Templates 101

What a template is, the pieces it's made of, and how it connects to a Shopify product.

A template is the thing your customer designs on. Everything else — placeholders, AI tools, output files, fulfilment — hangs off it.

What's in a template

Four pieces:

  • A canvas — the surface customers design on. Has a size, a base image (your blank product), and an aspect ratio.
  • Sides — front, back, sleeves, mug-wraps. One template can carry as many sides as the product needs. Each side has its own layers.
  • Placeholders — the editable slots: text, image, sticker, background, mask.
  • Output settings — what the print-ready file looks like. PNG or PDF, dimensions, filename pattern.

When a customer clicks Customise on your storefront, they're loading this template.

Linking a template to a product

Templates link to Shopify products from the template settings panel. Search for the product, add it to Linked products, save. One template can power many products. A product can only have one template attached at a time.

When a product is linked, a Customise button shows up on its storefront page automatically. No theme editing, no second app to install.

Duplicate, soft-delete, recover

The template list has the usual operations:

  • Duplicate — copies the canvas, sides, placeholders, and output settings. Linked products stay with the original.
  • Delete — soft delete. The template hides from the active list but stays in your account.
  • Recover — available for 30 days from the trash. After that, the template is gone for good.

If you're iterating on a template that's already powering orders, duplicate first. The original keeps shipping while you tinker.

One template or many

Depends on the products:

  • Same canvas, same placeholders, different blanks → one template, multiple linked products. Variants handle the blank swap.
  • Different placeholders or canvas sizes → separate templates. Don't fight the layout to save a row.
  • A range with optional add-ons (e.g. monogram on some products, not others) → separate templates. Cleaner than conditional placeholders.

What's next

Once a template exists, you spend most of your time inside three placeholder types: text, images, and sides and output. Start there.