Print-on-demand

Print-on-demand integration

How products from print-on-demand apps such as Printify and Printful work with the theme, and what you need to set up yourself.

Printify setup#

1. Connect Printify to your storeInstall the Printify app from the Shopify App Store and connect your Printify account, following Printify's instructions.
2. Create and publish productsCreate products in Printify and publish them to Shopify. They appear in Products in your Shopify admin.
3. Check them in the themeFollow Variant and image configuration below to check swatches, images and size guides.

Printify personalization Tested#

Printify offers its own personalization tool, the Printify Personalize button, which is added to the product page as an app block. It has been tested with Versatile POD Studio 0.7.0 in a Shopify development store, in desktop Chrome, with a personalizable Printify product. Confirmed:

• The button opens Printify's design tool for the colour and size selected on the product page, including after changing options several times.
• The saved design is added to the cart as a Personalization ID on the line for the variant it was made for, and stays there when the cart is reloaded.
• Two designs on two different variants stay on their own cart lines.
• A design is never moved to a different variant. Changing options clears it, and changing back brings it back.
• With Require a saved Printify design turned on, Add to cart, Buy it now, Quick add and the featured product section can't be used to skip the design.

What Printify's own help centre says about its tool (check the links below for Printify's latest guidance):

• The Personalize button is added as an app block in the Theme Editor, and only appears on products with personalization set up in Printify.
• It works with newly published Printify listings, not with existing Shopify products.
• Personalized orders can be held for your review in Printify. Requesting fulfillment from Shopify's order page can bypass that review.

If you use the Printify button on a product, don't also add the theme's personalization fields to that product. Use Hide on products tagged on each theme field to keep them apart.

Requiring a saved Printify design#

By default, the Printify Personalize button is optional: shoppers can buy the product with or without a design. If a product should only be sold personalized, turn on the requirement for it.

1. Add the Personalize buttonIn the Theme Editor, open a product template, select Product information → Add block → Apps → Personalize Button, and drag it above Buy buttons. Save.
2. Choose a tagGo to Theme settings → Personalization → Require a saved Printify design for products with this tag and enter a tag, such as printify-required. Save.
3. Tag your productsAdd that tag to each product that must be personalized. Instead of a tag, you can set the product metafield vps.printify_required (true or false) to true.

When the requirement is on for a product:

• Add to cart, the mobile sticky Add to cart bar and Buy it now don't work until the shopper saves a design. The shopper sees "Please add your personalized design before adding this item to your cart." and the page scrolls to the Personalize button.
• Quick add on product cards and the featured product section send shoppers to the product page to personalize.
• If the Personalize button is missing or doesn't load, the product can't be bought, and shoppers are asked to refresh the page. The requirement comes from the tag or metafield, not from the button, so check the button appears before tagging products.
• If the page is reloaded, the shopper adds their design again before buying.

When the setting is blank (the default), or a product isn't tagged:

• The theme never blocks the purchase. Shoppers can buy with or without a design.
• If a design is saved, the theme still checks it belongs to the selected colour and size. If it doesn't, the shopper is asked to personalize again for the options they've chosen.

Printify help articles: automated personalization for Shopify · reviewing personalized orders · personalized order submission settings.

Printful setup#

1. Connect Printful to your storeInstall the Printful app from the Shopify App Store and connect your Printful account, following Printful's instructions.
2. Create and sync productsCreate products in Printful and add them to your Shopify store.
3. Check them in the themeFollow Variant and image configuration below.

Printful's own personalization tools haven't been tested with this theme. If you use one, don't also add the theme's personalization fields to the same product, and place a test order before selling.

Product imports#

Whichever provider you use, imported products are ordinary Shopify products, so the theme's features apply to them:

• Colour options can show as swatches.
• Galleries can follow the selected colour.
• Size guides can be matched to products by tag or product type.
• Seasonal notices can be shown by tag, product type, vendor, collection or product.
• Production & delivery details apply to every product using the template, with per-product changes through metafields.

Shopify product details come from your provider app. If the app updates a product later, check that your tags, product type and image alt text are still in place, because the theme's rules use them.

Before you sell, place a test order for each kind of product and check that the right variant reaches your provider.

Variant and image configuration#

Colour option names#

• Check your provider's colour option name (for example Color or Colors) is listed in Theme settings → Colour swatches → Options shown as colour swatches.
• Open a few products and look for striped swatches. Stripes mean the theme didn't recognise the colour name. Add an override, such as Glow in the Dark = #c8f5c0. More about swatches.

Colour images#

• To show each colour's own images, set Gallery images to Selected colour only (variant images and alt text).
• Make sure each colour's images are linked: either as variant images, or with alt text starting with the colour name and a dash (Black – front).
• If your provider uploads images grouped by colour, Selected colour only, grouped in upload order (Printify / Printful) assigns untagged images to the colour image before them.

More about colour galleries.

Sizes and size charts#

• Provider descriptions often include size tables. You can move these into a page and connect it with a size-guide rule, such as T-Shirt = tee-size-guide.
• Mugs, posters and other non-apparel items skip shared apparel guides by default.

Production times#

Set the Production & delivery block's day range to match your provider's published production times. Use metafields for products that take longer. More about production information.

Manual versus provider-managed personalization#

There are two ways to offer personalized products. They work very differently.

Using theme personalization fields#

A workflow that works:

1. In your provider app, turn off automatic order submission for personalized products, or hold those orders for review.
2. When an order arrives, read the personalization on the Shopify order page.
3. Set up the personalized design in your provider's dashboard and send the order to production.

Set your production times to allow for this step.

Troubleshooting#

A colour shows a striped swatch#

The theme didn't recognise the colour name and won't guess. Add a line to Theme settings → Colour swatches → Colour overrides, for example Heather Mauve = #b78d97.

Colours show as plain buttons instead of swatches#

Your colour option's name probably isn't in Options shown as colour swatches. Add it, separated by a comma. Or check Colours that can't be matched: if it's set to text buttons, one unknown colour switches the whole option to buttons.

The gallery shows the wrong images for a colour#

Check the colour's variant image, or that the image alt text starts with the exact colour name followed by a dash. Images without a colour show for every colour.

The gallery shows every image#

Either Gallery images is set to All images, or the selected colour has no images linked to it. The theme shows the full gallery rather than an empty one.

Personalization text isn't on the printed item#

Theme personalization fields are a manual workflow. Providers don't read line-item properties automatically, so the design needs to be set up in your provider's dashboard before production.

An order went to production before I reviewed it#

Check your provider app's order submission settings. Hold personalized orders for review, and avoid requesting fulfillment from Shopify's order page for personalized orders if your provider says it bypasses review.

A size guide shows on mugs or posters#

Add the product type to the Size guide block's skip list, or check the product doesn't have its own size guide set in a metafield.