it. Some sites will crop the top and bottom of the image out, so centering your logo will ensure it always gets displayed.
