Have you noticed the change in "cover image" size guideline to 1480 x 1480 px?

[GabrielaG]

Hi everyone! Just as a heads up, have you noticed that there has been a change in the "cover image" size guidelines? The initial cover image guidelines said to create cover images in 2048 x 2048 pixels, while the "new" guidelines under Zazzle's "news"  with this link: https://www.zazzle.com/creators/playbook/learn+about+cover+photo  says: "For the sharpest image, please upload 1480 x 1480 px."

 I sent an email to Zazzle asking which guidelines should we follow, the old ones or the new ones? and what happens with all the huge amount of cover photos we have already made in 2048 x 2048", are these no longer "good quality" cover images? and this is the answer that I got from Alisha from customer service: "The new guidelines are what I would follow. These things are rarely changed or updated but that is a new change as of recently. However, your current photos will still be perfectly fine, the size 1480 x 1480 would just be of higher quality. If you would like to change some, you could just search your products by popularity and change the most popular ones."

I feel frustrated and trampled on to say the least! I have invested so much time and effort creating a huge amount of cover images, to find out that now they are no longer of higher quality and should consider updating some of them! ... Does Zazzle have any idea of the work it involves creating these cover images? Not only has my time for designing been greatly reduced, but now I also have a huge amount of cover images in my computer using so much memory space! I was starting to consider not saving cover images permanently, but now after seeing they can make changes like these, I'm glad I have them so I don't have to start creating them from scratch all over again!...now I'm venting, I'm clearly upset.

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know of this new update, as I'm guessing many of you have not even looked at the new guidelines, thinking they are probably the same as the ones we had before 🙂

[idraw]

@GabrielaG 
Thanks for posting the email reply from Customer Service.
Lots of others are already aware since yesterday, (On 1/5/23) ,I posted in response to a question by @LakeEffects that I checked the upload cover button settings,it says—

Upload your own cover photo 
Your cover photo will be displayed in search results and your product page

✓Must be at least 1480 x 1480 pixels

✓You must have full rights to use the photo

✓Cannot include logos, marketing text, or website links

[GabrielaG]

Thanks idraw, You are right! ...to be honest, after adding daily so many cover images I stopped reading what the "cover image" upload window says and go straight to click on the "I have full legal rights to use this photo" check box.... maybe others do the same. That's why I thought it was important to add this thread and let everyone know 🙂

[idraw]

@GabrielaG 
Not everyone reads every thread/post, you are making others more aware by letting them know, that's what's important. 👍
And by posting, you are bringing up the question of size limits for Zazzle mods to answer about.

[PenguinPower]

In response to the OP.. (this ended up threaded wrong and I can’t change it) They made that change when they released it from beta. 

[Wildart]

hmm, to me the higher numbers mean higher quality(resolution), sounds strange that the smaller image would be higher  quality.  it only says must be AT LEAST 1480 px..... I will just make that my minimum, IMHO you can completely use the larger resolution...

also Zazz must have algorythms, formulas,programs that make their production of cover images easier for them, i would think. So no, they may not understand the work involved for us...

[GabrielaG]

hmmm, that's what I thought too! a higher resolution should mean the picture contains more pixels, which should then create a sharper and clearer image. This is confusing!  Maybe a Zazzle moderator can give us more information. Is it that the cover image should be "at least" 1480 x 1480 px but 2048 x 2048" px. is best?

[Connie]

I thought it was ALWAYS 1480! I never saw the 2048 size listed. Mine vary depending on the mockups I use, but when I do my own from scratch, I make them 2048x2048, since that's the size that the downloaded images are, and so I figured it would be good quality.

[GabrielaG]

Hi Connie, I was part of the initial Beta cover image program and the original guidelines that I received asked to make the cover images in 2048 x 2048. It wasn't until I read the guidelines under the "News" tab that I noticed that they no longer said 2048 x 2048 but 1140 x 1140 px.

What puzzles me is the answer that I got from customer service where they answer that is best to from now on make them in 1140 x 1140 px. and that I can go back and change the size on the "popular" products that I have with the image size 2048 x 2048 px, so they can be of greater quality... shouldn't 2048 x 2048 px be of much more quality than 1140 x 1140 px? more pixels, more quality? 

I think this is probably more a problem of Zazzle getting a huge amount of high quality images filling a great amount of their servers capacity....

I'm still questioning which size I should use next time as the answer of less pixels equals more quality doesn't seem right to me. Maybe what they mean is that in order to have quality images they should be "at least" 1140 x 1140 px. but is anything higher quality like 2048 x 2048 still fine to upload? Hope a Zazzle moderator can come and shed some light on it.

[Cherie]

I hate cover photos because why should I do MORE WORK and get less money, as usual??? Oh, we'll get better attention, a better standing in the marketplace if we use them, thanks a LOT. I have every right to be given a chance to be seen whether or not I spend my time and/or money for mock-up covers. Every time a print on demand website wants us to 'do this and do that' to make you more sales!! Yes, it's more money for them, less for us. I have worked hard enough trying to create unique designs I've been here for quite a while, and I'm truly tired of it, to say the least. GIVE US SOME TEMPLATES, ok? Another website does, and it didn't hurt them to help us out by offering us FREE mock-ups! Rant over.

[CrazyMermaid]

Thank you ! I missed this. 

[TShirtfort]

What is the dpi? is it 1480 x 1480 with 300 dpi or is it 72 for web pics. How do we get a picture of the product itself that is that big to swap in? I tried and got a really small pixelated picture of my mug. Obviously I don't just anyone to be able to get huge pictures of my designs but how do I get this? Tried to download the guide but it's not super helpful.

[DIANA]

Dpi stands for dots per inch and is only used when you are talking about printing.  It means that the printer will only print 72 dots per inch of image.  Ppi stands for pixels per inch and is used when you are speaking of digital images displayed on a computer monitor.  The standard ppi for images that are displayed on the web is 72ppi.  When creating images on your computer that will eventually be printed the usual ppi is 150 to 300ppi depending on what type of image it is.  72ppi is considered low resolution.  They works great on the web and has a much smaller file size which means it takes up less room on the servers that run a website.  My guess is that they started out with 2048 x 2048 for the beta and finally decided that the images would not have to be displayed that large so they changed it to 1480 x 1480.  Your 2048 x 2048 images will still display just fine as they are larger images that will be reduced to a smaller size.  You run into issues when you have to go the opposite way--trying make a low resolution image larger is what causes fuzzy blurred images.