Thumbnails have become unglued and don't react to correction

[AnnaleasFinest]

Is anybody else affected?

When I just did a search, the photos only looked right in the "most popular" list. (rectangular)

But below, the square photos are all unzoomed and most items appear too small now, and there is too much backdrop showing.

Please fix this.

Firefox, laptop.

[TheHomespunLoft]

@AnnaleasFinest 

We’re making updates to size and ratio for listing... - Welcome to the Etsy Community

wouldn't this address your concerns? Maybe you need to get your photos to match what Etsy is now changing them to??

When I look at your shop- all your pix look normal to me

[AnnaleasFinest]

@TheHomespunLoft 

I was adapted as soon as they announced it.

The photos look ok in my shop, but in the search they look different, and the thumbnail zoom is not being applied.

[Marvinboots]

Maybe Etsy should have a platform that is more accommodating to photos taken  on phones or regular cameras. eBay an Instagram don't have this PROBLEM!

The entirety of my items are not visible in the thumbnail, more like half in some photos. 

I have spent, more like wasted, hours trying to figure out how, why, what to do, to no avail. I can't find solution, one I can understand.

Just how do I get a photo taken on my phone or camera to match what etsy can use. 

If thumbnails zoomed out instead of only zooming in, my problem wouldn't exist.

[FallenAngelBrass]

Not sure what you mean by unglued, but all of your photos look fine to me.  The thumbnails are squares. 

[AnnaleasFinest]

@FallenAngelBrass 

you know that we can use a zoom for the thumbnail, right?

Well, the part if the photo we select works in my shop, but NOT  IN THE SEARCH, so that some items appear too far away now because I zoomed them.

I don't know how else to explain the thumbnail zoom to you, in case you never noticed it and zoomed a photo closer.

[LaRenaissanceGirl]

@FallenAngelBrass 

I don’t know for sure, but “unglued” could be an autocorrect for “unzoomed” (Which I think is not a word).

[AnnaleasFinest]

@FallenAngelBrass 

I think I may have used the wrong word ! If yes, I'm sorry.

Maybe the "cropped" thumbnail is the correct word.

I can't crop my thumbnails, - is this how it's called?

They look cropped in my shop, but look uncropped in the search pages....

[DaysofYoreTreasures]

@AnnaleasFinest Just wanting to check that you are referring to the images in Etsy search, not in your home page? If they have changed to square in search, that is very scary because many sellers have square images in their shops now that don't look right..
I don't see it but will be watching out.

[DaysofYoreTreasures]

@AnnaleasFinest I see it now! I normally use Chrome so I changed to Firefox not logged in and there it was.
The search images were square at 300x300 and appeared to be showing the entire 1st image.
I also noticed that titles with commas were truncated at the first comma.

I am calling in the big guns. @cindylouwho2 I searched for your signature piece, the Blue Coral Fossil Necklace, Cobalt Jewelry etc.. logged out in Firefox. The image was square and appeared to be your entire first photo. The right side of your pendant was not cut off like it is in your shop. In addition, your title was truncated at the first comma. It only showed Blue Coral Fossil Necklace.

[AnnaleasFinest]

@DaysofYoreTreasures 

in the shop, they look alright, and the zoom is working.

However, in the ETSY SEARCH, in Firefox

all photos lose the thumbnail zoom that we selected, and the entire photo is being shown in a square; NOT  the zoom we selected.

And the "most popular" row shows the thumbnail photos rectangular and with the seller's zoom. 

It should be either/or, and not sometimes this and sometimes that, while Etsy is experimenting and tinkering every week with something new and we're back to square one, and being kept busy with old listings, instead of listing new ones!

How can I list a new item, when I am constantly having to adjust the old ones?

Our thumbnail zoom should STICK....and be working on the search pages.

[DaysofYoreTreasures]

@AnnaleasFinest I think this could be a step in the right direction, if they get it right.
Many sellers, myself included, found that their zoomed thumbnails were way too zoomed in for the shop display when they first changed to square.
If they changed ALL the search images to square AND used the same method for our shops AND fixed the truncated titles AND changed the thumbnail in listing editor to square we might be on a winner.

For sellers like yourself who have been able to work with the zoom, you should be able to re-zoom once the thumbnail adjuster is changed to square.

[AnnaleasFinest]

@DaysofYoreTreasures 

Presently, the crop or zoom function is missing on the search pages, which looks ridiculous.

At least now it seems to pay off, that I never use commas in my title...

[cindylouwho2]

Seems like there are multiple tests going on, which is normal now. I am seeing that necklace of mine as a proper square in search, but no truncation of title. @DaysofYoreTreasures 

@AnnaleasFinest Etsy is still mucking with this, so it doesn't make sense to adjust any old listings now. They will fix the shop home pages eventually. 

[AAANativeArts]

@DaysofYoreTreasures

"...I also noticed that titles with commas were truncated at the first comma."

Comma or not, about the first 30 characters of your title will show on thumbnail pages.

[SewlyButtons]

I'm speechless... 
Does this mean this entire square images fiasco isn't finished yet... like still a frickin' messed up work in progress?

