Glossary · Amazon
85% frame fill
85% frame fill is Amazon's main-image rule that the product should take up 85% of the image frame, so it reads clearly as a thumbnail while still being shown whole.
The rule sits in Amazon's product image requirements for the MAIN image, alongside the pure white background: the product should fill 85% of the frame, and the whole product should be shown, once. Walmart's image guidelines make a similar point in plainer words, asking sellers to crop close to the frame and not to upscale.
The reason is the thumbnail. In search results a main image is shown at a fraction of its upload size, and a product that fills only half the frame turns into a small shape surrounded by white. Filling the frame also makes better use of zoom: Amazon enables zoom at 1,000 px or more on the longest side, and every pixel of empty margin is a pixel that is not showing the product.
In practice sellers judge the fill against the product's longest side. A tall bottle on a square canvas should run close to the top and bottom edges, with a small even margin. A long, flat product such as a rug runner cannot fill the height of a square, and that is fine as long as it fills the width.
The two common mistakes pull in opposite directions. Shooting wide and leaving a large white border makes the product look small next to competitors. Overcorrecting and cropping a corner, a handle or a cable breaks the whole-product rule. Enlarging a small source image to fill the frame softens it, which shows the moment a shopper zooms.
PicBarn's main image tab scales the cut-out product to 85% of the frame on RGB 255 without redrawing it.
See also
- Main imageThe main image is the first photo in a product listing, the one buyers see in search results, and on most marketplaces it must show the real product alone on a plain white background.
- Pure white background (RGB 255, 255, 255)A pure white background is one where every background pixel has the RGB value 255, 255, 255, the colour Amazon and Walmart require behind the product in the main image.
- Zoom threshold (1,000 px)The zoom threshold is the image size at which a marketplace lets shoppers magnify a product photo; on Amazon, images 1,000 px or larger on the longest side enable zoom.
- Aspect ratioAspect ratio is the proportion of an image's width to its height, written as 1:1 for square or 4:5 for portrait, and it decides how a photo is cropped in grids and thumbnails.
Related
- Amazon main image rules: pure white background, 2000 px, and how to pass themThe Amazon main-image requirements in plain language — white background, product fill, size — and the fastest way to produce a compliant image plus lifestyle gallery shots.
- Amazon image requirements checkerFree: upload an image, see which marketplace rules it passes.