Quickstart

Pixel Wrangler is a product customizer for Shopify. Your customers design the product. You print it and ship it.

This page gets you from a fresh install to a live customizable product. Five minutes if you've got artwork ready. Fifteen if you don't.

What you need#

• A Shopify store on any plan that allows app installs
• One product you want to make customizable
• A blank version of that product as a PNG (transparent background helps)

If you have all three, keep reading. If you don't have the blank, any flat product photo with a clean background works for now — swap it later.

Step 1 — Install and pick a plan#

Install Customizer by Pixel Wrangler from the Shopify App Store. Open the app's Plan page and choose a plan — every plan starts with a 7-day free trial and nothing is charged until it ends. You land on the app's Home page with a Setup guide that tracks the next steps.

One theme-editor step: in Online Store → Themes → Customize, open a product page and add the Customise Button block (Add block → Apps). No theme code to edit. The full walkthrough, plus the cart preview, is in Installing Pixel Wrangler.

Step 2 — Create a template#

Click Create template. If ready-made templates are available you're asked to Start from scratch or pick a starter — pick a starter if this is your first template.

A template is the canvas your customer designs on. It has:

• A base image (your blank product)
• A canvas (the printable area customers can design inside)
• One or more placeholders (text, image, sticker, background or mask slots)
• Output Settings (the print file your fulfilment receives)

In the builder: pick the Canvas tool, upload your blank under Base product image, and size the canvas to roughly match the printable area. Then add a text element in the Text tool, an image slot in the Image Placeholders tool, or both. Finally open Output Settings, choose the File Type and Page Size, and click your side to place it on the print file.

The tour of the builder shows where everything lives.

Step 3 — Assign a product#

Open the Products tool in the builder, click Add products and pick the Shopify product this template should power. Save.

With the block in place from Step 1, the product page on your storefront now shows a Customise button. Click View on your store in the builder header to open it. Design as a customer would, click Continue, tick the confirmation, pick a size and Add to Cart to test the full flow.

Step 4 — Place a test order#

Open the product on your storefront in an incognito window. Customise a design. Add to cart. Check out (Shopify's test mode is fine).

A few seconds after the order is paid, the order detail in your Shopify admin shows:

• A custom thumbnail of the design on the line item
• A link to the full-resolution preview
• A link to each print-ready file, plus a Download Artwork action under More actions

If something didn't render, the Orders page inside Pixel Wrangler flags it with a Failed badge and a Retry Failed button. See Orders and order files.

Step 5 — Show the design in your order email#

By default, Shopify's order confirmation email shows the stock product image. Most merchants swap that for what the customer actually designed. Two-minute paste — see Customizing order confirmation emails.

What's next#

You have a live customizable product. Three things worth doing before launching it widely:

• Add more placeholders and sides. Front/back/sleeves, more text slots, stickers and backgrounds. See Templates 101.
• Set your print output. File type, DPI, file naming for your fulfilment partner — see Sides and output files.
• Make it yours. Colours, layout and every label — see Styling the customizer.

Selling custom apparel? See it on tees and hoodies: Shopify t-shirt designer for apparel brands.

Welcome aboard.