You would think at this point etsy SEES and realizes the chaos they've created with this whole "square" images thing. Announced... but maybe not really ready for prime time yet? Along with pretty sketchy specifics provided to sellers. How many sellers may have or are currently spending HOURS or DAYS adjusting or redoing their photos or images because etsy is going live with incomplete untested changes? And will those "redo's" then still need more re-doing.. because it's some big fat secret what etsy's end-game is (even though we're really pretty much "need to know" peeps??? )

I am sooo tired of being a LIVE guinea pig... (feel free to insert whatever naughty, forum inappropriate, words make you happy)

WTF????

[SewlyButtons]

You know, I always thought that there was a certain elegance to the rectangular images on etsy... they somehow visually set us apart from everywhere else (without it being obvious... just a subtle welcome difference). I also found it easier to be more artistic with "arrangements" in a rectangular format... 

but what the hell do I know?

[SimplyModernDesignCo]

YES, this! Its MADDENING.. Ive been at this OVER AND OVER again, sometimes it sticks my thumbnail I choose in my preview when I auto crop - othertimes it zooms WAY IN - other times it zooms WAY OUT - I am losing my mind over here!

[AnnaleasFinest]

@SewlyButtons 

you're right!

Actually, by nature, our eyesight/ vision is more rectangular than square.

We can look from left to right without moving the head.

But we have to move the neck to look up or down.

So I think that's why we prefer rectangular, because it corresponds well with our physiology.

Or  "good Feng Shui",

Even our rooms are not cubes! Usually. We feel cooped up....

[FancyTogs]

I am seeing square images in search results, 300 x 300px. They feel a lot bigger than the old 5:4 format because of the extra height.

They are using the manual thumbnail edit if it exists, but . . . instead of cropping the sides off the 5:4 manual thumbnail edit, as they did on the shop home page, they have extended above and below the 5:4 area selected by the manual edit to create a larger square thumbnail.

It is likely that Etsy are running multiple test formats to compare buyer responses, so you may see something different.

I am still not rushing to change anything, we could be 2 months or more before Etsy finish messing around.

With the peak holiday season approaching expect Etsy to be moving the goalposts with major disruptive changes.

Lawrence (Clare's other half)

[FancyTogs]

I am suspecting that the extended top and bottom to create a square from the 5:4 manual thumbnail edit may be a trial for automatically porting the 5:4 manual thumbnail edits to the square format. That would be pretty cool actually, and would ease the burden on sellers.

Waht would be really nice is if Etsy communicated what they are doing so that thousands of sellers don't have to waste time manully editing their thumbnails or reloading images to overcome the side cropping. 

The moral of the story: Don't rush to make changes, Etsy are still messing around.

Lawrence

[DragonflyDreams1]

Etsy is not only messing around, they are trying to fix problems with the changes they made. I have been changing to square pictures. I would start with a square and position the rectangle thumbnail. Etsy was then enlarging and re-cropping the rectangle thumbnails TO squares for my store pages (instead of using the original square pictures). I contacted them. It is indeed a problem and they have a team working on it.

I assume they have an agile development environment and that breeds problems like this. 

[FancyTogs]

@DragonflyDreams1 

The logic for the new shop home page thumbnails is:

• if you have done a manual thumbnail edit then that is used instead of the full listing image.
• the 5:4 manual thumbnail edit is cropped at each side to make it square for display on the shop home page. This loses 10% of the manual thumbnail image from each side, which makes it look enlarged.
• the full listing image is only used for the shop home page thumbnail if the manual thumbnail edit is not present.

So when you upload a square image, as soon as you use the thumbnail adjustment Etsy is ignoring the full listing image and using the thumbnail image instead, and applying a crop.

The software functionality is messed up, and I think it may get changed. I don't think that their development is agile, I think it is loosely planned, with a lot of on the fly individual interpretation of functionality requirements.

The square thumbnail search page test I am seeing today does it differently.

So slow down, wait to see what else Etsy changes in the next few weeks.

Lawrence

[DragonflyDreams1]

@FancyTogs That doesn't seem to be the issue I have had with thumbnails. If Etsy had simply applied a crop to my thumbnail image (removing the sides) my images would have been fine. My rectangle thumbnails still had room around the item top and bottom. After Etsy cropped it to square it was zoomed in and cropped off-center. I think that is why I received an email response that there was a problem they were working on. It was like they were aligning left or right when cropping the rectangle thumbnail to square. 

This brings me to the question, why are thumbnails rectangles when listing????

[FancyTogs]

@DragonflyDreams1 

From what you describe it sounds like there may be multiple versions of the pages, with them coded slightly differently.

The new square shop home page has been using the old 5:4 thumbnail images, and using the shop home page formatting code to display them as a square crop.

The new search page test that I saw appeared to be creating a new square version of the thumbnail edit image, which included areas of the listing image above and below the old 5:4 manual thumbnail edit.

The square image file names are marked as "il_300x300.", wheras the old 5:4 manual thumbnail edits are marked as "il_340x270.".

That indicates to me that the square search page test I saw was coded in a very different manner from the square shop home page. The square thumbnail image for search will need to be generated by a new separate system routine as a new image and stored on their image servers.

Lawrence