Best Tips & Tricks for Online Designer

When using the Online Designer App, there are some things you should keep in mind to help your design process run smoother.

The easiest way to control your design is through the layers panel. At the bottom of the left sidebar, click “Layers.” You now see a stack of every item or group of items in the design. Each item has three icons: an eye, a lock and an “x” in a circle. The eye controls if that layer is visible and therefore will print. The lock controls if the item can move, locked items are grayed out. The “x” deletes this item. You can click and drag the items to change what is on top of your design. The top of the screen is the top of your design.
Avoid using the “Backspace” button as it will return you to the previously loaded web page and you will lose your design. You may use the “Delete” key, right-click the object and choose delete, or click on the “x” icon in the layers panel.
Right-clicking/control-clicking on an object will bring up additional tool options in a pop-up menu. These options include different alignments and locking certain aspects.
It is a good idea to lock each item as you complete designing it. Locked items can’t be selected in the designer. This prevents accidental moving. You can always unlock it again to make a change.
If you are unable to select text directly, first check if the layer is locked. If it is not locked, try selecting the layer and typing over the text on the layer in the layers panel.
You will find a graphic of our Union Label (bug) in the clipart tab under “union bug.”
1 and 2 color items also have a “standard colors” collection in the clipart. There you will see the colors available. Click a color to add it to your design. You can then delete the colored rectangle and when you select an item or text the new color will be available to select.
Complex clipart or vector graphics may be made up of a lot of shapes that are grouped together. BEFORE ungrouping, lock the other items in your project and turn off the visibility (eye icon). Then you can select the group and ungroup it. Change whatever parts of it you wish to change and delete any parts you do not want. Now you can click control/command “A” to select all and regroup them! Turn your other layers visible again and unlock as needed.
Changing the colors of shapes and vector art: If the art does not change color or appears to have a stroke around it change color try duplicating the original shape and group them together. Once grouped you can change the color, ungroup and delete the extra copy. After ungrouping, you may need to change the color again.
Some products are offered in different colors, assorted colors, and with different imprint colors. These products may have multiple “pages” showing the design artboard with the appropriate colored product. You can click to the page that has the product color you wish to use, and if you HOVER over the template you can then click on the image in the flyout for the design you want to place there. If you simply click the template it will automatically place the artwork on the first page.
When you are done designing your product and BEFORE you click to process it you should go up to “File” then “Export” and save out a .json file. You can use this file to import your design into other products instead of starting from blank each time! To import your design you must be in the online designer platform. Go to “File” and select “Import” then navigate to where you saved your .json file. Online designer will do its best to resize your artwork to a different product but you may need to make adjustments. **Firefox may have issues importing templates and .json files with the proper design colors. Updated Chrome browser seems to work best.