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The mockup designer is where a product photo becomes usable: you mark the patch that gets printed, shape it to the product, and try a sample design on it. Open it from Assets → Mockup, click a library, then click the mockup you want to work on.

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A tour of the screen

The mockup designer showing a Layers panel on the left with Clip masks, Design areas and Image sections, a canvas print photo in the middle, a settings sidebar on the right with Preview Artwork, Design Areas, Mesh Controls and WebGL Effects, and a floating toolbar at the bottom.
  1. What's on this mockup · 2. The product photo · 3. Settings · 4. Tools and zoom
The left panel lists everything on this mockup: the clip masks you’ve drawn, the design areas you’ve added, and the product photo itself (labelled Base mockup). A fresh mockup says No clip masks yet and No design areas yet, which tells you exactly what there is to do. The bottom toolbar holds the tools: Nothing you do is kept until you click Save changes in the top right. Close walks away, and warns you first if you’d lose work.

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Design areas

A design area is the rectangle where artwork lands. Until a mockup has one, artwork covers the entire photo and hides the product.
The Design Areas card in the mockup designer sidebar with an Add design area button, highlighted.

Design Areas in the settings sidebar.

1

Click Add design area

The Add Design Area dialog with an Area ID field containing front, Width and Height fields both set to 500 px, and Cancel and Add buttons.

Name the area and give it a size in pixels.

Area ID is a short name for this patch of the product. Use something plain that describes the position, such as front, back, sleeve or handle, because you’ll be choosing it from a list later.Width and Height are the size of the artwork this area accepts, in pixels. Match the print size you design at, so what you see is what gets printed.
2

Put it where the printing goes

The area appears on the photo as a box with handles. Drag the middle to move it, drag a corner to resize, and use the handle above it to rotate. Line the box up with the printable patch of the product.
The mockup designer with a design area drawn as a blue box with corner handles and a rotation handle over the middle of a canvas print, listed in the left panel as Design area 1 at 500 by 500 pixels.

A design area on the photo, with its grid and handles.

The left panel now lists the area with its size, a rotation box, and Flip 180° for a product photographed upside down.
3

Shape it to the product

If the surface curves, drag the grid points inside the box so the grid follows the product. See Warp and realism.
4

Save changes

Click Save changes. Every design template that uses this mockup picks up the new print area.

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More than one area

Add an area per printable surface: the front and back of a shirt, both sides of a mug, the inside of a card. The Active area dropdown under Add design area chooses which one you’re working on, and the grid handles and effects always apply to the active area.
Name areas by where they are on the product, not by what you plan to print there. back still makes sense next year; christmas-logo won’t.

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Try a real design on it

Guessing whether a print area is right is a waste of time. Upload something and look.
The Preview Artwork card in the sidebar with the text Upload artwork to preview on the mockup and a Choose artwork from device button, highlighted.

Preview Artwork puts a real image into the design area.

Click Choose artwork from device and pick any image. It drops into the active design area, scaled to fit, so you can check the placement, the warp, and the blending against something realistic. The sample is only for your eyes while you work here. It isn’t saved with the mockup and no customer ever sees it.
Preview with your busiest design, the one with edge-to-edge colour and fine lettering. A pale, sparse design flatters a mockup that isn’t actually lined up.

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Where to next

Warp and realism

Mesh, displacement, blending, and clip masks.

Mockups

Where mockups live and how to add them.

Add a mockup preview

Use this mockup in a design template.

Preview settings

Per-frame settings inside the editor.