Install Printlane from the Shopify App Store

Install Printlane from the Shopify App Store
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To use Printlane Designer, you need to enable it in your Shopify theme. Follow the instructions below:

Enable the Printlane app in your Shopify theme

To use the Printlane Designer, you need to enable it in your current Shopify theme:

Open your Shopify Admin
In the navigation menu, click Online Store -> Themes.
Click Customize next to your Current Theme.
In the navigation panel, click App embeds and enable Printlane.
Click Save.

If you switch to another theme in the future, you will need to repeat these steps.

Enable the designer for a product

Once Printlane is enabled in your theme, you can activate the designer for a product using one of the demo templates in your Printlane account.

Open Printlane Studio
Edit a product template and click on the Shopify tab.
Select a product from your Shopify store.
Click Save.

The Shopify product you selected will use this template in the designer.

Open the product page in your Shopify store. It will display a button Personalize instead of Add to cart. You can customize the product by clicking on the Personalize button.

For instructions on creating and linking your own templates, read our article on How to create a product template.

Designs in the shopping cart

A unique reference to the design is displayed when a product is added to the shopping cart. This reference is stored as a line item property, allowing customers to add the same product multiple times with different designs.

Changing designs from within the shopping cart

You can allow customers to review and change their designs directly from the shopping cart by modifying your theme’s cart Liquid code:

Open your Shopify Admin
Navigate to Online Store -> Themes.
Click the Actions dropdown for your current theme and select Edit Code.
Open the cart Liquid file, typically named main-cart-items.liquid, cart.liquid, cart-template.liquid, or form-cart.liquid.

Locate the code looping through line item properties:

{% for property in item.properties %} 
  ... code that prints properties here
{% endfor %}

Add a conditional statement to look for the customization reference and display a link:

{% for property in item.properties %}
  {% if property.first contains 'customization reference' %}
    <a href="#" class="printlane-open" data-printlane="{{ property.last }}">Change design</a>
  {% else %}
    {{ property.first }}: {{ property.last }}
  {% endif %}
{% endfor %}

For a complete overview of Liquid tags, refer to Shopify's Liquid documentation.

Once implemented, the Change design link will open the Printlane Designer directly from the shopping cart:

Note: Design references will always be visible in the Shopify Admin, checkout pages, and confirmation emails.

Displaying thumbnails of designs

Warning: To show thumbnails of the created designs, first ensure that customers can review and change their designs from the cart (see previous step)

Printlane automatically generates thumbnails of designs, similar to a screenshot of the final design before adding it to the cart. Follow these steps to enable this functionality:

Open your Shopify Admin
Click Online Store in the navigation.
Click Customize next to your current theme.
Go to Theme Settings -> App embeds.
Expand Printlane, check Replace cart thumbnails, and click Save.

To verify the functionality, follow these steps:

Navigate to a customizable product page.
Create a design and add it to the cart.
The cart should now display the design’s thumbnail instead of the default product image.

If thumbnails do not appear, check:

The Cart row selector (should be a CSS selector matching all cart line items).
Whether the items were added before enabling Replace cart thumbnails (previously added items won’t have a thumbnail).

Review design link in order confirmation email

Allow customers to review their ordered designs by adding a review design link in the order confirmation email.

Log in to your Shopify Admin.
Go to Settings -> Notifications -> Customer Notifications -> Order Confirmation.

Locate the following code:

{% for property in line.properties %}
  {% assign property_first_char = property.first | slice: 0 %}
  {% if property.last != blank and property_first_char != '_' %}
    <div class="order-list__item-property">
      <dt>{{ property.first }}:</dt>
      <dd>
      {% if property.last contains '/uploads/' %}
        <a href="{{ property.last }}" class="link" target="_blank">
        {{ property.last | split: '/' | last }}
        </a>
      {% else %}
        {{ property.last }}
      {% endif %}
      </dd>
    </div>
  {% endif %}
{% endfor %}

Replace it with:

