I hear yas. Over on the T-Shirt forums, a few said they tried it and liked it. I find it hard to believe that for $300 there will be anything that good.
Too bad I have to change my cs-cart to oscommerce… 
I should have done a better search for the t-shirt shop…
[quote name=‘Nukem’]Some designers can be inserted into a simple iframe. Of course you would have to have it on a server somewhere.
Here is one you can buy for $300. They already have a port for Zencart.
I would like to see the progress of the one that is being developed in this thread. It seems a lot of people have donated. Lets see something even if it is not finished.[/QUOTE]
The software mentioned here is not too bad. It’s not a bad idea to try to be able to port this over.
It seems this project is about dead but I ran across a simple, clean design today. [url]http://www.getuncommon.com/[/url] Thought I’d share for reference if this ever gets started.
Nice drag to reposition image where you want it. Slide bars for image size and rotation are a nice feature too. Rotation seems to snap to the 90 degree angles when you get close.
ok folks the project was never dead but on hold, the project is back on schedule however because this addon will be an extremely expensive to develop and nearly impossible to make everyone happy, we’re going to start small to keep the development costs lower and will build the addon from their.
This is what v1.0 of the Product Designer Addon will do:
- Ability for admin to upload several canvases (background images).
- Ability for customer to design each canvas with customized text, graphics.
- Ability to move, rotate and resize each text and graphic object.
- Ability to choose font type from a list of available fonts.
*Depending on the amount of donations received we’ll look at the budget and see if we can afford to add the ability for the admin to create a library of graphics that the customer can choose from.
Their will probably be a few other elements involved but these are the major ones. Out of the box this addon will let your customers design products by adding text and graphics. The customer will be able to move, rotate and resize each text and graphic object for each canvas (ex. the front and back of a t-shirt).
IMPORTANT NOTE
We print t-shirts, cut vinyl lettering, engraving, embroidery and printing all in-house. I don’t know what others do for their business but I do not expect this addon will be able to output the quality and accuracy needed to print a high quality product.
We expect to take the customers designed product from this addon and using our in-house screen printing, engraving and embroidery software and re-creating the design with the quality and accuracy needed for our equipment. It is nearly impossible to output a vector quality product that is compatible with sceen printing, engraving and embroidery software wihtout re-creating the customer designed product. Do you guys agree? if not please explain in detail your expectations, Thanks - Sno
[quote name=‘IsItFast’]For me personally I am wanting something different than that a lot of the t-shirt sites. Yes it is nice to be able to modify the shirt, add clip-art and lettering, etc. But I think a lot of these website designs lose customers because they don’t work the way they should.
Let me explain. If I’m searching for a shirt with a smiley face on it I don’t want to go to a custom t-shirt design page, search through possibly hundreds of pieces of clip-art looking for a smiley face and THEN modify the design. I want to be on a t-shirt site that has smiley faces on a page in which I can then go to the product page and make modifications. This not only makes the design MUCH easier for the customer to run across but also works much better from an SEO point of view. [URL]http://www.zazzle.com/[/URL] is a great site that does it the “right” way.
So my site is set up with thousands of designs that each have their own page. I do well in SEO for several terms which keeps me going. Me being in the decal business I am more looking for a previewer; here is essentially the main things I am wanting:
-From my product page in place of an image have the “design previewer”
-Ability to change the color of the product in real-time preview
-Ability to change the background image/color shown in the preview image
-Ability for the preview to determine height/width based on one dimension
-Ability to “flip” the design from left to right
I only have about 2 products (custom lettering/numbering) that would require more customization by the customer. Which would consist of a font previewer style page. So hopefully in the backend there would be an option to to turn on/off the customization options.[/quote]
The quote above is from me in this thread a while back. I’ll donate some as I can use the online designer but I’ll donate a significant amount to get this started if it can be used on product pages as a way to preview products in different colors and installed on different background. I really like the way the preview works on this page: [URL]http://www.miraentuinterior.com/index.php?categoria=2&seccion=catalogo_detalle&articulo=95[/URL]
Not sure if this will be a possibility but it sure would be nice.
I have also looked into this software just to give my customers a visual on custom lettering: [URL]http://www.developflash.com/Flash_Preview_for_Wizards[/URL]
[quote name=‘IsItFast’] I’ll donate some as I can use the online designer but I’ll donate a significant amount to get this started if it can be used on product pages as a way to preview products in different colors and installed on different background.[/quote]
We should be able to do this no problem by selecting pre-defined artwork in the artwork library however being able to change the product color I’m not sure about so I will confirm this with CS to make sure they are capable of doing this with ActionScript.
Attached are the preliminary UI (user interface) designs for the customer side, not all features that will be included are shown here but this is the foundational basics of the addon.
How do you guys prefer to show the resize, rotate functionality?
Do you want to use the flash method most other product designers are using?
Or do you prefer entering rotational data in an input field?
or both?
