Pictures on shop page are now square and are cutting off parts of the image.

[#1]

I noticed this morning that the pictures on peoples shop page are now square and are cutting off parts of the images. Using the new listing experience you can't zoom out your pictures only delete and relist the picture.  (On the old version you can alter the picture without having to delete and re-upload picture.)

[FancyTogs]

They have already said what they are doing, read the announcement:

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Announcements/We-re-making-updates-to-size-and-ratio-for-listing-image...

Their announcement is a bit vague on the details, and I expect there will be a few problems, so I am not rushing to change any listings immediately.

Lawrence

[TheSeaCottage14]

To: Fancy Togs, yeah, I saw the announcement but I don't believe them anymore.

[FatallyFeminine]

My issue with this "update" is that I've tried to fix my photos, re-uploading photos, editing in the new editor and nothing fixes it. I go to my shop and the listings still look horrible with half the image cut off. The crazy part is I have always made my images in a square format to begin with so they should be able to display properly.

Hoping the programmers fix it because I've been selling on etsy since 2008 and this honestly looks a hot mess. It looked better in 2008. Posting this in hopes Etsy will listen to it's sellers and at least make it so we can edit the thumbnails to look decent. That's what drives sales and positive customer shopping experience.

[FancyTogs]

A far as I can tell . . .

If you have manually edited the thumbnail view then that is used on the shop page instead of a square crop of the full 1st listing image, and the 5:4 manual thumbnail edit is cropped in from each side to make it square.

Note that the search page thumbnails are still 5:4. Only the shop page thumbnails have been changed so far.

If you are using a square first image then removing the manual thumbnail edit (try rearranging image order) will allow the shop page thumbnail to use the full square image. The search thumbnail will then be a vertically central 5:4 crop, losing a bit off both the top and the bottom of the full square image.

That's only for the desktop website. The mobile website and the 2 buyer apps could be using anything, and may have different crops depending on the device screen width available.

The important thing appears to be to have the product in the central square area of the listing image, with a bit of space around it for Etsy to mess around with whatever thumbnail crops they want.

Lawrence

[BagmakerSupply]

@FatallyFeminine: Best guess would be that the imaging routine which is cropping pictures into a square is also trying to eliminate what it considers excess white space - even if the original image is already a square.

[StudioBeertje]

Hallo Etsy, ik gebruikte altijd al vierkante foto's. Waarom snijden jullie er nu toch stukken af? Zucht. 

[PartyHappier]

I'm so confused. All of the images in my shop are huge and cut off. I have always used square photos, and even when I try to adjust them in my thumbnail editor (new version), they still look too big and cut off. My shop looks like garbage. Is there anything I can do besides trying to reupload 500+ thumbnail photos? I was going to renew a bunch of listings this week after being on vacation last month, but now I'm hesitant as I really don't want to deal with this. Ugh!

[ThisandThatCapeCod]

My front page is one big mess. The photos are cut off with a color band that seems to match the color of the item. There are a few large photos with no prices. These are not free!!! There are over 500 listings I will have to deal with and all the Christmas items ready to go. Last time in June it was said to be a technical error and it got fixed. Today I don't know what it is. Ugh!

[herflyinghorses]

I've always used the crop tool so my images were square, Now they are super zoomed and off center. I can't edit them because Etsy hasn't removed the use of the OLD CROP TOOL. It's like crop on top of crop. Why can't the original photos be displayed in edit so they can be freshly cropped????? Why can't Etsy EVER get anything right? Compete laziness in coding, yet we are suppose to retake our photos. 

[RevatiMockups]

This is awful honestly, they should let us choose between the old format and the new instead of forcing us all to be square.

[BisonNumismatics]

I get what they're trying to do - is to make it look consistent on mobile (which according to my GA stats is 67% of users). But for me, Etsy is just another sales channel. I'm going to have to re-crop over 1000 images. I've written a lot of coding / automation to be able to upload images and listings without using the UI. Even doing this semi-automated, it's still a days long effort to get the logic right - for a single platform. Nowhere else requires such specific image dimensions.

