Posters are one of our most popular product categories. They are a great and flexible product that can be adapted to many different cases.
We currently offer posters in 30+ formats (both in inches and centimeters) and different paper types to allow you to pick and choose what you want to offer to your customers. You can find all the formats and product combinations we offer in our Product Catalog.
Choose your paper
The first step is to decide which paper to offer for your posters. What paper to choose depends entirely on you and your designs. We always recommend placing some test orders to see how your designs look on different papers and to ensure you get the effect you want.
There are currently 5 different paper options for our posters:Classic matte paper (or Uncoated 170gsm / 65lb cover)
Premium matte paper (or Uncoated 200gsm / 80lb cover)
Archival matte paper (or Uncoated 250gsm / 100lb cover)
Classic semi-glossy paper (or Coated silk 170gsm / 65lb cover)
Premium semi-glossy paper (or Coated silk 200gsm / 80lb cover)
The only difference between "Classic", "Premium" and "Archival" paper is the thickness you can read more about the difference between matte and semi-glossy paper here. Archival paper is only available on uncoated stock and has a more "natural" color as it doesn't contain any optical brightening agents.
If you are unsure between gsm and lb equivalence, we've got you covered! Gelato will automatically convert the paper to gsm or lb depending on the destination country where your order is going.
Select formats
Once you have decided which paper to use, it's time to select the different formats in which you want to offer your designs, what in Shopify are called variants and in Etsy variations.
We currently offer posters in more than 30 different formats, both in inches - for the North American market - and in centimeters - for the rest of the World.
As for the paper, you don't need to worry about which format you choose - Gelato will automatically convert between inches and centimeters depending on the destination country of your order.
Based on our experience supporting thousands of merchants who sell wall-art products (such as Mapiful and Optimalprint), we strongly advise our customers to steer away from the A-formats (e.g. A4, A3, A2, A1, etc.). In fact, these formats are not popular nor used in the wall-art space, for several reasons:It is challenging to find matching frames for these formats, which means that if your customers are only buying a poster, they will struggle to find a matching frame at a retail store.
The A-formats don't have an exact equivalent (i.e. with the same aspect ratio) in inches, which means that, if an order for e.g. an A4 poster is sent to the US, this is automatically converted to 8x12 inches format which doesn't have the same aspect ratio, with consequent cropping on the design. We recommend leaving some allowance around the edges of your designs to prevent essential design elements from being cropped off during conversion.
The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of its width to its height.
If you are unsure which formats to choose, we recommend looking at formats that are mostly used in the wall art space, in particular, those formats that can potentially support a matching frame - see below for some recommendations.
Many customers opt for 3 variants of the same product, a small, a medium, and a large - for example the following triple is pretty common:30x40cm / 12x16in
50x70cm / 20x28in
70x100cm / 28x40in
These formats are common in the wall-art space and matching frames can be easily found. Moreover, they also have exactly the same aspect ratio both in centimeters and inches (e.g. 30/40cm=0.75 and 12/16in=0.75) which means that your design won't be distorted in case of conversion so that you can sell globally hassle-free.Add a frame or a hanger
Frames (and hangers) are a great addition to your posters, e.g. if you want to upsell the frame to increase your AOV (Average Order Value) or offer the option to your customers to choose posters with and without frames.
There are 3 main strategies you can use here:Offer 2 separate products in your store: "Poster only" and "Framed poster" (or "Posters with hangers"), each in multiple formats - for example:
Product "Poster only" in the following variants:
30x40cm
40x50cm
Product "Framed poster" in the following variants:
30x40cm
40x50cm
Offer 1 product where the frame and format become the 2 options to define a variant - for example:
Product "Poster" in the following variants:
30x40cm - no frame
40x50cm - no frame
30x40cm - black wooden frame
40x50cm - black wooden frame
You can read more about how you can implement this e.g. in Shopify here.
Use one of the many Shopify apps to set up upselling in your store, i.e. recommend a matching frame in addition to a poster during checkout.
We currently offer frames (and hangers) for many poster formats. You can find all the formats and combinations available in our Product Catalog in Framed posters or Posters with hangers. Please note that the poster and the frame/hangers come together but are unmounted.
Frames are available in 4 wood colors and 4 metal colors and hangers are available in wood in 4 colors.
Read more about frames and hangers >
Packaging
When it comes to posters, we use different packaging (either flat or triangular boxes) depending on the size of the poster as well as the country where the item is produced and shipped.
This is based on our experience shipping millions of orders worldwide and it is supported by our customer feedback which has helped us define the most efficient and damage-resistant ways to package our products to ensure compliance with local shipping requirements as well as the lowest damage rate.
You can also customize your customers’ packaging and unboxing experience by adding a packaging insert and branded labels.
Read more packaging insert and branded labels >
Read more about packaging >