// Code with review design link
{% for property in line.properties %}
  {% assign property_first_char = property.first | slice: 0 %}
  {% if property.last != blank and property_first_char != '_' %}
    <div class="order-list__item-property">
      <!-- Printlane review link -->
      {% if property.first contains 'customization reference' %}
         <a href="https://preview.printlane.com/app.html?storeId=[yourStoreIdHere]&designReference={{ property.last }}">View design</a>
      {% else %}
      <!-- Other properties -->
      <dt>{{ property.first }}:</dt>
      <dd>
         {% if property.last contains '/uploads/' %}
           <a href="{{ property.last }}" class="link" target="_blank">
           {{ property.last | split: '/' | last }}
           </a>
         {% else %}
           {{ property.last }}
         {% endif %}
      </dd>
      {% endif %}
    </div>
  {% endif %}
{% endfor %}

Uninstalling or cancelling Printlane

If you wish to stop using Printlane or cancel your subscription, simply uninstall the app:

Open your Shopify Admin
Click Apps in the left sidebar.
Locate Printlane under installed apps and click the trash bin icon.
Confirm uninstallation.

All access to your Shopify store and data will be revoked, and your data will be erased in accordance with our data processing policy.

If you modified your theme’s Liquid code to enable design changes from the cart, revert those changes:

Open Shopify Admin.
Navigate to Online Store -> Themes.
Click Actions -> Edit Code.
Locate the cart’s Liquid file (cart.liquid, form-cart.liquid, or cart-template.liquid).
Remove the previously added Printlane code.
Click Save.

Frequently asked questions

How can I allow my customers to choose between personalizing a product or adding it directly to the cart?

If you want to give your customers the option to either personalize a product or add it directly to the cart without personalization, you can easily configure this in your store.

This is especially useful if you sell products that don’t require customization or if you want to offer different prices based on whether a product is personalized.

To set this up, create multiple product variants, such as Personalized and Not Personalized. In Printlane Studio, you can specify that the Designer is only enabled for the Personalized variant. See the section Enable the designer for a product on this page for instructions.

I switched to another theme, and Printlane is no longer working

When you publish or switch to a new theme, you need to enable Printlane in that theme as well. Follow the steps in Enable Printlane in your theme to ensure it works correctly in the new theme.

Customers can add products to the cart without designing

Some Shopify themes include a “Quick Add” feature or display Add to cart buttons on catalog and collection pages. Shopify does not support design creation from these overview pages.

To prevent customers from adding products without a design, check your theme settings and disable the Quick Add functionality or hide Add to cart buttons on overview pages.

The Printlane Designer doesn’t open when clicking the Personalize button

If the Add to cart button text is changed to Personalize, Printlane should be enabled, and the Designer should load for that product.

However, some Shopify themes override the default way of adding products to the cart, which can interfere with Printlane’s functionality.

If the Personalize button appears but the Designer does not open, check your theme settings and disable any features like Add to cart using Ajax or change the Cart type setting to Page:

Setting the cart type in your Shopify theme settings

How do I hide the Buy it now button on product pages?

Some themes display Buy it now buttons next to the Add to cart button. These are called dynamic checkout buttons and cannot be configured to work with Printlane.

To prevent customers from purchasing products without a design, disable these buttons:

Open your Shopify Admin
Click Online Store in the navigation menu.
Next to Current theme, click Customize.
Navigate to a product page.
Click the Buy buttons section in the navigation panel.
Uncheck Show dynamic checkout buttons and save your theme.

When linking or updating a Printlane template to a Shopify product, the changes are not immediately visible

When you first link a template to a Shopify product, it may take up to a minute for the Personalize button to appear on the product page.

This delay occurs because Shopify may cache your product page, preventing immediate updates.

The same applies when updating the product or its variants. Please allow some time for Shopify to process and display the changes.

How can I hide the design reference on checkout pages?

Shopify does not allow checkout page modifications unless you have a Shopify Plus subscription. If you are on Shopify Plus, you can customize the checkout pages.

If you modify your checkout code, you will need to manually update your checkout.liquid template whenever Shopify releases an update. We recommend using the default checkout, which includes the design reference by default.

How can I view the design from an order I received?

Every customized order line includes a unique Printlane Design reference, such as: 1.03dc0b02-8431-4ac8-9bfa-f32d279554d5:

The number before the dot (1 in this example) is the design ID, which increases automatically as new designs are created. You can look up this ID in Printlane Studio:

Open the overview of designs in Printlane Studio.
In the Search by ID field, enter the design ID (e.g., 1).
Click the search button to find the corresponding design.

Did you know you can also look up orders in Printlane Studio? This section shows all orders containing at least one order line with a design reference. Orders and order lines without design references are not stored in Printlane due to data processing regulations.