[Printablesuniverse]

My shop is now showing square thumbnails on the shop page!  Looks terrible.  Seems like most of the comments above are from June and it is now August. How did you rectify this?  Did you re-do all your pictures?  Is this staying? Yikes!

[BagmakerSupply]

@Printablesuniverse: "Is this staying?" The answer is in https://community.etsy.com/t5/Announcements/We-re-making-updates-to-size-and-ratio-for-listing-image...

[ThisandThatCapeCod]

@Printablesuniverse  In June I was horrified by the shop's front page look and then it was fixed...it was a glitch so we were told. So for most of July it was back to normal but then surprise the uglies were back. Now if I go to Firefox it looks all normal again. What hurts is I have no idea how many see the my messy front page or my normal front page. Then I was Etsy shopping and the front pages of all the shops I visited were a hot mess and the one where I wanted to purchase an item did not have an item title or price listed, just big photos. I left that shop and went to another site. I have so many photos between what is listed, lots more holiday renewals and others done and ready to go. I don't know how to fix it. 

[roadkillvintage]

Okay, I was wondering what was going on, I hope they change this back soon, not going through all my listing to change it. 

[StarlineBoutique]

Sure would like to be consulted regarding an option or if this will be done. The square pictures look terrible.  

[CatDesigns]

I don't think this is a test. It seems that listings that have NOT expired have not been affected yet, but, I'm going to check to be sure.  I will still have to adjust any new listings

I adjusted all of my art prints photos yesterday and I'm happy that I did.  I created a square border on all them and my store looks so much better! Yay! The supersized photos, which were really distracting, are gone.  Don't know whether in their infinite stupid wisdom Etsy will change it again but for now I can say that I like the way my shop looks.

I use Adobe Photoshop but I'm sure it works pretty much the same in most programs.

Open the photos you want to change and make the canvas size a square.  If you have a rectangular photo that is 800 x 500 pixels you simple make the canvas size (not the image size) 850 x 850 pixels.  Most programs allow you to choose the color you want to use for the canvas.  I used white on all of mine.

Hope this helps some of you out...

This is an unbelievable waste of time.  Now I have a separate set of photos that I use just for for Etsy.  Ridiculous!

[FancyTogs]

This was a test held in June and July, that became an official change in August:

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Announcements/We-re-making-updates-to-size-and-ratio-for-listing-image...

Note that search results are currently still 5:4, so be aware that if you rush to change your images to suit only the square format then you need to make sure that they don't mess up in the search results at 5:4.

If you have a square listing image but then use the manual thumbnail edit tool, then Etsy will use that 5:4 manual thumbnail edit for your shop page thumbnails, with a crop to each side, instead of the full listing image. The effect of this is that the shop page thumbnails will be a zoomed in version of your square listing image.

Lawrence

[CatDesigns]

@FancyTogs  I just did a search to check whether the photos had been affected, as you are saying, and found that my search listing photos look fine. Nothing is a "zoomed version". Here is the search I did "ACEO cat watercolor print"

They all look same as my shop listing photos.

[FancyTogs]

@CatDesigns 

"shop page", not search

Lawrence

[ThirdeyeWarrior]

Do they really crop out too? 

[ThirdeyeWarrior]

They encourage square photos because they sell better as they are more modern that is all it just shows square on the main page

[CatDesigns]

@ThirdeyeWarrior  It's probably easier for the programmers to deal with.

Not sure there is anything that makes a square photo more modern.

Photos, in reality, should accurately represent the the item being sold. Not just fit it into a square box for whatever reason

I sell prints of my ACEO art which in reality is "required" to be a 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" rectangle.

Should everyone now create nothing but square art to accommodate Etsy's aesthetics?

Typical mindset.  Nothing out of the box here...

[MadewithlovebyNtouka]

Square photos look old-fashioned to me... and not modern. If you have items of different sizes you might show them next to each other, which will only work well in a rectangle format in most cases. 
The silliest statement, however, is that Etsy claims square photos will generate more purchases.