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A mockup is a photo of the blank product you sell, prepared so Customei knows how to lay artwork onto it. The photo is only half of it. A finished mockup also carries:
  • a design area, the patch of the photo where artwork belongs,
  • a surface shape, how that patch curves, so print follows the product instead of lying flat on it,
  • optional clip masks, edges that hide artwork where the product bends out of view.
Do that work once per product photo and every template you ever build can borrow it.

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Where mockups live

Mockups are assets, so they sit with your other reusable material under Assets. Open the Mockup tab to see just the mockup ones.
The Assets page with the Mockup tab highlighted, listing mockup libraries with their thumbnails, item counts, reference counts, and last-modified dates.

Assets, filtered to mockup libraries.

Mockups are kept in libraries, and a library is simply a named group of them. Keep one per product family and you’ll find things later: Mugs, Unisex tees, Framed canvas. Each row tells you:

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Inside a library

Click a library to see the individual mockups.
The item table inside a mockup library, listing three mockups with columns for position, preview, name, option ID, type marked 2D, and last modified.

One mockup library. The banner tells you which design templates rely on it.

The banner at the top is worth reading before you change anything: it counts the design templates using this library, and View opens one so you can see where these photos actually land.
Editing a mockup changes it everywhere. If three templates use the same shirt photo and you move its print area, all three previews move. That’s usually the point, but check the banner first so you know what you’re affecting.

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Adding mockups

The mockup library header with the Add mockup, Import PSD and Import buttons highlighted, next to a Delete button.

Three ways to get product photos into a library.

A freshly uploaded photo has no print area yet, so artwork will fill the whole frame until you mark one out. Open the mockup and draw it: see The mockup designer.
Shoot or source photos of the blank product, evenly lit, with the print area facing the camera as squarely as you can manage. A photo taken at a sharp angle can be warped into shape, but a straight-on one takes minutes instead.

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How a mockup reaches a customer

Mockups aren’t attached to products directly. They travel with your artwork:
1

You prepare the mockup once

In Assets, with its print area and surface shape set.
2

You add it to a design template

In the editor it becomes a Design Preview frame beside your artwork. See Add a mockup preview.
3

Your shopper sees it on the product page

As they fill in the options, the preview updates with their choices on the real product.

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Where to next

The mockup designer

Mark out where artwork goes on a photo.

Warp and realism

Make print follow the shape of the product.

Add a mockup preview

Use a mockup in a design template.

The design and preview frames

How the editor’s two canvases work.