Use cases
The Shopify customizer for print shops
Small custom jobs stop arriving as email threads. With Pixel Wrangler, customers design them on your Shopify store, see them on the garment and pay, and the print file is on the order. Keep your quote form for the big team jobs.
You know the custom job by heart. A logo arrives by email, a name and a size in the next one, and you redraw, quote, chase the payment and print.
For a team order of sixty hoodies, that back-and-forth earns its keep. For one tee with a name on the back, it's the same thread for a fraction of the job.
Pixel Wrangler puts that tee on your Shopify store as a product the customer designs and pays for. When the order is paid, the print file is on it.
Artwork arrives as a file, not an email
The custom job comes in paid, with the artwork attached. Nobody digs through an inbox for the right attachment.
The customer does the layout, inside the rules you set. Text goes in the fonts and colors you allow, up to your character limit. A logo or photo sits inside the print area you drew, and a locked field stays exactly where the press expects it.
They check out like any other Shopify order. When it's paid, Pixel Wrangler renders the artwork and attaches it to the order.
Set up each blank once, sell it in every color
Build a template for a blank and link it to every product with the same print areas. It sells in every color you stock: the garment color follows the variant the customer picks, once you add a photo of each color.
Each print location is a side with its own photo of the blank, its own print area and its own fields: front, back, left sleeve. The customer switches sides with tabs, and the preview updates as they type.
Adding a color doesn't change your plan. Plans count templates and custom orders, not products.
Print from the file, not a mockup
The file on the order is the one you print. Each side arrives as a transparent PNG with the artwork only, at the width, height and DPI you set once for the template.
That's the file DTG and DTF printing take. The DPI is 300 by default (or 72, 150 or 600), and it's written into the file. A RIP reads a 3600 × 4800 px file at 300 DPI as 12 × 16 inches.
Screen and embroidery shops start from the same artwork file; separations stay with your separation software, and stitch files with your digitizer. If a partner asks for PDF or JPEG, choose it: both come out on white. Files are RGB, not CMYK.
You know which file goes on which shirt before anyone opens it. Every file is named from your prefix, one variant code (size or color, not both), the output file's name and a short id: TEE-XL-Back-a1b2c3d4.png.
Print it here, or send it out
Print in-house, or send the file to whoever makes your transfers. It's the same file on the order either way.
Download Artwork is on the Shopify order page, the order is tagged px-artwork-ready, and the file links sit in an order metafield. On Growth and Scale, the Artwork Export API pulls files by order number or date range, into whatever folder or script you run.
The full spec sheet is Print-ready files.
Keep the form for the big team jobs
Put the small jobs on the customizer: a name on a tee, a photo on a hoodie, ten staff shirts with one logo. Those check out paid, with the file on the order.
Sixty hoodies for a school team, each with its own name, number and size, is still a quote. Pixel Wrangler doesn't take that order today: there's no roster, and no price per print location or method. Keep your quote form for those jobs, the way it runs now.
Built by people who print
Pixel Wrangler comes from the team behind Threadheads, a Shopify apparel brand that prints in-house. Threadheads sells its custom range through the customizer. We built it because nothing else cut it.
Nothing you run today gets replaced. Quoting, scheduling and supplier catalogs stay with the software you use now. It installs as a theme app extension, so there's no theme code to edit and no hidden products cluttering your admin.
Install it and print a test
Your first template takes about five minutes if you have a blank image of the product (Quickstart). Install on Shopify, build a template for your best-selling blank, link it to the product and place a test order.
Then open the file in your RIP. That test is the one that matters.
Plans start at $99 a month with a 7-day free trial; see pricing. Want to see it on your own blanks first? Book a demo.
Selling custom apparel under your own brand as well? See the Shopify t-shirt designer for apparel brands.
Questions merchants ask
Does Pixel Wrangler make screen-print separations or embroidery stitch files?
No. It outputs raster files: a transparent PNG per side, or a PDF or JPEG on white. Separations stay with your separation software and stitch files with your digitizer. For name-only embroidery, the name the customer typed rides on the order line, with its font and color, for your operator to key in.
Can I price by print location, or take a team order with names, numbers and sizes?
Not today. There is no price per print location or method, and no roster where each shirt gets its own name, number and size. For a back print, a Front only and a Front + Back variant at two prices does the job. For team orders, keep your quote form.
Does it send orders to DecoNetwork, Printavo or YoPrint?
No. Pixel Wrangler doesn't push orders anywhere. The file is on the Shopify order: Download Artwork, the px-artwork-ready tag, an order metafield and, on Growth and Scale, the Artwork Export API. We haven't tested a hand-off into any production software yet, so we don't claim one, and nothing you run today gets replaced.
Will the file work on my RIP?
It is a transparent RGB PNG at the size you set, with the DPI written into the file. Place a test order and open the file in your RIP before you go live. If the size or DPI is off, change it in the template and click Regenerate on the order.
Can one print location's file be a different size from another's?
Not today. Every file in a template shares one width, height and DPI. If one print location is much smaller than the rest, check its file on a test order before you go live.
Does it make DTF gang sheets?
No. Each file is one side at the full print area, with transparent space around the artwork. Nesting and trimming stay with your gang-sheet software.