# Add custom text to WooCommerce products: names, slogans and messages

Two ways to let customers personalise WooCommerce products with their own text, how to keep custom text readable once it's printed, font licences for merchandise, and how to price it.

**WooCommerce has no field for customers' own text, so a plugin adds one: either a text field from a product add-on plugin, which attaches the words to the order item for you to set, or a product designer, where the customer types the text on the product and sees it as it will print.**

A name on a hoodie, a slogan on a t-shirt, a date on a tote bag: text is the most common personalisation, and the easiest one for customers to get wrong. This guide compares the two usual ways, then covers what makes printed text readable, the font licences merchandise needs, and how to charge for it. For personalisation beyond text, and choosing between the two kinds of plugin, read [WooCommerce personalised product plugins: product add-ons or a product designer](/guides/woocommerce-personalised-product-plugin/).

## Two ways to collect the text

### A text field on the product

Product add-on plugins add a text input to the product page: the customer types "MARKO 10", and the text is attached to the order item. Many of these plugins can charge per character or add a fixed price.

The customer never sees the result. You choose the font, the size and the position yourself, every order. That's fine for engraving or a single fixed line, but it fails for anything the customer cares about the look of. Typos slip through, and so do lines that are too long or names you can't fit.

### A designer with live text

In a product designer, the customer adds text straight onto the product photo and sees it as it will print. [PrintBlob](/), which is free, lets them:

- type one or more lines, and move, resize and rotate the text anywhere inside the print area;
- choose from four bundled fonts: a clean sans, a classic serif, a wide display face and a handwritten one, each with Latin and Cyrillic letters;
- make it bold and pick its ink colour. New text starts in a colour that stands out on the shirt colour they've chosen;
- put text and images on the front, and with PrintBlob Pro on the back and the sleeves, priced per printed side.

Each order keeps the design, and with [PrintBlob Pro](/pricing/) print files per side: the text set exactly as the customer saw it, in a transparent 300 DPI PNG and as outlines in the customer's font in a vector PDF and SVG. Nothing to retype. With Pro, the shop can also offer custom fonts and Google Fonts from WordPress's Font Library, and the print files use the same font files.

What it doesn't do: curved or outlined text. For a team where every shirt has its own name, PrintBlob Pro's names and numbers take a list of names, numbers and sizes on one design, and every line gets its own print file; [team and group orders with names and numbers](/guides/team-orders-names-numbers-woocommerce/) covers team orders.

## Keeping printed text readable

Text that looks fine on a screen can disappear on fabric. A few rules cover most problems:

- **Size.** As a rule of thumb, letters much under a centimetre tall get hard to read on a shirt from a step away, and thin fonts need more than that. Fine detail also suffers on textured fabric and with some print methods.
- **Thin strokes.** Hairline serifs and light handwritten fonts lose parts of their letters, especially in white ink on dark shirts. Bold, or a sturdier font, fixes most of it.
- **Contrast.** Navy text on a black shirt, or yellow on white, reads well on a bright screen and badly in daylight. Pick ink colours that contrast clearly with the fabric.
- **Line length.** Long sentences wrap into small text. If a slogan needs three lines, it's often better on the back.
- **The edge of the print area.** Printers can't print to the edge of a garment. PrintBlob shows the print area as a dashed line and leaves out anything outside it, so what customers see is what gets printed.

## Fonts and licences

Every font has a licence, and merchandise is a commercial use. Before you offer a font to customers, check its licence allows printing it on products you sell:

- **Open-licensed fonts** (SIL Open Font License, which covers most of Google Fonts) allow this. PrintBlob's bundled fonts are all OFL.
- **Commercial fonts** often sell desktop, web and "merchandise" or "commercial product" licences separately. A web licence alone usually doesn't cover printing the font on shirts you sell.
- **Fonts installed on your computer** came with your operating system or other software, under that software's terms. Don't assume you can sell prints made with them.

A designer adds a question a font you set yourself does not raise: whether customers may type their own text in it. Many commercial licences treat that as its own use, and Adobe Fonts does not allow it. Font licences for printed products takes each kind of licence in turn.

## Pricing custom text

Shops usually charge for text in one of three ways:

- **Per printed side.** The print costs the same whether it's a name or a full design, since your cost is the print run, not the letters. PrintBlob prices this way: each side has its own print price, added when it has a design.
- **Per character or per line.** Common for embroidery and engraving, where the work scales with the letters.
- **A flat personalisation fee.** Simple to explain, but text-only orders pay as much as full designs.

For printing, per side tends to be the clearest for customers: the price changes when they add the back, and they see it change as they design.

## Questions shop owners ask

### How do I add a custom text field to a WooCommerce product?

WooCommerce has no field for it, so a product add-on plugin adds a text input to the product page and attaches the text to the order item. The customer never sees the result, so you choose the font, the size and the position yourself for every order.

