Need to know how to do an item preview, live preview, or great cover images to present your item for sale in the best possible way? This article outlines what item presentation includes, what is required and how this is optimized for our platforms during the upload process.
- What does Item Presentation Mean?
- Cover Images (Inline Preview)
- Preview Images & Preview Videos
- Live Previews
- Watermarking Files
- Legal Requirements
What does Item Presentation Mean?
As part of our Item Quality expectations, Item Presentation is all about how your item is presented to customers. Customers want to see how the item looks, what features it has and how it works, so they can make an informed decision to purchase as a result of what they see on your item page.
Item presentation is the first thing your customers see and what they use to consider to purchase. Take some time to review the following item presentation requirements below and the expectations for specific content types.
Cover Images (Inline Preview)
The first thing subscribers will see when determining if your item is the product they are looking for is the cover image. This is your chance to showcase your item!
The cover image is your primary preview image which will be displayed as the first image shown on your item detail page and in the search results. Alongside your main cover image, you’ll also be able to include a series of preview images as outlined in the next section below.
In an effort to present your items in the best way possible, Envato offers cover images that are larger than what's traditionally found on digital marketplaces. We realise this is more work for you as an author however the end result will lead to your products looking as good as possible leading to more exposure of your items.
Please review the following requirements below to get started!
- The cover image must be provided at these dimensions at the minimum:
- Cover images must have a 3:2 aspect ratio
- Recommended Dimensions: 2340px (W) x 1560px (H)
- Minimum Dimensions: 1170px (W) x 780px (H) - aspect ratio 3:2
- You can make your cover image larger, however, the aspect ratio of 3:2 must be adhered to.
While we ask for the highest resolution cover image for flexibility, keep in mind this image may be scaled down and shown in many different formats. Please make sure any included text also looks good and is readable at smaller resolutions. See the Marketing Text & Branding Guidelines below for more recommendations.
- Maximum file size should be 20MB.
- Accepted image formats are JPEG, PNG, SVG, or GIF.
- Image quality and required size:
- If you don't have existing previews at this size, you should create new cover images for your items. Do not upscale or resize smaller JPEG images to the required dimensions as this results in a poor quality final image.
- Export your cover images at high-quality while also considering file size. Upscaled, over-compressed, noisy or generally low-quality image files are not acceptable.
Hints and Tips
- Don't include too much additional text on your cover images. While we allow some text and branding it's important that your cover image clearly demonstrates the item itself and looks good. Please see Marketing Text & Branding Guidelines below.
- Light colour backgrounds often work best.
- Keep the cover image clean and free of clutter.
- Where appropriate show real-world usage of your Item.
Preview Images and Preview Videos
The cover image is considered the primary preview image to present your file and is required at the set dimensions/aspect ratio listed above. We know that one image isn't enough to show off your product so you can include up to 15 preview images.
Including preview images is optional, but if you are including one, please follow these guidelines:
- We highly recommend you to include 3 or more for best results on the item upload page.
- The previews can be of varying size however we recommend the same aspect ratio and dimensions as the cover image for best results.
- Recommended Dimensions:
- 1170px wide
- Accepted file formats - JPEG, PNG, SVG, or GIF
- Max File Size: 20MB
- Max Height: 1500px
- Minimum dimensions is 570px wide.
Preview Images for Video
For video items, we recommend including a high-resolution preview image size with these dimensions: 2560 x 1440.
Note: The minimum size requirement for your preview images are 1920 x 1080 (16:9).
Video Previews
When creating a preview video for your Envato item, you’ll need to use the Video Watermark where your preview shows the actual item being purchased. For Project Files or other categories requiring customization, the watermark is not required since customers need access to the source files in order to use the video.
The following categories do require a watermark in the preview videos:
- Stock Footage
- Motion Graphics
Please note that all Single Clip items have a watermarked preview video created as part of the upload process. However, you’ll still need to provide a watermarked preview video for Multi Clip items in this category.
The following categories DO NOT require watermark in the preview videos:
- After Effects Project Files
- After Effects Add Ons
- Premiere Pro Templates
- DaVinci Resolve Templates
- Apple Motion Project Files
- Cinema 4D Project Files
The watermark has been provided as a transparent PNG file.
Please review the watermarking information below on how to apply the watermark to create a high quality video preview for your item, as well as details on watermarking Audio files.
Image Quality
Please ensure your cover and preview images are of high technical quality. Upscaled, over-compressed, noisy or generally low-quality image files are not acceptable.
Marketing Text & Branding Guidelines:
In an effort to maintain a professional and visually appealing resource for Envato Elements subscribers, we encourage providers to limit the amount of text and branding included on cover images. Avoid marketing text and excessive branding - overall our main priority is that cover images look great and clearly represent the item itself.
Testing has shown that images showing the actual item itself generate higher click-through & conversion, compared to text-heavy marketing graphics. For example, for a presentation template use a screenshot of the main title slide, or for a website template, use a screenshot of the live preview's homepage.
By marketing text we mean things like:
- "Includes over 1000s free brushes!"
