Most print bundles fit once you stop shipping one file per size. We measured it — including the case where it still doesn't.
Etsy lets a digital listing carry up to five files, each up to 20 MB. A bundle with a separate file for every print size stores the same picture many times over, because within one aspect ratio every size is the same image. Ship one file per ratio at the largest size instead. For our test design that took 28 files and 18.7 MB down to 5 files and 6.1 MB, the largest just 1.4 MB. The exception is heavily textured art at poster sizes, where one 24 × 36 file came to 26.2 MB on its own.
According to Etsy's help page for digital listings, you can attach up to five files to a listing, each with a maximum size of 20 MB. So the limit is per file, not per listing: five files can carry up to 100 MB between them. The same page also has the file-name rule that catches people out.
A 2:3 file big enough for a 24 × 36 inch print is the same image a buyer prints at 4 × 6 — they simply print it smaller. Exporting eight separate 2:3 files (4 × 6, 6 × 9, 8 × 12 and so on up to 24 × 36) stores the same picture eight times at eight resolutions. Do that for five ratios and a single design becomes dozens of files.
One file per ratio, at the largest size it can honestly fill, covers every smaller size in that ratio. Add a printed size guide so the buyer knows which file prints which sizes, and nothing is lost but the duplication.
We took one 7,200 × 10,800 pixel design (24 × 36 inches at 300 DPI), produced every file a five-ratio bundle needs both ways, and saved each as a JPEG at quality 92. Then we did it again for a heavily textured version — fine grain and soft painterly washes, the hardest case for JPEG.
| Artwork | One file per size | One file per ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Flat shapes and line work | 28 files, 18.7 MB total | 5 files, 6.1 MB total · largest 1.4 MB |
| Heavily textured | 28 files, 240.1 MB total | 5 files, 109.2 MB total · largest 26.2 MB |
For flat artwork both versions squeeze under 20 MB as one ZIP, but the one-file-per-size bundle has almost no headroom — a bigger design or one more ratio tips it over — while one file per ratio uses under a third of the limit. For textured artwork, one file per ratio cuts the total by more than half, but one file is still over 20 MB on its own, and no packaging fixes that.
File size grows with pixel count, so the fix is the largest size that fits. For the textured design, the 2:3 file at 20 × 30 inches came to 15.3 MB; the 24 × 36 was 26.2 MB. Offering 20 × 30 as the largest 2:3 size keeps every file inside Etsy's limit. Your own artwork will land somewhere different, which is why it is worth measuring rather than guessing. (This is exactly what Frameproof's Fit Etsy's 20 MB per file option does, on by default: it steps a too-heavy ratio down to the largest size that fits, and checks each file's real size as it saves it.)
If your bundle as a whole is over 20 MB but every file is under, you have a simpler option: upload the files separately instead of as one ZIP. Five ratios is five files, which is exactly what a listing holds — though that leaves no slot for a separate size guide, so put the sizes in your listing photos or description instead.
The common workaround is a PDF with a link to Google Drive or Dropbox. It works, but it adds a step between your buyer and their file, and it is a link you have to keep working for as long as the listing sells. Most bundles do not need it once the duplication is gone. It is worth keeping for the genuine exceptions — say, poster-size files of very textured art — rather than as the default.
Barely. JPEG files are already compressed: on one of our textured test files a ZIP saved 0.1%. A ZIP is for bundling, not for shrinking.
For painted or photographic artwork, JPEG at high quality is several times smaller than PNG and prints identically to the eye. PNG earns its size only for large flat areas of colour or when you need transparency.
Frameproof turns one design into one file per ratio plus a printed size guide, and measures your actual artwork to estimate every file's size before you build. If a file would be over Etsy's 20 MB, it steps that ratio down to the largest size that fits and checks the real file as it saves it. The report is free, and your artwork never leaves your computer.
Check your design free The report is free forever. Building a full print bundle is the paid part.