We're having a site built for a hardware store where customers can browse products and send orders through WhatsApp. We'll upload the products and photos ourselves.
The developers say we need to crop every photo to a 500 by 500 square in Photoshop before uploading it. Is it unreasonable to ask the site to handle ordinary product photos instead?
No, it isn't impossible. The site can accept common image formats and resize images, or display them inside consistent square spaces. Converting uploads to a web-friendly format is also possible.
The tricky bit is deciding how the square should look. A center crop can cut off a long tool or part of a product. Fitting the whole image inside the square avoids that but leaves empty space around some photos. Pick the behavior you prefer and give the developers a few awkward images to test.
Technically doable doesn't automatically mean it's included in the price. Check what the agreement says about uploads and image preparation, then ask for a separate estimate if automatic handling wasn't specified.
Also make clear that your staff are doing the uploads. That's different from asking the developers to edit and enter the entire catalog.
For a quick workaround, batch processing is worth a look. A script or image tool can resize and add padding to a folder of photos without opening each one in Photoshop. Check the results before uploading though. Automation won't fix bad framing or inconsistent product photos.
There's also a bigger design question here. An existing commerce platform may already have product management and image resizing, even if you only need to collect orders rather than take payments online. Ask the team why a custom build fits the project and what it will cost to maintain compared with an existing solution.
A consistent photo shape does make a catalog easier to scan, and having the store prepare its own assets can be a reasonable division of work. But requiring Photoshop and an exact size for every upload is a pretty specific workflow. Ask whether they can accept other dimensions while keeping the product grid consistent.
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v6+rxmode_248:
Displaying an image in a square and creating a new square image file are different things. Ask which one the site needs, since that affects where the processing happens.