> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.elestrals.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Images

> Thumbnails only, 512px max, served from a CDN that you should not hotlink.

The API exposes thumbnail URLs on every printing. They're suitable for collection trackers, deck builders, set checklists, and anywhere a small recognizable card image is enough.

## Format

| Property      | Value                                            |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| Long-edge max | 512 pixels                                       |
| Format        | WebP (with JPEG fallback negotiated by `Accept`) |
| Aspect        | Card-native (typically 5:7 portrait)             |
| Color profile | sRGB                                             |

Image URLs appear on the `Printing` DTO as `image_url` (front) and, where applicable, `image_url_back` for double-faced cards. Field names are stable; the URL contents are not — see "URL stability" below.

## What you can do

* **Display them.** Inline in your UI, in tooltips, in social embeds. No restrictions on how they're rendered.
* **Cache them.** Store the bytes, set a long TTL, serve them through your own CDN. Recommended at any non-trivial scale.
* **Resize them down.** Generating smaller derivatives (thumbnails, list-row icons) is fine.

## What you can't do

* **Hotlink at scale.** The URLs we return today resolve to a Cloudflare-fronted bucket. We make no commitment that any particular image URL will be reachable for any particular duration. A high-traffic public site that hotlinks our URLs will see broken images the day we rotate the bucket.
* **Resize up.** Don't upscale a 512px source to 4K and present it as full-resolution art. The base asset isn't there; you'll just get blurry pixels.
* **Republish as a dataset.** Bulk-downloading every image and posting them as a torrent or dataset is one of the things that ends a developer account. See [Abuse policy](/abuse-policy).

## URL stability

Image URLs follow a deterministic shape today, but we treat the URLs themselves as implementation details:

```
https://images.elestrals.com/printings/<printing_id>/<variant>.webp
```

What we *do* commit to:

* The `image_url` field will be present and non-`null` on every printing.
* The image at the URL will match the printing it's returned with.
* Migrating to a new URL scheme will be announced in the [changelog](/) at least 30 days in advance.

What we *don't* commit to:

* The exact URL format remaining `images.elestrals.com/...`.
* The same physical file being served forever from the same URL.
* Bandwidth or availability of these URLs for direct hotlinking.

Treat the URL as a reference to fetch and cache, not as a permanent address.

## Full-resolution art

We don't serve full-resolution art via the API today, on any tier. If you have a use case that genuinely needs it — print runs, official tournament displays, partner integrations with the Elestrals brand team — write to support and tell us what you need. We'll evaluate case by case.

For everything that fits in 512px, the thumbnail is what we ship.