TABLE OF CONTENTS

These are the primary contents covered in this article:
Settings Section
Layers Setting Section
Advanced Options Section
Additional Functions

When using the Define Design function, you should have a fundamental understanding of how it works. This guide series will teach you everything you need to know about how to use this feature.
This article will demonstrate the use of general interface of Define Design. For a better knowledge of the Artwork/ Text/ Mask/ Clipart/ Frame area, please visit these article:
Learn More: DEFINE DESIGN

SETTINGS SECTION

Click at the Wheel icon to open Settings Section.


Template Tabs
Template Tabs are where you'll manage all of your designed templates of the product. Your first template would be define as the default template.
The term "Template" refers to the ability to produce multiple versions of a single design.
Let's say you have a cat clipart design and you want to make three templates out of it. Thus, template 1 has one cat clipart, template 2 has two cat cliparts, and template 3 has three cat cliparts. By creating multiple templates, customers may then be able to adjust the amount of the cat on their personalized product.

To add a new template, click on the plus sign "+".
To change the name of the template, click the Pen icon.
To duplicate a template, click the two stacked square icon.
To delete a template, click on the trash can icon.


Setting Options area has three main setting options:
Background color
Custom Theme
Product Type

2.1. Background Color

The main purpose of the Background Color section is to make a convenience for you to see your artwork while editing it.
- For example, if your artwork is white, it will be difficult to see if it is placed on a transparent background; thus, change the background color into black or whatever color you like to make the design easier to view.
Remember to disable the Background Color after defining design. If you still enable Background Color, it will affect the preview on live store and the final production design file.

2.2. Custom Theme

The theme color of your design is defined as Custom Theme, you can see in the images below that this pillow design has been set to have three colors of custom theme.
To add a Custom Theme, click the +Add Theme.
The most common usage of a custom theme is for a transparent design.
For example, this pillow has a transparent background:
- If you don't set Custom Themes, the buyer will only have one option that the pillow will be printed in white.
- If you set Custom Themes, then the buyer can choose a theme for their personalized item, and the color is printed exactly as requested.





The outcome will be as follows if the buyer choose a Theme:

Change the theme is only available for Popup Previews; Direct Preview is currently not available yet.

2.3. Product Type

To have a better grasp of what product type is and what it does, please visit this article:
Learn More: Create & Edit Product Types
You have two ways to create product types:
1/ Create it from the Product Types menu.
2/ Or create it directly in Define Design.

1/ If you have already created a product type in the Product Types menu:

- Click at "Choose a type" button in Define Design to see all product types.


- Select a matching Product Type there, then click Choose.

2/ Create Product Type in Define Design:

Click at "Choose a type" button in Define Design.


Step 1: Click at the Create New button on the popup window to create a new product type.

Step 2:
- Add a name for your Product Type (eg. Blanket, Apparel, Pillow,...)
- Add original width and height.
- Add safe width and height.
- Upload your template image file.

Step 3: When you're done, click Create. The newly created template will show up.


Select Product Type:
- Select your newly created template from step 3 and click Choose.

LAYERS SETTING SECTION

To manage all your Layers click on the 3 stacked square button under the setting button.

In the Layers area, there are 4 options:
To lock or unlock a layer, use the lock icon: You CANNOT edit this layer anymore if the lock icon is locked.
To show or hide a layer, enable or disable the eye icon.
To delete a layer, click the trash can icon.
To duplicate a layer, click the 2 stack square icon.


To arrange a layer's order, hold and drag it to the correct position.


To rename a layer, double-click on the layer name and rename it; enter to finalize editing.

ADVANCED OPTIONS SECTION

Whenever you click on a layer, you will see its Advance Options section show up.


There are 5 main options:
Set Condition For This Layer button:
This button's purpose is to set the criteria to Show or Hide a Layer. For instance, you might have a Cat design that allows your customers to choose from a variety of Cat Breeds.
As a result, each Cat Breed's outfit will be different in size; for example, the Sphynx's costume will be smaller than the others.
Then, you'll need to add a condition to the other Cat Breeds' Costume Clipart so that if the buyer selects the Sphynx Cat, the other Cat Breeds' costumes will be hidden.
This button will only display when you select Text/ Mask/ Clipart Layer.


Set image fullscreen button:
Instead of manually scaling your image, click on the Set image fullscreen button in the Advanced Options to have it automatically set to fullscreen.


Below you can see 4 more options:
Lock Scaling: This implies that you won't be able to reduce or increase the size of your image.
Lock Movement X: This option prevents you from moving your artwork to the left or right.
Lock Movement Y: This option prevents you from moving your artwork up or down.
Lock Rotation: If you choose this option, you won't be able to rotate your design.

The Positions area is to adjust the image width, height, and position (up, down, left, right).
The Alignments option allows you to adjust your artwork left, right, up, down, vertically center, and horizontally center.

ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONS

At the bottom of the Define Design screen, there are some more options.


To save you design, click the Save button.
All of your layers' order are managed in the Re-order Field.
This button will help you arrange the order of layers, which affects the display order of personalization selections on live store.
For example, if you re-order the fields as:
- Top layer: Blond Cat
- Middle layer: Cat Eyes
- Bottom layer: Cat's Name
Then you will have the cliparts' edit options showing up on the live store in the same order:

If you re-order the Cat's Name layer to the top, it will show up firstly:

Re-order Fields function will not affect the order of layers on final production design file.

To see a live store preview of your personalized work, click Preview button. This will take you to a page that will allow you to check the customize function that you've enabled on your product page.
In the center, there are Two magnifying glasses with a + and - on them. As you may be aware, this function allows you in zooming in and out of your own design tab.
The Arrows represents the Undo and Redo actions.
The Safe Area is activated by switching the Safe Area button.

This is the area that will be printed on a POD product. To ensure your design prints properly on each product, you need to position all important elements of your design within the red line of a Safe Area. Each product can have different Safe Area sizes for its variants. They should match the requirements of your fulfillment provider. When creating a Product Type, you can enter Safe Area's dimensions.

Learn More: Where to find template guidelines of your providers & Create & Edit Product Types
Of course, no one wants their design to be missing parts when it is printed on the final product, thus this section will assist you in guiding your design to the correct printing location.


For example, consider the image above. When you click the Safe area button, a red shape appears to guide my design, indicating that whatever part which is outside this line will very certainly be missing when printed.
The Position button makes it convenience for you to locate the position of your dragging object. Click this button to open or close the pop-up board.

Updated on: 10/05/2022