Templates 101

A template is the thing your customer designs on. Everything else — placeholders, print 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 a position over that image.
• Sides — front, back, sleeves, mug-wraps. One template can carry as many sides as the product needs. Each side has its own layers of placeholders.
• Placeholders — the editable slots: text, image, sticker, background, mask.
• Output settings — the print files this template produces: format, size, DPI, file naming, and which side lands on which file.

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

Creating a template#

Click Create template on the app's Home page or the Templates page. If ready-made templates are available, a Create a new template dialog asks you to Start from scratch or pick a starter.

Starting from a ready-made template#

The Home page also shows a Start from a template gallery. Starters are pre-built templates you copy and make your own — placeholders, sides and output settings already wired up. The copy is fully yours; editing it never touches the starter.

What comes across in the copy:

• Every side, layer and placeholder, with the fonts, colours, icons, stickers, backgrounds and masks it uses — added to your own Design Assets library.
• The output settings and print files.
• The template's AI tool settings.
• Spend & Save discount tiers. If the starter ships with discounts enabled, the copy applies them at checkout from the start.

What doesn't: product assignments, variant images, size guides and variant identifier codes. Those belong to your products, so you add them in the builder's Products and Output Settings tools.

If it's your first template, start from a starter. Reverse-engineering a working template teaches the builder faster than the blank canvas does.

Assigning a template to a product#

Templates connect to Shopify products in the builder's Products tool: click Add products, pick from your catalogue, save. One template can power many products. Each product can only have one template assigned — assigning a product to a second template moves it off the first.

When a product is assigned, its product page shows a Customise button — provided the Customise Button theme block is on that product template in your theme (see Installing). No theme code, no second app.

Variant images, size guides and cross-sells live in the same tool: Products, variant images, size guides and cross-sells.

Duplicate, trash, restore#

The Templates page has the usual operations:

• Duplicate — opens a dialog where you tick what to include: image slots, text elements, stickers, backgrounds, masks / overlays, output file settings, AI settings and Spend & Save discounts. Product assignments and variant images are never duplicated.
• Delete — moves the template to the Trash. Its products lose their Customise button until you restore it or assign another template.
• Trash — deleted templates are kept for 30 days; the Trash page counts down the days left, with Restore and Delete permanently per template. Templates in the Trash still count toward your plan's template limit.

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 assigned products. Variant images 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.

Your plan sets how many templates you can have — 3 on Starter, 50 on Growth, unlimited on Scale. Creating one past the limit shows "Your plan includes N templates. Upgrade to add more." See Plans.

What's next#

Once a template exists, you spend most of your time inside three places: text placeholders, image and asset placeholders, and sides and output. Start there — or take the tour of the builder first.