- "Special super awesome bundle"
- "24 PSD's"
- "InDesign Files Included"
- "Easy to use"
- "Over 100 free Hipster Mustaches included"
What to do:
- Avoid excessive text on Cover Images.
- Avoid marketing text on Cover Images.
- Avoid excessive branding on Cover Images.
- No mention of bundles on Cover or Preview Images, see Item Bundles policy.
- Feel free to include additional information on Preview Images.
Live Previews
A live preview is a demo that showcases a web or code item: what it looks like, what it offers and how it works. It is an important part of the buying experience for customers as it helps them assess the suitability of the theme beyond images.
Authors contributing web theme items to Envato need to include a high-quality live preview that showcases its aesthetic design and technical functionality. A live preview is not required for other web or code item categories, but we strongly recommend providing one for your customers. If you provide a live preview for your item, it must be fully functional and work as expected.
Live previews and iFrame on Envato Market
We serve live previews through an iframe on preview.themeforest.net and preview.codecanyon.net, but browser security and privacy features may mean that the way your previews function within the iframe could be affected.
The reason for this is that these browser security features are designed to protect users’ privacy against third-party tracking, and so may restrict cookies, javascript or other functions. Browser security features are also constantly changing based on privacy laws around the world.
Another reason why your live preview may appear different to customers is because functionality (including defaults) can differ quite a lot between different browsers, and users can change their privacy settings easily.
Due to these reasons, the way customers see and interact with your preview may be affected.
To help get a better understanding of how your live previews may be impacted, we recommend opening them up (across different browsers) within the developer tools to view any errors or warnings that come up.
Live Previews on Envato Elements
If you are contributing to Envato Elements, please be aware that Envato Elements pulls in a "live preview" from your ThemeForest item, which means that there may be times when your live preview is contained within an iframe or wrapper commonly known as a "theme switcher" (see section below on Syncing Items).
This works well for ThemeForest but within the Envato Elements platform, links to purchase or view other portfolio items can be confusing. To work around this issue, all live preview links will have the following querystring appended to them "&storefront=envato-elements" that you can use to detect that the request originated from Elements and serve a different version of your live preview.
If you choose to include a theme switcher in your live preview, please avoid the following:
- References to Envato Marketplace
- Links or buy now buttons to purchase the item
- External links
These guidelines will help to provide a more seamless experience for Envato customers across our platforms.
Syncing Envato Market Items with Envato Elements
When you upload a new theme or web template to Envato Elements, the live preview URL for the item will be the same as the corresponding item on Envato Market. The unique querystring is automatically updated depending on which site the request was made from.
However, if you later change the URL for the item’s live preview on Envato Market, it will need to be updated on Envato Elements. You can do this by syncing with the item on Envato Market.
To do this, you’ll need to:
- Log-in to Envato Elements.
- Click My Items and select the relevant item in your inventory.
- In the edit item page, click Sync with Market Item.
- Save & Publish the item.
You need to repeat these steps every time you update the live preview URL for the item on Envato Market. The Sync with Market Item only syncs theme and web template live previews, it does not transfer any other data for the item from Envato Market.
Watermarking Files
Some items for sale on Envato need to have a watermark on the preview to help prevent copyright breaches and unauthorized use.
Photos, Graphics and single-clip Stock Footage & Motion Graphics items are automatically watermarked by our system. However, Multi-clip Video and Audio items require a watermark to be added manually to the preview by the author.
You can find links to download the video and audio watermarks below. The watermark must be used as is. Please do not alter it in any way, shape, form or color.
Audio
- Audio files longer than 2 seconds must overlay the AudioJungle watermark on the preview file: AudioJungle Watermark
- There is also a 1-minute version for your convenience, featuring the watermark once every 10 seconds: AudioJungle Watermark Loop
- For audio files longer than 20 seconds: place the watermark every 10 seconds
- For audio files between 10-20 seconds: place the watermark every 5 seconds
- For audio files between 5-10 seconds: place the watermark every 2-3 seconds
- For audio files shorter than 5 seconds: the watermark should only be placed once
Video
- All Stock Video files need to include an overlay of this Envato watermark on their preview files: Video Watermark
- 1920x1080 (For full resolution preview videos)
- 960x540 (For half resolution preview videos)
How to Apply the Watermark
In order to apply a watermark, you need to first create a new video in the desired resolution (1920x1080 or 960x540) and follow these steps to apply watermark:
Full Resolution Preview Videos
- Place your full resolution video on the timeline.
- Place the appropriate watermark image on a layer above the video.
Half Resolution Preview Videos
- Create a new video with 960x540 resolution.
- Place your full resolution video onto the timeline.
- Scale your video down by 50% so that it fits the full frame of the preview resolution.
- Place the 960x540 version of the watermark image on a layer above the video.
Then render or export the watermarked video in either MP4 or FLV format.
Legal Requirements
Please adhere to our legal requirements when creating Cover and Preview Images. Refer this article as there are rules around the use of famous people, brand names or certain objects.