Templates, views and zones

A decoration template describes what a customer may decorate on a product: the garment views, the decoration areas (zones) drawn on each view, the decoration sizes, the methods and their prices, and the palette. Products use templates; one template can serve many products.

Templates live under StitchPress > Decoration templates.

The template list

The list shows each template's Name, Methods, number of Views and Zones, revision (Rev), and Assigned to (how many products and categories use it). A template marked Incomplete has no method, no view or no zone yet; one marked Config unreadable has stored data that could not be read (see Troubleshooting).

To create a template, type a New template name and click Add template. To make one template the fallback for every product, choose it under Site default: and click Save default.

Editing a template

Click Edit on a template. The editor has the zone canvas at the top and the template settings below.

Decoration methods

Tick each method this template offers: Embroidery, Screen printing, or both. Each method you tick needs pricing further down the page, or the save is refused.

Capture modes

Under Capture modes, choose how customers place a decoration:

Quick capture: the customer taps a zone and fills in form fields (text, size, color). Fast on a phone.
Visual placement: the customer's text or artwork is drawn on the garment, and they can drag, scale and rotate it inside the zone. The position is stored on the order and printed on the Job Jacket as numbers the operator can follow.

At least one must stay enabled. With both enabled, the customer can use either.

The capture modes also decide how the designer is presented on the product page. With Visual placement enabled, it is drawn as a card inside the add-to-cart form, or in the photo gallery if you choose that under Where the designer opens (see Where the designer opens). With Quick capture only, a button opens it in a popup. The button's text is "Design yours" unless you set Launcher button label in StitchPress > Settings > Storefront.

Placement: inside zones or free

Under Placement, choose how far a customer may move a decoration in visual placement:

Inside zones (the default): the customer drags each decoration within a marked area, and the position is stored as a share of that zone.
Free: the customer sees no zone boxes and drags each decoration anywhere on the garment photo. A light outline of the zones and a centre line appear only while they drag, and a decoration snaps to the centre line when it comes close.

In free placement the zones still set the sizes and the price: each decoration takes the sizes and price of the nearest zone. The order stores the exact position on the photo, the nearest zone, and the zone the decoration sits in (or "none"). When a decoration is outside every zone the customer sees a short note ("Outside the usual embroidery area") and can still order; the Job Jacket prints the position, says which zone is nearest and flags it for you to check.

A view takes as many decorations as its zones together allow (the sum of their Max items). Free placement needs Visual placement enabled. Caps and beanies suit it; keep zones for apparel, where print areas are exact.

Changing the placement of a template that has orders is safe: orders keep the position they were placed with. A customer who still has the old page open is asked to reload before adding to the cart.

Stage

Stage (declared coordinate frame) records a width and height on every captured design, so a proof drawn years later knows the frame the template was drawn in. Zone geometry is stored as percentages of the view image and does not depend on these numbers. Leave the defaults unless you have a reason to change them.

Palette

Choose the thread or ink palette customers pick from. Both built-in methods need a color for every decoration, so a template without a palette (or with a palette whose colors are all hidden) does not show the designer. See Palettes and fonts.

Views and view images

A view is one side of the garment: front, back, left, right, or anything else you need.

Under Views, click Add view.
Set a Key (lowercase letters, digits and underscores, up to 32 characters, for example front) and a Label customers see (for example "Front").
Click Choose image, pick the garment photo from the Media Library, and click Use this image.

A view without an image cannot hold zones, because zone positions are stored as a percentage of the image. Views without an image are skipped by the designer. Removing a view removes its zones.

Use the same image proportions for every view of a template where you can, and keep the garment centered. Replacing an image with one of different proportions shifts where existing zones sit on the garment.

Sizes

Sizes are the decoration sizes offered inside a zone, not garment sizes.

Under Sizes, click Add size.
Set a Key (for example m) and a Label customers see (for example "Medium (up to 3.5 in)").
Optionally set W in and H in: the width and height of the decoration itself, in inches, greater than 0 and up to 60.

Every zone must allow at least one size, and every size needs a price multiplier when the template offers embroidery.

The inch values feed the production estimator: stitch counts, minimum readable text height, artwork resolution at print size, and whether a design is too big for the hoop. If you leave them empty, nothing is guessed; the estimate is simply not shown for that size. StitchPress never reads inches from the label, so word the label however you like.

Zones

A zone is a decoration area on one view.

Draw a zone by dragging on an empty part of the image.
Select a zone by clicking it. Use the arrow keys to nudge it; hold Shift for larger steps and Alt to resize.
Cover this view makes a zone that covers the whole image.
Geometry (percent of view image) shows the zone's position and size as numbers you can type.

