New Cover Media Manager and Download images Option

[Pixelan]

Just found out about the new media manager and the download images option. Very helpful addition, congrats to the dev team!

For those who haven't seen them yet.

Artwork downloader

See the new "Downloads" link.

( from my Splat! yellow Custom Name on Neon Pink PopSocket product)

What I would love to see here is the option to be able to download the mockups with transparent background instead of white with a shadow. There's already a thread about it in the Ideas & Suggestions board. I downloaded a few images and they contain the white background. The "Replace transparency with white" checkbox seems only for the artwork.

Media Manager

For managing cover photos, this is where people will get creative. Up to 10 additional images allowed. Here's the guide from Zazzle: https://www.zazzle.com/creators/playbook/media+manager

Will be interesting to see what people will use it for.

See the new "Media Manager" link.

The captions will allow for max 100 characters for each new image. What will I add here? Will this text influence search results on Zazzle?

Overall it will cost more time but this will make our best products stand out more, make the products listings more personal and hopefully increase sales (still aiming for my first Pro goal as a newbie). And this is optional, can't imagine adding a cover(s) for each product.

Nice to see these new features 👍 What are your thoughts on them?

[Pixelan]

An extra tip I noticed, you can add emoticons in the captions.

[KeegansCreation]

I like it. And now they have the infrastructure in place to do transparencies of the mockups too, if they decide to do that. I can see how that would be harder though. They didn't take a product photo and add background. They took a photo of the product and added our artwork. But still, I can dream...

[Barbara]

Yesterday while working, I thought something had gone wrong with the menu bar because a drop-down kept blocking my page. I guess it was a stealth launch. LOL

Am I getting this correctly?
We have a separate screen for each product where we can see multiple (up to 10) mockups for each product.
All mockups--Zazzle's & ours--will appear to the left of the main image (which we can choose).
We can create one-liner descriptions for each (such as Zazzle has with "front," "back," etc.)
We upload directly to media.

Questions:
Is there a spot in our image gallery where we can see all our mockups or will we see them only in a drop-down per each product on its product page?
Will we now have two places to do the downloads, the one we've been using and now the separate Download menu item?

Comment: I've been trying to get two views into a single mockup. This new ability may, at times, negate that issue.

Colorwash's Home

[Pixelan]

I think you're correct on all points. 

There isn't a specific spot for cover images, in my case I've created a new folder in "My Albums" to store them, and not make too much of a mess. There seems only one space, the downloads button, to download artwork and mockups on the products page, could be wrong.

I wonder how many people buy their products, place them in a suitable themed location and make in situ photo's. That would create real and great in situ photos, although a bit expensive.

[plumb4me]

I started a thread here about the new media manager, before I saw this post. https://community.zazzle.com/t5/ask-a-question/new-media-manager-cover-photos/m-p/86184#M7096

[ClareS]

I love the download screen and ability to download more than one image at once.

Is it possible to have the plain version (ie without the mockup) to download? Yesterday if I wanted to download a 5x7 invitation, it downloaded in that size/proportion. Today anything I download is a square graphic. I had a photoshop file set up with smart objects for templates and now it won't work because the images are square. 

[Pixelan]

I encountered the same, portrait shaped card was square when downloaded, looks like a bug. Best to create a technical issue thread if there isn't already one for this.

[KeegansCreation]

Yes. That's a problem I didn't see until I tried downloading artwork instead of mockup.

[Pixelan]

I do like how fast everything responses, no need to click a save button.

[Sara_H]

I hope that investment is being made and put into server storage. What I am noticing when I upload one promo is that they don't get updated in the back end as quickly as before.

Expect more delays (minimum 24 hours but probably longer)

[Marcia]

Yes, that happened to me yesterday as well. Now I will have to keep checking up on the newly uploaded mockups to make sure they're "sticking".

[Sara_H]

@Marcia  still dreaming of the dropdown that shows which products haven't had a promo uploaded 😂 

[Marcia]

Yes, I would love to know if not adding captions will influence search results. As well as adding only 1 mockup image as opposed to any additional ones. Having thousands of products in my store, there's no way I'm adding additional mockups to each product. I need to get back to finally creating new products! But now am I going to be screwed in terms of mp standing if I don't do that? (I have noticed that for me, adding mockups has helped in mp standing as well as an increase in sales.) There's only so many hours in a day & I'm already bleary-eyed from creating mockups. Enough!

[ColsCreations]

Feedback for Media Manager [Official Thread - General Discussion]
Media Manager [Store Management]  
New Media Manager Cover Photos [Ask a Question]
New Cover Media Manager and Download images Option [General Discussion] <-- You Are Here

[Maura]

Great post and breakdown of how it's being used! I also don't think I will be mocking up every single product in the future once I have more products. But so far the speed of uploading is nice even though it takes time to show publicly.

I'm still figuring out if this new recommended size 1480px x 1480px can also be applied to the collections cover image? So that I don't need to create images twice. Is the collections cover now a separate size? I had an in situ mockup at 1700px and I tried my hand at using media manager, and the image uploaded fine but when I tried to change my collections cover with the same image the white border inside the cover "image area" filled up and does'n't match the other collection default images with borders. I must be missing something?

I may start a separate thread if I'm the only one trying to use media manager images with collection covers. I was able to with the old system cover art.

[Pixelan]

Thanks!

I usually re-use covers from products for the cover image on a collection using the 1480x1480 resolution size.

Currently having a problem of a collection not showing up in store/collections when you view it public (Not logged in), but that's also for a new topic. Will wait a few more days, maybe it sometimes takes a bit longer.

[Maura]

Thanks for the tip on re using covers. I had a problem with collections not showing up publicly and even logging in a while back. I wound up contacting support and they fixed it. I hope your collections are back.

[Maura]

fyi - I had started another thread with my question about about covers and ColsCreations answered it! I'm back on track.

[Pixelan]

The collection is visible again, I created a single new product, added it to the collection and after a short while the collection showed up. Maybe something was triggered when a new product was added.

[Caprice]

Forgive if it's a silly question - but I can't seem to work out where the 'captions' are viewable in the MP?  I've tried and don't see anything?

[BKMuir]

Caprice - Captions are only visible in the media Strip of OVERLY LARGE images when a viewer opens the larger view of the product. It seems that everyone has to scroll down a half page or more to see the caption beneath it's related image.

[Caprice]

I'm sorry BK - still not sure where you mean?  If no trouble - can you link to an example?

[Sara_H]

@Caprice if you click on the first cover image and scroll down the picture, you'll see the caption https://www.zazzle.com/pirate_captain_grog_black_faux_leather_look_custom_hip_flask-2568666381606974...

caption example

[Caprice]

Ah!  Now I see - thank you!  But I'm not sure captions there will be seen very often???

[Barbara]

Not unless customers scroll instead of clicking on the thumbs. So then the question is, do people on more conventional computers, not smart phones, scroll or click?

Colorwash's Home

[ClareS]

I was wondering whether they appeared somewhere on the page! I have found that if you include a caption it pulls through as the Pinterest description on the Tailwind Chrome Extension

[Barbara]

@ClareS: My first act would be to delete the caption. Our descriptions are much fuller.

Colorwash's Home

[Connie]

I LOVE The new Downloads tab! It makes it so easy to download the right image, no matter what view we have it set on! So many times before I ended up downloading the wrong view because I forgot to change it before downloading.

As far as media manager, it's time-consuming enough to add ONE cover photo! I'm definitely not interested in adding more than one! If something is double-sided, I show both sides in the first image anyway. There's no point in making a separate image for each side, because that's what Zazzle already has.