They're not at all terrible.
They do look very slightly fuzzy to me on the listing page, but only when I look hard and I doubt that it is a normally noticeable problem. When I open the full size uploaded image I can see they have poor pixel level detail and heavy compression. They look like a typical phone camera image when looked at closely, the result of more pixels than the lens can resolve to and too much software processing.
Did you do any of these before upload?:
- crop heavily,
- upscal,
- compress the image filesize.
They can all exaggerate a weak image quality because Etsy adds another layer of compression.
or . .. it could be Etsy messing with the image servers. I think that Etsy occasionally tries new compression settings, it can save storage space on the servers which saves them money. I suspect that they run multiple servers (or databases) and trial new settings on one of them, so what individual users see can be different versions with different settings.
There's an explanation of one of their compression systems, from 2017, on their codeascraft blog:
https://www.etsy.com/codeascraft/reducing-image-file-size-at-etsy?ref=codeascraft
It may be a browser caching problem. Browsers don't reload the full web pages every time, they reload what they can from their saved cache:
- Sometimes sellers get low resolution versions of their images in the browser cache from the listing edit and preview pages.
- It may also be that you are have been served with more compressed images recently due to low bandwidth on your internet connection. Do a speedcheck on your connection. Reboot (switch off wait a minute then switch on) your router / wifi to make sure it is not a throughput problem on that, they can clog up after a while and run slow. Even if it is not slow now those versions may be stuck in your browser cache.
Try clearing your browser cache in your browser settngs. Just the cache, not the history and not the cookies.
Lawrence (Clare's other half)
