Amazon Main Image Requirements: White Background and 85%

Published 16 October 2026 · by Tekiba

What Amazon's product image guide says about the MAIN image

We read Amazon's Seller Central help page Product image guide (the United States version) on the publication date above. Of the main image it says:

Show the product as 85% of the image.

Show the entire product within the frame of the image. Do not cut off any part of the product.

Have a pure white background (RGB color values: 255, 255, 255) to create a consistent shopping experience for customers across search and product detail pages.

Amazon adds that the image should show the product once, one unit of it, with only the accessories that come with it, and that packaging stays out unless it is part of the product. It also says what happens when no main image meets these rules: Amazon may take the listing out of search until one does.

The guide allows a lifestyle photo as the main image only for a limited number of product types, and then "with no text or extra logos". That is the nearest the page comes to watermarks: it never uses the word, but a mark is extra text or a logo by any reading.

Sizes: what the guide asks, and where 2000 comes from

On size the same page says "Images below 500 pixels on the longest side cannot be uploaded," recommends 1000 pixels or more, and explains why: "Images with 1,000+ pixels on the longest side enable the zoom function." It sets an upper limit as well, far above anything a phone produces, and asks you not to enlarge small images artificially.

A larger figure turns up in Amazon's own Home Selection Style Guide, a PDF Amazon still serves from its help pages, which covers the home category: "Image size must be a minimum of 2000 pixels" a side. The same guide says "Product should fill at least 85% of the frame" and "Images cannot include text, graphics, or logos." So 2000 pixels is a category rule, not the general one. If you sell in a category with its own style guide, that guide is the one to follow; if you do not, 2000 pixels is still a comfortable size, but it is not what the general page asks.

You may also have been told 1600. We did not find that figure on either page we read; it circulates in seller advice, and it sits between the two figures Amazon does publish.

What the other images may show

The rules above are for the MAIN image. Amazon's guide lists a shorter set that applies to every image: it has to match the product and its title, and there must be no customer reviews or star ratings, no claims such as free shipping, no Amazon logos or badges, and no nudity. One line reads "No text or pricing details (swatch image only)," which limits text on the swatch, the small colour sample. The guide does not apply the white background or the 85% rule to the additional images, which is why they are where product-in-use photos, angles and close-ups go.

Whether a watermark is welcome on those is a question the general page does not answer. Amazon's Home Selection Style Guide does: its rule that images cannot include text, graphics, or logos is not limited to the MAIN image, so in the home category it covers the additional images too. Outside a category guide like that one, the general page neither allows nor forbids a mark on a secondary image, and a large one over the product works against its first rule, that images accurately represent what you are selling. Check your category's style guide before adding one.

Getting a batch ready

1. Start from photos shot on white. This is the step a resizing tool cannot do for you: SignetDrop cannot turn a grey backdrop into pure white, and it does not cut products out of their backgrounds.

2. Size them. Drag the photos onto the tool. On the free version, set Longest edge to 2048: a 4032×3024 photo becomes 2048×1536, comfortably past the zoom threshold. The free version stops at 2048px on the longest edge, so for a category that asks for 2000 a side you need a larger output: on the paid version, a 4032×3024 photo sized to 2667px on its long edge and then set to 4:3 comes out as 2667×2000, with no space added because the photo already has that shape.

3. Be careful with added space. SignetDrop can add a white border to reach a shape, but a border is frame the product does not fill. A 4:3 photo padded to square fills three quarters of the frame at best, which is under Amazon's 85%. The built-in Amazon preset adds no space for that reason.

4. Name and run. Untick the text mark (it starts ticked with a sample name), set the names to Amazon's pattern of identifier, variant code and extension, and press Process and download ZIP. Rename photos for Amazon bulk upload covers the naming. By default the photos come out with no EXIF, so no location goes with them.

What this does not do

It sizes, names and strips the files you hand over; it does not check a photo against Amazon's rules, and it does not upload anything. Amazon decides what it accepts and can change its guides, and a category style guide can ask for more than the general page. Output above 2048px and set shapes are part of the paid version, $29 once, with the full split on the pricing panel. SignetDrop never writes its own name onto your photos.

Questions