Design Studio gives your customers a design canvas right in your customizer. They can add images, add text, and move, resize and rotate everything inside a zone you control.
When to use Design Studio
Kickflip offers three ways to let customers add their own content to a product:
A text question lets customers type text.
A logo question lets customers upload an image.
Design Studio lets customers add as many images and texts as they want in the same design area. They decide how many elements to add and how to arrange them.
Use text or logo questions when you know exactly what customers should add, like a name and a number on a jersey. Use Design Studio when you want customers to create their own design from scratch, like on a t-shirt or a tote bag.
What your customers see
Design Studio adds two tabs to your customizer:
Configure shows your other questions, like product color or size.
Design opens the Design Studio canvas.
On the Design tab, customers can:
Click Add image to upload their own artwork.
Click Add text to type their own text, then choose the font, font size, bold or underline.
Drag, resize and rotate each element inside the design area.
See everything they've added in the Layers list, and drag layers to reorder them.
Creating a Design Studio question
Open your product.
Click on the + button in the top left part of the screen.
Under Select an input type, pick Design Studio, then hit Create.
Your Design Studio question now appears in the left panel. Select it to open its settings.
Setting up a design area
A design area is the zone of your product where customers can design, like the front of a hoodie. Everything customers add stays inside it.
A design area is created by default with your Design Studio question.
Within the left side panel, select your Design Studio question.
Within the right side panel, under Design areas, select your design area.
Give it a Title. Customers see this title, so use a clear name like "Front" or "Back."
Next to Product view, pick the view where the design area appears.
NOTE
A design area is not the same as a print area. Print areas are used with text and logo questions. Design areas are only used with Design Studio.
Setting the zoom
By default, the customizer zooms in on the design area so customers can see their design clearly. To set your own zoom level, turn off Auto zoom and enter a percentage.
Setting the size and position of a design area
Using the settings panel
Width and Height set the size of the design area. Enter the real size of the printable zone on your product. You can use inches (default), cm, mm or px.
Position X and Position Y set where the top left corner of the design area sits on the product view.
Directly on the product preview
At the top of the product preview, click the Move icon (crossed arrows).
Drag the design area to reposition it.
Drag the dots at each corner or the handles on each side to resize it.
Drag the dot on top of the box to rotate it.
Click the Done icon (checkmark) when you're finished.
Keeping designs inside the design area
Clip content to area
When this is on, any part of an image or text that goes past the edge of the design area is hidden. Nothing prints outside the zone.
Clip to layer
Use this to keep designs inside a specific part of your product, like the surface of a phone case. Next to Clip to layer, select the layer for that part. Designs will only be visible inside that layer.
Show outline
When this is on, customers see a dashed line around the design area while they design. Use Outline color to pick a color that stands out on your product colors.
Checking image quality
Customers often upload images that are too small for sharp printing. Design Studio can catch this for you.
Minimum DPI is the resolution an uploaded image needs at the size the customer placed it. The bigger a customer makes an image, the lower its DPI.
Show quality indicator warns customers when their image is below your minimum DPI, so they can replace it before ordering.
TIP
300 DPI is the standard for sharp prints. Check with your printer, since some print methods accept less, especially for large prints viewed from a distance.
Generating print-ready files
Turn on Generate print file to get a print-ready file with each order. The file matches the size of your design area, so you don't have to rebuild the design yourself.
DPI sets the resolution of your print-ready file. Match it to what your printer needs. 300 DPI is standard.
Bleed adds a margin around the print-ready file. This margin gets cut off after printing. It lets the design extend past the real dimensions, so no white edge shows if the cut is slightly off.
Safe area is an inner margin inside the design area. Anything inside it is guaranteed to print correctly. It lets the customer Keep important elements like text and logos inside the safe area so they don't get cut off.
Learn more about print-ready files.
Adding more design areas
To let customers design on more than one zone, click the + button next to Design areas. For example, add one for the front and one for the back. Each design area has its own settings.