Screenshots are free of padding and blurry text

Chrome Web Store screenshots with excessive padding, blurry text, or low resolution signal an unpolished extension to potential users at the exact moment of install decision. Users comparing several extensions in a category will default to the one whose screenshots look professional. Beyond conversion, the store's quality guidelines (chrome-cws-screenshot-quality) note that screenshots must accurately represent the extension — padding-heavy images that obscure actual UI can trigger reviewer requests for replacement assets, delaying publication.

Crop screenshots tightly to the extension UI content with under 10% padding on any side. Export as PNG for lossless quality.

Workflow:
1. Open your extension popup or options page
2. Capture at native resolution
3. In Figma or GIMP, crop to content edges with 5% margin
4. Export as PNG (not JPEG — avoid compression artifacts on text)
5. Verify text is sharp at 100% zoom before uploading

If your popup renders small inside a 1280x800 canvas, use a browser at 2x zoom to capture a sharper image, then scale down. Avoid placing UI screenshots on a solid background with wide colored borders — it reads as padding and reduces the visible detail of your actual extension.