We have to remember it’s easy for us to use the flash method of resizing, moving and rotating objects, but not all customers are computer savvy, what will be easiest for the customer?
What I don’t like about the other product designers is they are too cluttered and jumbled with confusing features. If this addon isn’t made simple and intuitive for the average person then the addon will only create abandoned carts. This is one reason why we’ll be designing the back-end UI to operate in different modes for differnent types of products and businesses.
If you have ideas, suggestions ect… please download the png’s, edit them and re-attach them here. This will give me a much better idea of what you expect, Thanks - Sno
[SIZE=4]Product Designer (t-shirt mode)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=4]Product Designer (engrave mode)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=4]Product Designer (vinyl mode)[/SIZE]
I think your right it is unworkable to get it to suit high quality printing etc.
what you have got there looks just right for me, print/embroidery signs and banners etc.
Sno you know I am also willing to donate substantially if this get moving ASAP.
John
[quote name=‘snorocket’]
This is what v1.0 of the Product Designer Addon will do:
[COLOR=“PaleTurquoise”]- Ability for admin to upload several canvases (background images).[/COLOR]
- Ability for customer to design each canvas with customized text, graphics.
[COLOR=“PaleTurquoise”]- Ability to move, rotate and resize each text and graphic object.
- Ability to choose font type from a list of available fonts.[/COLOR]
*Depending on the amount of donations received we’ll look at the budget and see if we can afford to add the ability for the admin to create a[COLOR=“Red”] library of graphics[/COLOR] that the customer can choose from.
[/QUOTE]
One statement seems to say you will have graphics and another saying a possibility? or whats the difference?
Is there going to be the ability for a customer to upload an image (jpg) to be placed on the background?
Whats the cost and when do you see it becomming a release?
I’d prefer the flash method to design.
[quote name=‘mrfoameruk’]One statement seems to say you will have graphics and another saying a possibility? or whats the difference?
Is there going to be the ability for a customer to upload an image (jpg) to be placed on the background?
Whats the cost and when do you see it becomming a release?
I’d prefer the flash method to design.[/quote]
This depends on how many donations we receive and how big the donations are and how much the addon costs to develop. We need to get a revised quote from CS and we will include the ability to have a library of graphics in the quote. We would remove the library functionality only if we couldn’t afford to pay for it, then we would add it back in later as donations came in. The customer will be able to upload images on the customer front-end, the uploading functionality is not the same as the library functionality, hopes this clears things up. If you have specific functionality you require for your business then now is the time to let us know what that functionality is, Thanks - Sno
I just spent the last few hours sifting through the internet looking for the best flash based t-shirt/product designers and the most intuitive one I could find that has all the features people want is:
[url]http://www.spreadshirt.co.uk/create-your-own-t-shirt-C59[/url]
I think it’s possible for CS to replicate this flash designer but tailor it to fit our sites seamlessly, I will see what they can do for us, Thanks - Sno
just a few points.
1.I take it colours will be pickable in the back end depending on the colours we stock?
2. With vinyl you get gloss, matt, transparent etc. reflective etc. each one has a different colour range it comes in. If this is the case we either need a dropdown box so when you select “matt” it shows the matt range and when “reflective” shows the reflective range. The other way would be to show it as above but with word separators and the colour range underneath each type(the colour range would then be possibly 5 times the size so look ugly and be confusing). or the other thing is to do a separate product page per finish.
3. vinly also can be stuck inside so a tick box is necessary saying something like “For use inside glass vinly needs to be cut reverserd. Do you wnat it reversed?”.
I think as a whole admin should be able to add some tick boxes or have a drop down box.
4. I hope you have pointed out to cscart when their deciding a price that this is a great benifit to them having this mod developed. It will be one of the only carts around (if not the only one) which will bring them lots of new customers. To be honest they should be giving their time for free as they will benifit in the future.
Well I think the vinyl mode is pretty close to what I am envisioning. I would hope that the customer could be able to choose the color of the decal. But I’m not sure what type of file format would be used to do this.
[quote]3. vinly also can be stuck inside so a tick box is necessary saying something like “For use inside glass vinly needs to be cut reverserd. Do you wnat it reversed?”.
I think as a whole admin should be able to add some tick boxes or have a drop down box.[/quote]I think this is almost a must have. Not just for vinyl users. Sometimes customers may want a graphic flipped on shirt.
Here is what I am thinking would work best for my site:
-Customer goes to any product page on my site and either the “dynamic preview” is loaded as the default image or there is a link under the “view larger image” to load the dynamic previewer. I think this will depend on 2 things:
- Will it load fast enough to use as a main image?
- Will color choices from the pull down option menu be able to change the color of the preview. If this isn’t an option then I think a separate window will work better as I can see customers getting upset from previewing one color but not actually selecting it.
Here are a couple of requests that would be nice but not sure if it would be possible.
-Preview background be able to be an image. I would think this would be pretty easy. Essentially to show what a decal would look like on a window, wall, side of a car, etc.
