Print-on-demand sellers rarely photograph every finished case. The supplier prints each case after it sells, so your listing photos are mockups: your design placed on a picture of the product. A good mockup looks like a real case in a real hand. A weak one looks like a flat picture pasted onto a phone shape, and buyers notice.
What Etsy allows in a listing
Etsy's help page on creating a listing allows up to 20 photos and 2 videos per listing. A few more rules shape how you plan them:
- The first photo is the thumbnail. Etsy crops it square, portrait and landscape in different places, so keep the cases away from the edges of the frame (see Etsy's page on editing listing photos).
- The first photo should be clean and large. Etsy's image requirements page says it should be landscape or square, not a collage, dark or blurry, and at least 635 px wide. For every photo, Etsy recommends at least 2000 px on the shortest side. If you sell five designs, show them together in one scene rather than as a grid of separate pictures.
- Keep videos short. Up to 100 MB, at least 500 px and ideally 1080 px or more, and the sound is removed. Etsy's own pages disagree on length: between its listing videos page and its page on creating a listing, you will find both 3 to 15 seconds and 5 to 15 seconds. A clip of 5 to 15 seconds fits both.
- Personalized cases need a real example. If buyers can add a name, Etsy's listing image requirements say the first image must show a real finished example.
The photos a phone case listing needs
Many print-on-demand phone case listings sell several designs at once, with the phone model as a variation. The photos then have three jobs: show the whole set, help the buyer choose a design, and answer questions before anyone asks them.
Here is a sensible order. It is the order of the 17-photo set built into Shop Pilot, but it works with any tool.
| Photos | What they show | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | All five designs together | The thumbnail shows the whole set before anyone scrolls |
| 2 | The case beside the phone | The style is clear at a glance |
| 3 to 7 | Each design on its own | The buyer sees exactly what they are choosing |
| 8 and 9 | Two lifestyle scenes | The case in an everyday setting |
| 10 to 15 | Six info photos | Features and what to know before ordering |
| 16 and 17 | Two in-hand shots | The size of the case in a real hand |
That leaves room under Etsy's limit for three more photos and two videos. Number the single-design photos 1 to 5 and use the same numbers in your design options, so nobody orders the wrong one.
Keep the camera area clear
The camera cut-out needs special care. It takes up a large area at the top of the back, often in one corner. A design centered without thinking about it can have its main subject cut by a hole, or look off balance once the cut-out is there.
- Keep faces, text and the main subject out of the camera area.
- Let patterns and backgrounds run to the edges. A bare border around the art looks like a printing mistake.
- Check every design at thumbnail size. If it is hard to read small, it will be hard to read in search.
Four ways to make phone case mockups
1. By hand, in mockup templates
Open a mockup template in an image editor, place the design, line it up with the case, export, and repeat. It costs little beyond your time, and you control every detail. The time is the problem: a 17-photo listing means 17 exports to place, check, rename and sort, and it starts again with the next five designs.
2. Your own PSD files
Many mockups come as Photoshop files with a smart object where the design goes. You replace the contents of the smart object, and the file's shadows, bends and lighting stay in place. It looks more real than a flat paste, but you still open, replace, save and export for every design and every file.
3. A photo of your own blank case
If you have a blank case from your supplier, photograph it in good light. A tool that lets you mark the print area on that photo can then place any design on it. Your photos then show the product buyers will actually get.
4. Automatically, with a mockup generator
A generator takes your designs and makes the whole photo set for each listing, in the same order every time. This is the way that keeps up when you list often: you pick the designs, and the photos follow.
How Shop Pilot makes phone case mockups
Shop Pilot is an Etsy automation tool for print-on-demand sellers, and its phone case mockups follow the order above. You pick five designs for each listing. Auto prep fits each design to the case with the camera area kept clear of important art, and you see the fit before any mockup is made. Then all 17 photos are made in about 7 seconds, in the photo order you set, and saved in a listing folder on your computer.
- Your own PSD files. Add your PSD mockups and Shop Pilot finds the smart objects. Tick the ones the design goes on, and every design goes in the way Photoshop would put it in, with the file's bends, shadows and lighting kept. A big PSD takes a few minutes to set up, once. After that, mockups take seconds.
- Your own blank case. With smart mockups, you take a photo of your blank product and mark where the design goes. Your designs land on it, matched to the corners and edges of your photo.
- Info photos. A size chart or a care card goes into every listing as it is, with no design on it.
- Fixes and new looks. The Mockup Editor moves or resizes a design, with layers, crop and AI upscale for small designs. The Background Changer puts phone case mockups on a new background color, whole folders at a time.
- Photo order. In each shop's master listing, you give every gallery spot a photo once, and every listing puts the matching file in the same spot. See Etsy listing templates.
The same mockup generator also makes poster mockups in room scenes. You can try it in the 5-day free trial, which needs no card and includes 10 mockup folders a day.
Questions about phone case mockups
How many photos should a phone case listing have?
Etsy allows up to 20. A set like the one above uses 17: the whole set, each design, everyday scenes, info photos and the case in a hand.
What size should phone case mockups be?
Etsy recommends at least 2000 px on the shortest side. The first photo should be at least 635 px wide.
Do I need Photoshop?
Not for every method. Templates and PSD files need an image editor, but a photo of your own blank case or a mockup generator works without one.
Which photo matters most?
The first one. It is the thumbnail, and Etsy's guide to how search works says Etsy uses the first photo when it matches and ranks listings. For more on photo order and sizes, read Etsy listing photos: how many, what size and what order.