Artwork approval for custom prints: a live mockup or emailed proofs

Artwork approval is the step where the customer confirms exactly what will be printed, before the shop prints it. With emailed proofs, the shop makes a mockup after the order, emails it and waits for a reply, once for every change. With a live mockup, the customer places their artwork on a photo of the product while ordering and approves what they see: the product’s colour, the artwork’s size and position, the text as they typed it. A designer that warns when an image is below 150 DPI at its placed size also catches artwork too small to print sharply. That settles most of what a proof checks before checkout, and leaves emailed proofs for the orders that need a person to look.

This guide compares the two ways of getting artwork approved, what each costs a print shop, and when a proof is still worth sending.

How an emailed proof round works

1. The customer orders and sends the artwork, by email or through an upload field.
2. You check the file: its size in pixels, its background, its fonts.
3. You place the artwork on a mockup of the product, at the size and position you think the customer wants.
4. You email the proof and the order waits.
5. The customer approves it, or asks for a change and you go back to step 3.
6. You print.

Each round is work for you and a wait for the order. A proof only shows the customer what you understood from their order; the round exists to find out whether you understood it right.

What proof rounds cost a print shop

• Your time, every round. Making the mockup, writing the email, matching the reply to the order, and making the change. How long that takes depends on your shop. To know your own figure, count last month’s proof emails and time the next few you make.
• Orders waiting. An order is not printed until its proof is approved. A customer who doesn’t reply for days holds the order, and a deadline such as an event or a birthday can pass while it waits.
• Mistakes the round lets through. A customer approves a proof on a phone screen without noticing the logo is 400 pixels wide; a reply to an older proof is read as approving the newer one; “a bit bigger” means one size to you and another to them.
• Customers who leave. A buyer who wanted to see the result before paying, and can only see it after, may not order at all.

Proofs do catch real problems, and for some orders they are the right tool (see below). The question is which checks the customer can make themselves before they order.

What a live mockup settles before the order

What is approved	Emailed proof	Live mockup in a product designer
Position and size of the artwork	You place it, the customer approves or asks for changes	The customer places it inside the print area and sees the result
The product’s colour	One colour per proof	Every colour, switched while designing
Text and its spelling	The customer reads what you typed	The customer types it on the product
Whether an image prints sharply	You check the file, then ask for a better one	The designer works it out at the placed size and warns before the order
A white box around a logo	You spot it and ask for a transparent PNG	The customer sees the box on the preview
What exactly was approved	The proof file and the email thread	The design kept with the order

In PrintBlob, the free product designer for WooCommerce, the customer designs on the product page: they upload images, type text on the product, choose a colour and see the price. The print area is drawn as a dashed line, and anything outside it is not printed. Every order keeps its design: the design itself, its preview on the product and the customer’s images. PrintBlob Pro also makes a print-ready file of each printed side at 300 DPI. See Free and Pro compared for what each includes, or try it in the live demo.

The resolution warning

A proof round often exists because of one problem: the image is too small for the size it will print at. A designer can catch that while the customer is still designing.

While a customer resizes an image, PrintBlob’s designer works out its resolution at the size it is placed on the product, from the print size you entered for that side. At 150 DPI or more it says “Prints sharp” with the number. Below that it warns that the image may print blurry and suggests making it smaller or uploading a larger file. The customer can still order, so check the orders whose designs show a warning before you print them.

To see what an image prints at before uploading it, use the print size calculator: it shows an image’s largest print at 300 and 150 DPI, and whether it fills a 28 × 36 cm print area.

When to still send a proof

A live mockup shows the customer the design on a photo, on their own screen. Send a proof, or a sample, when that is not enough:

• Colour must match exactly. A screen is not ink on fabric. For a brand colour, agree it against a printed sample.
• The print method changes the artwork. Embroidery needs the design digitised; screen printing needs colours separated; special inks look different from any screen.
• You rework the artwork. You redraw a logo as vectors, change a font or remove a background: show the customer what you made.
• The order is large or costly to redo, such as a team order or a run for an event.
• Something about the design worries you, such as a warning about the image’s resolution, artwork that may belong to someone else, or text that looks like a typing mistake.

PrintBlob has no proof step of its own. When an order needs a proof, send it the way you do now; the order’s design and its preview are on the order screen to start from.

Making approval clear in your shop

• Say on the product page what ordering approves: for example, “What you see in the preview is what we print. If we see a problem with your artwork, we’ll email you before printing.”
• Say what you check and what you don’t. You might check every image’s resolution but not the spelling of names.
• Keep the approved design with the order. With a designer, it already is; with emailed proofs, attach the approved proof to the order as a note.

Questions shop owners ask

For more on files that print well, read Print-ready t-shirt files and Let customers upload a logo or photo to a WooCommerce product.