-Could the fill color for the vinyl be an image? I offer a lot of specialty vinyl like carbon fiber, brushed, chrome, etc. So if somehow the design could get masked in that pattern that would be incredible. I know it’s a long shot but thought I’d put it in here. If not, maybe a little warning if the customer chooses the color the color that an accurate preview of the pattern isn’t available.
-An option for Outlines and Shadows. Similar to [URL]http://www.developflash.com/flash-preview-demo2[/URL]
-Size calculations. It would be nice if the customer could get the height of the decal by selecting the width or vise-versa.
[quote]What I don’t like about the other product designers is they are too cluttered and jumbled with confusing features. If this addon isn’t made simple and intuitive for the average person then the addon will only create abandoned carts. This is one reason why we’ll be designing the back-end UI to operate in different modes for differnent types of products and businesses.[/quote]This is exactly what I have ran across. I am looking at taking the best of all the online designers and trying to incorporate them. It seems so many of these do the job, just not very well. Definitely need to be able to turn off some of the features for those looking for a simpler design.
[quote] I think your right it is unworkable to get it to suit high quality printing etc.[/quote]I know this software [URL]http://www.productsdesigner.com/flash-tshirt-designer-v4-admin[/URL] has the ability to produce a high quality pdf vector file upon ordering which is pretty nice. I’m not really looking for this type of functionality quite yet but this could be extremely useful. Customer actually approves the exact file. The file is saved on the server so when you send it to print, it is identical to what they approved.
I’ll be happy to share as much input as I can. I think I may start another thread showing all the online designers I have collected over the years so others can input what they like best about certain ones.
Let us know when a donation link has been set up.
Okay, I figured I post a list of several different online-design software I have seen to purchase. And several user online-design links. I figures some might have input on what works and doesn’t work.
Software:
[url]http://www.developflash.com/Flash_Preview_for_Wizards[/url]
[url]http://www.no-refresh.com/shop-demo.php#[/url]
[url]http://www.productsdesigner.com/software-products[/url]
[url]Cartisien Interactive – Full Stack Web, Mobile, & Software Development
[url]http://www.weprintdesignstudio.com/[/url]
[url]http://www.thecontractprinter.com/index.php?dispatch=pages.view&page_id=7[/url]
User online design pages.
[url]http://www.miraentuinterior.com/index.php?categoria=2&seccion=catalogo_detalle&articulo=95[/url]
[url]http://www.edecals.com/custom_decal_designer/instant_sticker_designer.html[/url]
[url]http://www.thesurfacestore.com/Bar-code-wall-decals-p/po-110.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.decalfx.com/custom_decal_maker.php[/url]
[url]http://www.yachtsee.com/home/design.php[/url]
[url]http://www.decalkits.com/customdecal.php[/url]
[url]http://quickstickers.com/designonline/[/url]
[url]http://www.decalstore.com/Create-Your-Own-Custom-Text-Decals-P299.aspx[/url]
[url]https://www.boatnames.net/default.aspx[/url]
[url]Streetglo boat lettering and vinyl boat name lettering decals and graphics.
[url]art4all.eu is available for purchase - Sedo.com Has a nice little “see it framed” pop-up
[url]http://www.getuncommon.com/artwork/[/url] Seems to have a real clean and simple user interface (click on customize and buy when you hover over the image)
Maybe this will get some ideas flowing.
CS cannot program Flash or ActionScript so basically we can’t do the addon without paying someone else to code the Flash/ActionScript and then have CS integrate the addon which they said they could do - Sno
I know snow. That said, much of this could be done in HTML5/JQuery now. The company I work for actually put together a designer like this; It was indeed a painstaking and expensive task (and that’s just for 1 product). Imagine a generic type of module.
Your quotes have never been unreasonable and I do agree with your idea to first create something simple, then, as money and time permit, expand what it can do.
OK folks we’re looking into doing this with ImageMagick instead of with Flash, again CS will let us know if they are capable of doing this which I am pretty sure they can.
ImageMagick is pretty advanced in what it can but we will not be able to have the fancy Flash editor, instead the customer will have to select the font, choose the color, choose size ect… and click a generate preview link. The addon will still work great for vinyl lettering, engraving and embroidery and I think it will be ok with t-shirts as well, we just won’t have the fancy Flash editor and to be honest it may actually be more simple and intuitive for customers to use - Sno
[url]http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/[/url]
I’d be very interested in this too, but I’d like for it to work with all of our gallery images. Our main product images have generic logos already on them. All of our gallery images are blank products.
Also, as for the customer’s artwork, .jpg, eps, .ps, .gif, .tif would all be file types we’d want our customers to be able to use.
Very curious to see where this one could go…
We got a $$$$+ quote from CS, and this doesn’t include hiring a developer to code the addon properly for us, with great regret this project is officially “mothballed”
-Sno
To SNO and others,
I can Do all Flash job for you… so basically You will need to code php for it… are You interested? If yes PM me…