---
title: "Thumbnail (thumbnail image): meaning and marketplace rules | Herofab"
description: "A small version of a product image, shown in search results, category pages and carts. It is usually cut from the first image of the listing."
url: https://herofab.app/glossary/thumbnail
language: en
updated: 2026-10-07
---

# Thumbnail

A small version of a product image, shown in search results, category pages and carts. It is usually cut from the first image of the listing.

Also called **thumbnail image** · **preview image** · **search thumbnail**

![A pair of gold drop earrings on white](https://herofab.app/img/ex/drops-packshot-1100.webp)

Made with Herofab · Packshot studio

The thumbnail is the picture a shopper sees before any other, at a fraction of the size of the product page. Marketplaces generate it from the first image, and many crop that image to a fixed shape on the way, so the edges of the original may not appear.

An image that works as a thumbnail shows one product, large in the frame, on a calm background, with a clear outline. Fine detail, small text and a wide scene vanish at this size. Leaving a margin around the product protects it from the crop; a product that touches the edge of the photo is the first to lose a part.

The quickest test is to view the first image at the size of a search result. If the product and its colour can still be recognised, the thumbnail does its job. Some marketplaces set rules for the thumbnail that are stricter than those for the rest of the gallery.

## Thumbnail, answered.

**Why is my product cut off in the search results thumbnail?**

Because the thumbnail is cropped to a fixed shape, and the first image was framed too tightly for it. A product that reaches the edge of the photo loses a part as soon as the shape changes, so the remedy is to export the first image again with more margin. Herofab's free Product photo checker tests whether the product still fits inside centred square, portrait and landscape crops of the photo.

**Can I choose which image is used as the thumbnail?**

Usually only by changing the order of the images. The thumbnail is taken from the first image of the listing, so moving another picture into first place makes it the thumbnail. That picture then has to meet the rules for the first image, which can be stricter than those for the rest of the gallery.

## What marketplaces say about it.

Updated 25 September 2026

- **Etsy:** Leave enough border to crop to square, portrait and landscape without losing the product [Official page](https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015663347-Requirements-and-Best-Practices-for-Images-in-Your-Etsy-Shop)
- **Allegro:** The thumbnail — the first image — on white, RGB 255.255.255; in the Fashion categories and kids' clothing and footwear, a uniform white or uniform light grey (HSV value V of at least 0.8); other gallery images may use any background [Official page](https://help.allegro.com/en/sell/a/rules-for-images-in-the-gallery-and-in-descriptions-8dvWB8Y2PIq)

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