No spaces, no brackets, no apostrophes, and no second chance once the file is up.
Etsy's help centre is specific: "File names are limited to 70 alphanumeric
characters, periods, underscores, or hyphens." So terracotta-arch-8x10.jpg
is fine and Terracotta Arch (8x10).jpg is not. The same page says buyers
see exactly the names you upload, and that there is no way to edit a name afterwards. Check yours
below before you upload.
Five kinds of character and nothing else: the letters A to Z, the digits 0 to 9, the period, the underscore and the hyphen. The rule is on Etsy's help page for digital listings, which also caps each listing at five files of up to 20 MB each.
| In the name | Allowed? | Etsy-safe instead |
|---|---|---|
| Letters and digits | Yes | — |
| Period, underscore, hyphen | Yes | — |
| Spaces | No | hyphens: wall-art-8x10.jpg |
| Brackets ( ) | No | drop them: A4-8.3x11.7in.jpg |
| Apostrophe, ampersand, comma | No | moms-kitchen-and-co.jpg |
| Accented letters (é, ñ, ü) | Not safely | cafe-botanicals.jpg |
| More than 70 characters | No | shorten the name |
Two details Etsy leaves open, and how the checker treats them. Etsy says "alphanumeric"
without defining it, so the checker reads it the safe way, as plain A to Z and 0 to 9 — an
accented letter is flagged and turned into its plain version. And Etsy does not say whether the
.jpg counts towards the 70, so the checker counts it.
Most names a design tool or a browser hands you break the rule by default.
My Design.jpg.(1) to a download whose name you already
have, which brings a space and two brackets in one go.8x10 (A4).jpg —
rather than the way Etsy accepts them.Etsy's help page does not say exactly what happens to a name that breaks the rule. Whatever it is, you do not want to find out on a listing buyers are already looking at — because of the next part.
The file names on your listing are the file names your buyer downloads, and Etsy's help page says it has no way to edit a name once a file is uploaded. The only fix is to remove the file and upload a correctly named copy. The moment to get names right is before upload, which is what the checker is for.
terracotta-arch-8x10.jpg, terracotta-arch-A4.jpg.It survives every rule above, it sorts sensibly in your buyer's downloads folder, and it tells them what they are looking at before they open it.
Etsy states the rule for the files you upload. It says nothing about the names of files inside an archive — those are unpacked on your buyer's computer, where spaces are normal.
Up to five, each up to 20 MB, according to the same help page. Bundling sizes into one ZIP is the usual way to fit more in, and then the ZIP's own name has to pass the rule.
Frameproof turns one design into every print size your buyers want, and every file it makes for you to upload — each print and the bundle ZIP — is named to pass this rule. The preflight report is free, runs in your browser, 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.