* post last updated 11/08/2020
https://help.zazzle.com/hc/en-us/articles/232059087-Image-Asset-Sizes-Needed-for-Your-Store
Store banners are resized by Zazzle to 2048 x 565 and then are scaled to fit the viewing device so it is a good idea to keep important elements near the center as the outer edges may be cut off on some screens, particularly the right edge. Also try to avoid putting anything in the lower left 1/3 area as that gets covered by your profile pic block and title/desciption that Zazzle adds. Something that may be sort-of close to that area on one screen may actually be getting overlapped by it on another. The minimum allowed size is 1140 x 315.
Your Profile Pic that is overlayed on your store banner needs to be a minimum of 512 x 512 but it is displayed at 150 x 150.
Profile banners get sized to the same size as Store banners (2048 x 565) but in their case, it's the very center you want to avoid decorating on as that's where your profile pic and name & description are placed by Zazzle. The minimum allowed size is 1140 x 315.
Category cover images have no minimum required size but they are displayed st 253 x 253. Making them larger is just a waste as they aren't going to be displayed that big. Also, "window" style cover images that show a variety of the products in that category may look good at say 1280 x 1280 when you are creating them but when shrunk down to the display size of 253 x 253 the detail one might have been aiming for might not be as clear. Not to say there aren't a lot of great looking "windows" out there - there are - just keep in mind if you go that route it's only going to be seen at 253 x 253 not whatever larger size you design it at.
Collection Cover images need to be a minimum of 324 x 324 but are displayed at only 272 x 272. (If instead of adding a cover image you just let it show the first item in the collection, it displays at 252 x 252.)
Collection banners are 1140 x 315.
Media Files (the "Media Items" they want you to add at least ten of to your store Home) need to be a minimum of 1440 x 1080. See this post (11/13/2020) for more information on the Media section.
https://forum.zazzle.com/gallery/template_for_creating_a_perfectly_sized_header]Template for creating a perfectly sized header image for your Media section
TIP: If you forget what size an image should be try using one you [i]know[/i] is very small and you'll get a message on screen telling you that your image is too small and the minimum required size. (Except for Category covers, for some reason you don't get such helpful info when trying to add those.)
You can get an idea of how your store looks on different resolutions & devices by using these simulator tools:
[links deleted]
** Screen resolution simulators no longer work with Zazzle because "To protect your security, zazzle.com will not allow Firefox to display the page if another site has embedded it."
Thank you. It's info I often referred back to myself. I am glad it is one of my few posts I had saved elsewhere from the old forums.
My store banner was the perfect size (for years) until today. Now it's been enlarged to the point where everything is bleeding off (on my computer, iPad and iPhone). I looked at other stores and their banners are way off too. What's going on over there at Zazzle??? A lot of changes happening that look like mistakes or glitches.
First, it's descriptions that have been translated to other languages and rewritten in poor English (still not resolved). Then it's the elimination of watermarks whether you want them or not (no explanation). Now this! What's the story?
One of the mods mentioned in another thread about the blown-up store banners that they are aware of the issue and working on it.
Important Update as of June 15, 2023
Cover Images for Collections now need to be a minimum of 1480 x 1480
@Windy You're funny. 😀
You're the only one here who's provided an actual example to look at so, what size did you upload that banner at?
Here's what I found to ponder poking around tonight...
While store logos are still showing as .png or .jpg, store banners are showing as .webp
.webp is a lossy image format that's been gaining popularity for web use as it can compress like a .jpg while still having transparency like a .png. It looks like Z is converting whatever file type is uploaded to .webp file type and maybe being over-zealous with the compression level along with also maybe down-sizing the image dimensions. I can't be sure of that since I don't know what size you uploaded your banner at. But here's what I see -
The top image is your store at normal 100% view.
The bottom is your banner image singled out where my browser tells me its size is only 667 x 184. At that size it does look nice and sharp. But here I have stretched it out in my browser to the same size as displayed on the store page and well, you can see it looks the same as on the store page, blurry and pixelated. This is why I think Z is maybe compressing and downsizing images in converting to .webp, and then stretching the conversion out again for display.
Here is what your new banner looks like to me when singled out:
Now here's what my banner I added 5 years ago look like when singled out:
You can see it's also showing as a .webp image type with max dimension being 2280 same as yours, except the actual dimensions are 2048 x 565, just as I uploaded it at. So it's not getting all stretched out for display on my shop page and thus blurry.
So my guess from all this is that newly uploaded banners are being converted to .webp format and getting compressed and re-sized in the process, then stretched back out to fit the viewing screen with less than ideal results, while older existing banners are getting converted too but not re-sized and thus not suffering the same ill effects.
This is all just pure conjecture as I don't know what size you uploaded your banner at. If you did upload it at only 667 x 184 then that's a different story.
Does that mean you did then upload that first above banner at only 667 x 184? I'm wondering how that's possible as it won't even let me select anything from my gallery that's less than the minimum 1140 x 315.
If you uploaded it at a larger size, I am wondering why it's the only one of all the random banners I checked that showed at such a small size. Every other banner I've looked at shows as 2048 x 566 or within a few pixels of that. So from what I can tell, banners are still being re-sized to 2048 x 565 and then scaled to fit the viewing screen.
Looking at it now it tells me it's 2048 x 566 and it looks fine to me on my 1920 screen, I don't see any blurriness even when I used Responsive Design Mode to pretend I was on a 3840 wide monitor.
I agree with you though that when in doubt it's better to go larger and have something scaled down then go too small and have it scaled up. I'm not sure about the 5650 by 2048 size though as it's a different aspect ratio, I'd be afraid of it getting cropped or warped.
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They recommend videos be 1080 x 1920 for optimal viewing on mobile. I'm not sure why, my couple videos are smaller but that same ratio and don't look particularly good on my phone, too much space on the sides. Square video looks better. Here's a screenshot of what they look like on my phone when viewing the mobile version of the website via my phone's browser:
On the Zazzle website, square is best because the layout is designed for square content. The thumbnails, the main image/video view default or clicked to zoom, the main image/video on the left of the collection pods, AND in the MP where videos are now shown in the thumb results.
If you look at this search results page, you'll see the above shirt with square video as the fourth result. Move your mouse over it to see the video play.
Now look at this results page. The above pillow with the recommended not-square ratio is the 6th result. Move your mouse over it to see it play.
See the difference? The not-square vid is being cropped & zoomed to the square layout, not a good look and disappointing if you put a lot of effort into your vid.
I 100% recommend making all your videos square and ignoring the guidelines suggestion of 9:16 ratio.
Follow-up info:
I wrote in last post "... my couple videos are smaller but that same ratio..."
Zazzle recommends 1080 x 1920. Checking the properties of my files on my computer, I made & uploaded my vids at that exact size. But viewing the info on them in My Images on Zazzle, they are 404 x 720. Likewise the square vid I made & uploaded at 1080 x 1080 but in My Images, Zazzle says it's 720 x 720. So it seems that regardless of what larger size you upload them at, they are being converted to a max size of 720 x 720 to fit the square layouts.
I don't know if Zazzle displays them larger that anywhere, but I'd guess it's like images where it's a good rule of thumb to always go a little larger than required to be safe since being sized down is better than having something too small get sized up.
