About Section slide show

[CostumeCoutureNaomi]

This week, I noticed that the pictures in my About Section slide show have been cropped to just a corner of the image.

I compared the DPI for the current photos to the original photos.

Previously, the slide show images were formatted to 2550x1700 DPI.

Now, the allowable image size is only 760x468 DPI, significantly smaller and a very different ratio than the original slide show.

Is anyone else seeing this difference?  

Or am I just in a test?

It is very unfortunate to have such a prominent aesthetic change to our shops without notification.  I had a beautiful, cohesive slide show created to Etsy's requirements.  Now I have a weirdly cropped slide show that looks sloppy and unprofessional. 

If others are seeing this, then I will need to reformat my slide show to fit the new parameters so it does not look like a sloppy mistake.

Thanks for checking!

[ChristmasIsLove]

760x468 pixels has been the size for About section photos for quite some time. That's the size specified in the Help Center article. In fact, I've never used a different size or ratio.

[CostumeCoutureNaomi]

Hmm.

Then something has changed.

Mine looked normal a few days ago.  Now it is cropped to a portrait style and square shaped images, depending on the slide.

I just looked at your store.  @ChristmasIsLove 

Your images are also showing as significantly zoomed in and cropped in weird ways.

In your shop,

Image 1 is narrow, cell phone portrait shaped, off to the far right of the available space, showing only white wall with a tiny bit of poinsettia flowers in the corner.

Image 2 is almost a square, showing a bunch of brick and a small bit of garland.

Image 3 is a fat horizontal rectangle, with white wall and the top of a flower arrangement.

Image 4 is a wide portrait style of a table and flower arrangement.

Image 5 is mostly white wall with the very top of a snowman book in the bottom right corner. It is a horizontal squared rectangle using the using the entire availablespace.

None of your images show product except #3. 

Your slide show mostly shows your background wall space.

Each image is cropped to a different size, orientation, and location on the available space.

Are you seeing this too when you look at slide shows?

[ChristmasIsLove]

@CostumeCoutureNaomi My About photos all look fine to me. I don't see what you describe when I look at any shop's About photos. Yours look fine to me too. I had not looked at them before.

Looks like @Former_Member identified the issue. I'm on a PC, so everything looks fine to me.

[CostumeCoutureNaomi]

I appreciate you taking time to look at my images.  I will sit tight for a bit in case this is a temporary issue.

[Former_Member]

Somebody brought this up the other day, but it seems to be only on mobile devices.  Everything looks fine on a PC.

eta, https://community.etsy.com/t5/Technical-Issues/About-Section-Photos-More-Testing/m-p/138356630

[CostumeCoutureNaomi]

Thanks.  I will search for the other thread.  

Perhaps you are correct that it is a cell phone glitch.  I am hesitant to change and reformat my images if it is just a test or issue specific to my device.

@ChristmasIsLove Would you mind looking at my about section to see if the images look normal to you?  Each is a horizontal split image of 2 costumes with text overlay.

[ChristmasIsLove]

@CostumeCoutureNaomi I did look at yours. In my last reply, I told you they look fine to me. But I'm on a PC.

@Former_Member did link the other thread for you.

[Former_Member]

@CostumeCoutureNaomi I also looked.  They look fine to me on my laptop, but they are cropped on my phone.

[SmudgePlant]

Why haven't they fixed this?

It is really off putting to look at shops' About sections on a mobile device and see these weird cropped photos.

[SmudgePlant]

I just messaged Etsy with a screenshot of what they look like on a mobile phone.

[RaineyGirlVintage]

Thanks for contacting them, @SmudgePlant  .  I usually browse Etsy on my phone, and I totally agree with you about how off-putting it is.  And for those shoppers who aren't sellers and already aware of this issue, they're probably like, 'what the heck are these weird photos about in this shop?'  I hope they fix this soon!

[CostumeCoutureNaomi]

I did the calculation of dpi to inches, and it is a very weird size.  

10.13" by 6.24"

I had hoped to find a template to use to recreate my slide photos, but the new settings are a non standard size so there are no simple options in the programs I use. 

I feel like the slide show box for mobile was just adjusted with no attention to the proportions of the image and the old slide show dimensions.  

It does look quite unprofessional, but I hesitate to switch it to a different format, in case this is a temporary snafu.

[SmudgePlant]

When I look at my About section in the edit mode it shows that my pictures are 760px by 468px, so they should display fine. 

My pictures are kind of just nonsense anyway, so I can remove them. However I do feel bad for others who utilize their about section properly.

I was browsing the forum on my phone this morning and, when I looked at poster's shops, their About section looked ridiculous.

[CostumeCoutureNaomi]

Interesting that you are having issues, while using the correct sized image.  My images are slightly off from that size, so I thought the image size was the issue.

[SmudgePlant]

An agent from Support has gotten back to me. Seems very interested in fixing it. Fingers crossed.

[CostumeCoutureNaomi]

Thank you! The morning after I posted this thread a few weeks back, the slide show returned to normal format.  It lasted a couple of hours.  Then it reverted to this overblown display.

[SmudgePlant]

I feel bad for thinking other people had lousy About sections when it wasn't their fault. In fact, I was one of those people.

[SmudgePlant]

Received another email from Etsy about this. Tried to adjust my pixels again but same result.(You can see both workspace pics in my section, two different sizes, same crop.)

I said I thought it was a site wide issue because we are all seeing About photos on mobile this way.

May have stumbled on a bit of an answer. I borrowed someone's iPhone and looked at the About section photos on that. Same display, but, when handling back the phone, the view changed to Landscape and I was able to see the whole photo.

I will let Etsy know about this next time they contact me.

[SmudgePlant]

As I was typing the above post, I got another reply. Passed on the above info.

Also emailed a link to this post in the Forum.

[CostumeCoutureNaomi]

I use a Samsung Galaxy fe20.

The photos are distorted in both portrait and landscape view.

Landscape is a little better, but still a mess.

The difference is that portrait view shows a tiny corner of the picture.

Landscape shows around 60% of the photo starting from the top left corner of the image.

[SmudgePlant]

If it doesn't get fixed, I have Windows Movie Maker on my computer. I could always help you make a video of your slide show and you could use it as your video if you don't already have one.

It's not that hard and I think you already know how you want it to look.

I might do something similar or just scrap my photos altogether.

[NancyQstudio]

I just peeked at my shop.  Nothing has changed on the Desktop and laptop versions.  However, when I checked on my cell phone I only saw a weird corner of each image which was very unprofessional and odd looking.   I have a picture displayed of myself which only shows an eyeball and corner of my head.  An image of a gallery showing only shows the ceiling and the image of my studio is the same.  Maybe it's no longer wise to have an About Page on Etsy?  I really wish they would have a double check for the abundance of changes made without planning. This has been especially troublesome and unsafe with the changes made to issues involving handling money.  Etsy sure has become rather unprofessional. I know of no other site which does this.  It's like a little kid is constantly playing with a computer system. 

[NancyQstudio]

I just resized and uploaded new photos in the About Section.  It made very little difference. It doesn't appear to be a test.  But these photos certainly look poor on a smaller device and fine on larger ones.  I looked at several other sellers shops and they were the same.   They all looked bad. 

[SmudgePlant]

@NancyQstudio 

It's not you it's E. (Etsy)

Thanks for posting. Hopefully more people will and it will show that it is a widespread issue.