Aspect ratios: which one to pick
Wall art uses 3:4 or 4:3, posters 2:3 or 3:2, clipart and SVG 1:1, greeting cards 5:7. Why each product type is locked to its own set of ratios.
Each Elistit product type only lets you generate at ratios that map cleanly to real print sizes. You can’t generate a 1:1 poster or a 16:9 wall art, because the SmartCrop step that produces print-ready files relies on a known ratio.
The ratio table
| Product type | Allowed ratios | Generation size | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wall Art | 3:4 or 4:3 | 768×1024 / 1024×768 | Covers Etsy’s standard digital-download print bundles (8×10, 11×14, 16×20, 18×24, 24×30) |
| Poster | 2:3 or 3:2 | 832×1248 / 1248×832 | Matches A-series + 4×6 / 8×12 / 16×24 / 24×36 print sizes |
| Clipart | 1:1 (fixed) | 1024×1024 | Bundle imagery is uniform-format by convention |
| Greeting Card | 5:7 (fixed) | 1024×1434 | Maps to the standard 5×7 folded-card panel at 300 DPI |
| SVG | 1:1 (fixed) | Vector | Native vector, resolution-independent |
| Custom | N/A | You upload | You provide your own files |
Why wall art and poster are different
It looks redundant, why isn’t 3:4 just a “tall” version of 2:3? Because they serve different buyer formats:
- Wall art (3:4 / 4:3) is sold as a digital download. Buyers receive 5 ratio crop files at 300 DPI, one ZIP, multiple sizes. The 3:4 ratio is the most common across the standard Etsy print bundle (8×10, 11×14, 16×20 etc.).
- Poster (2:3 / 3:2) is a physical print shipped by a POD partner. 2:3 matches the most-printed sizes (4×6, 12×18, 24×36) and the A-series (A4, A3, A2). The print partner needs exactly one ratio, not five.
This is why wall art and poster aren’t interchangeable even when the image would look fine in either format. They feed different fulfillment pipelines.
How the ratio is used downstream
The ratio you pick at launch is:
- Passed to the LLM that writes your brief and prompts. The prompts include constraints like “vertical 3:4 composition” so the AI doesn’t generate something that’ll crop badly.
- Stored on the project (
Pipeline.aspect_ratio) so it can be re-read during processing. - Used by SmartCrop during the processing stage to produce the correct print-ready file(s).
Changing the ratio after launch isn’t supported. If you need a different ratio, run a new project, the prompt-level constraint means generating a 4:3 image then cropping it to 3:4 will lose composition.
Portrait vs landscape
Within each product type, picking landscape vs portrait is purely a composition choice. There’s no credit, quality, or pipeline difference between 3:4 and 4:3 (or 2:3 and 3:2): pick whichever your idea suits.
Related
- Posters: the one physical product
- BYOA, file requirements: your uploaded file must match the chosen ratio before SmartCrop runs.
Related
- Posters: the one physical productPosters are Elistit's only physical product. You list the design, and the buyer gets a shipped print, never a file. The print-ready master is produced when a poster sells.
- Bring Your Own Art (BYOA): uploading your existing designsAlready have artwork? Skip generation and run your own files through Elistit's upscale, processing, and listing pipeline at a flat credit cost.