For the selected zone, set:

Field	What it does
Zone key	Machine name, for example `left_chest`. Stored on every order.
Zone label (shown to customers)	For example "Left chest".
Allowed sizes	Which sizes a customer may choose in this zone. At least one.
Max items	How many separate decorations a customer may place in this zone. Above 1, the designer shows a repeater and the Job Jacket stacks them back to front.

Delete zone removes it. A saved or re-edited design that uses the deleted zone fails validation and the customer has to choose another area. Orders already placed are not affected.

Areas for different photo types

Supplier photos are not framed alike. A sleeve sits in one place on a flat lay, in another on a full-length model shot and in a third on a close-up crop, so one zone position cannot fit every product on a template. Above the image, Areas for photo type switches what you are editing:

Default (flat lay or render): the zone positions every product uses unless something below applies.
Model shot and Close-up crop: separate positions for products whose photo is of that type. Choose the type, then move and resize the zones; switch back to Default to edit the defaults.

A position that matches the default is not stored. Each product's photo type is set under StitchPress > Garment photos (see Areas on one product).

Areas on one product

Under StitchPress > Garment photos, choose the template, then Decoration areas per product:

Pick a product and press Show areas. Each view shows the product's own photo with its zones on top. A blue box comes from the template, an amber box from the photo type, a green box from this product.
Set Photo type for the view (flat lay or render, model shot, close-up crop). Detect photo types for every product on this template looks at each product's photos once and fills in the type; types you set by hand are kept.
To fit one product exactly, drag a box to move it or drag its corner to resize it. The arrow keys move the selected box, Shift with an arrow resizes it, and the number fields under the photo can be typed.
Press Save areas for this product. Reset to template removes this product's own areas for that view.

The product's areas apply to every colour of that product. Orders already placed keep the area they were made with. To check every product of a template at once, a developer can run bin/zone-sheet.php, which draws a contact sheet of all products and views with their areas.

Drawn size

When a zone has a Width (in) (the field under Max items in the selected-zone panel of the template editor, in inches, up to 60) and at least one of its sizes has a W in value, visual placement measures what the customer drew. The size is then the one whose width is closest to the drawn width, the size dropdown is replaced by a line such as "Size: Large (set by how large you drew it)", and an add to cart whose size disagrees with the drawing is refused.

Leave Width (in) empty and the customer picks the size from the dropdown. Saving the template keeps the width you set.

Saving and revisions

Click Save template. Each save that changes something raises the revision number. Every captured design records the template and revision it was made against, so:

An order already placed keeps the zone geometry, labels, colors and font names it was sold with, even if you later edit or delete the template.
If you edit a template after an order, that order's Job Jacket shows "Template changed since this order, verify placement" with both revision numbers.

A template whose stored data cannot be read opens with a warning and an empty skeleton. Saving it replaces the stored data, so restore from a backup first if you can.

Where the designer opens

StitchPress > Settings > Storefront > Where the designer opens:

In the photo gallery: the product photos show as usual. When the customer presses the Design button, the designer takes the place of the photos (same column, same width) and its view thumbnails sit where the photo thumbnails were. Back to photos brings the photos back, and the design is kept. On a theme without a recognisable gallery the designer opens as the card below the form instead.
Below the add-to-cart form: the designer card is open when the page loads.
Pop-up over the page: the designer opens over the page.

The gallery is found automatically (WooCommerce galleries and most theme carousels). If your theme's gallery is not found, enter its CSS selector in Gallery element (CSS selector), for example #product-carousel.

Assigning templates

A product uses the first template it finds in this order:

The product's own assignment. Products > edit the product > Product data > General > Decoration template. The option "Use category or site default" clears it.
A category assignment. Products > Categories, then add or edit a category and set Decoration template. Products in that category use it unless they have their own. If a product is in several categories with different templates, the category created first (lowest ID) wins.
The site default. StitchPress > Decoration templates > Site default: > Save default.

For variable products, assign the template on the parent product. A template set on a single variation is ignored in this version; the designer and the add to cart both use the parent's template.

Deleting a template clears it from every product and category that used it, and from the site default.

StitchPress > Bulk assign sets a template on every product in a category. It previews the affected products before it writes, and the write can be undone. Garment photos per colour are set under StitchPress > Garment photos, on the template, on the product, or on a single variation.

Source: the plugin's docs/site/templates.md, rendered for StitchPress 1.0.0-rc4. Found an error? Tell support.