How to crop photos for Etsy listings: size, shape and thumbnails

What Etsy asks for, in one table

• Recommended size

  Etsy's figure

  At least 2000 px wide and 2000 px tall

• First photo minimum

  Etsy's figure

  635 px wide and tall, or the listing can show up lower in search

• First photo shape

  Etsy's figure

  Landscape or square. The thumbnail help says to avoid square crops

• File types

  Etsy's figure

  JPG, PNG, GIF, SVG or HEIC. No WebP, no animated GIF

• Transparency

  Etsy's figure

  Not supported. Transparent areas turn black

• File size

  Etsy's figure

  Over 1 MB may not finish uploading on a slow connection

• Colour profile

  Etsy's figure

  sRGB. Etsy converts everything to sRGB

• Photos per listing

  Etsy's figure

  Up to 20, plus 2 videos

Etsy's 2023 announcement called square the primary format. Its Help Center now says the first photo should be landscape or square, and its thumbnail advice says to avoid square crops. We follow the Help Center, the newer source.

Why the first photo matters most

The first photo is the thumbnail wherever Etsy shows your listing small, such as search results and your shop, and it sets the shape for the photos after it. Etsy crops it into square, portrait and landscape views depending on where it appears, and it does not publish the exact ratio of each view. You cannot control which crop a buyer sees, so the photo has to work in all three.

How much each crop removes

Take a 4:3 photo at 2667 x 2000. A square crop keeps the middle 2000 px of the width, which is 75%. A 4:5 portrait crop keeps 1600 px, only 60%. So anything outside the middle half of the width is at risk somewhere on Etsy. Top and bottom are safer in landscape, but leave a margin there too, because the landscape view may not be exactly 4:3.

• Keep the whole product inside the middle half of the width.
• Shoot from further back than feels natural. You can always crop in, never out.
• Avoid text, logos or a price tag near any edge.
• Tall products, like bottles or lamps, suffer most in landscape views. Leave space above and below them.

How to crop a photo for Etsy, step by step

1. 01Start from the original file from your camera or phone, not a screenshot or a copy that was already shrunk.
2. 02Crop to 4:3 landscape, with the product centred and space on every side. Phone photos are usually 4:3 already. Camera photos are often 3:2, so you trim a little from the sides.
3. 03Scale the crop so the short side is 2000 px. For 4:3 that is 2667 x 2000.
4. 04Convert to sRGB if your editor uses another profile, so the colours do not shift on Etsy.
5. 05Export as a JPEG at a quality that lands under 1 MB. For WebP files, convert WebP to JPG first.
6. 06Upload, then use Etsy's thumbnail adjustment tool to check the square, portrait and landscape views before you publish.

Use Etsy's thumbnail adjustment tool

When you create or edit a listing, select Edit on a photo to move the thumbnail frame and preview how it will look across Etsy. If the product touches the frame in any of the three views, the photo is cropped too tightly. Go back to the original and crop wider, rather than zooming in on Etsy, which softens the image. Keep your original files, so you can always crop again. See how to undo a crop.

What to put in your 20 photo slots

Etsy requires at least one unedited photo of the actual item against a real background. Beyond that, you can edit, crop and change backgrounds, as long as the photos show what the buyer will receive. One order that answers most buyer questions:

1. 01The clearest photo of the whole product, landscape, centred. This is your thumbnail.
2. 02The product in use or in a room, so buyers see it in real life.
3. 03Other angles: back, side, top.
4. 04Close-ups of texture, stitching or materials.
5. 05A scale shot next to a hand or a familiar object.
6. 06Each colour or size variation.
7. 07Packaging, if it is part of the gift.

Etsy listing videos

• Up to 2 videos per listing, MP4 or MOV, up to 100 MB each.
• Resolution at least 500 px, ideally 1080 px or more.
• Aspect ratio 2:1 or 1:2.
• Sound is removed on upload, so the video has to work silently.
• Etsy gives 3 to 15 seconds on one help page and 5 to 15 on another. Aim for 5 to 15 to meet both.

Why Etsy photos look blurry, and the fix

• The photo is too small. Etsy warns that enlarging an image loses resolution. Start from a file that is already 2000 px or more.
• It was saved as JPEG many times. Every save loses a little. Edit from the original and export once. See does cropping reduce image quality.
• You zoomed in with the thumbnail tool. Crop wider in your own editor instead.
• Etsy compresses uploads. Etsy says this makes some images look less sharp. A clean, well-lit photo at full size survives it best.

Crop a whole shop at once

Doing this photo by photo takes a while across a shop. SizeSpec has two Etsy presets, both JPEGs aimed at under 1 MB, made in your browser and downloaded in one ZIP: a landscape 4:3 preset at 2667 x 2000, the shape Etsy's Help Center prefers, and a square preset at 2000 x 2000 for shops that keep a square grid. Figures and sources are in the Etsy landscape photo size guide and the Etsy square photo size guide. The method for any tool is in how to crop multiple photos at once.