### How big should printed text be?

As a rule of thumb, letters much under a centimetre tall get hard to read on a shirt from a step away, and thin fonts need more than that. Hairline serifs and light handwritten fonts lose parts of their letters, especially in white ink on dark shirts.

### Can I print any font on products I sell?

Only if its licence allows printing it on products you sell. Open-licensed fonts (the SIL Open Font License, which covers most of Google Fonts) allow it. Commercial fonts often sell a merchandise licence separately, and a web licence alone usually does not cover it.

### How should I charge for custom text?

For printing, per printed side tends to be the clearest: the print costs the same whether it is a name or a full design. Per character or per line suits embroidery and engraving, and a flat personalisation fee is simple but charges text-only orders as much as full designs.

### Can customers add curved text or a list of names?

Curved text, no: PrintBlob has no curved or outlined text. A list of names, yes, with PrintBlob Pro’s names and numbers: customers list a name, a number and a size for each item on one design, and every line gets its own print file.

## Try it

[Open PrintBlob's designer](/#demo), add text, switch fonts and the shirt colour, and download the print file it makes. To set it up in your own shop, follow [how to sell custom t-shirts with WooCommerce](/guides/sell-custom-t-shirts-woocommerce/). For shirts where each customer adds their own words to a shared design, see [shirts for events and promotions](/situations/events-and-promotions/) and [schools, charities and other organisations](/situations/schools-and-organisations/).

## Get PrintBlob Pro

Pro adds print-ready files, back printing, a 3D view and a production print queue to the free designer. Paid with Stripe in US dollars, no tax added; one domain per licence.

- **$69 a year**: [Buy the yearly licence](https://printblob.com/pricing/#buy). Full refund within 14 days.
- Limited-time offer until 31 December 2026: **$99 once**: [Buy the lifetime licence](https://printblob.com/pricing/#buy). Full refund within 14 days.

## More guides

- [How to make a custom t-shirt website with WooCommerce](https://printblob.com/guides/sell-custom-t-shirts-woocommerce/)
- [Print-ready t-shirt files: format, transparency and resolution](https://printblob.com/guides/print-ready-t-shirt-files/)
- [What size should a t-shirt design be? Sizes by placement in inches, centimetres and pixels](https://printblob.com/guides/t-shirt-design-size/)
- [Photographing t-shirts for a product designer](https://printblob.com/guides/t-shirt-photos-for-a-product-designer/)
- [WooCommerce product designer plugins compared](https://printblob.com/guides/woocommerce-product-designer-plugins-compared/)
- [Let customers upload a logo or photo to a WooCommerce product](https://printblob.com/guides/customer-image-upload-woocommerce/)
- [How to price custom t-shirt printing](https://printblob.com/guides/price-custom-t-shirt-printing/)
- [Sell custom hoodies, mugs, tote bags and caps in WooCommerce](https://printblob.com/guides/custom-hoodies-mugs-tote-bags-caps-woocommerce/)
- [DTF vs DTG vs screen printing for a small print shop](https://printblob.com/guides/dtf-vs-dtg-vs-screen-printing/)
- [What size should a logo be on a hat? Cap, beanie and bucket hat sizes for embroidery and print](https://printblob.com/guides/hat-logo-size/)
- [What size should a hoodie design be? Hoodie and sweatshirt print sizes in inches, centimetres and pixels](https://printblob.com/guides/hoodie-design-size/)
- [Mug design size: 11 oz and 15 oz sublimation template sizes in inches, centimetres and pixels](https://printblob.com/guides/mug-design-size/)
- [Print areas and print sizes: measure your products and set each side](https://printblob.com/guides/print-area-sizes-by-product/)
- [Tote bag print size: design sizes in inches, centimetres and pixels](https://printblob.com/guides/tote-bag-design-size/)
- [Team and group orders with names and numbers in WooCommerce](https://printblob.com/guides/team-orders-names-numbers-woocommerce/)
- [A checklist for running a WooCommerce print-on-demand shop](https://printblob.com/guides/woocommerce-print-on-demand-checklist/)
- [How PrintBlob Pro makes a 3D product from your photos](https://printblob.com/guides/3d-product-from-photos/)
- [Artwork approval for custom prints: a live mockup or emailed proofs](https://printblob.com/guides/artwork-approval-live-preview-vs-email-proofs/)
- [DTF print file requirements: PNG, 300 DPI and a transparent background](https://printblob.com/guides/dtf-print-file-requirements/)
- [Set up an Instagram shop with WooCommerce for custom prints](https://printblob.com/guides/woocommerce-instagram-shop-custom-prints/)
- [WooCommerce local pickup for print shops: set-up and common problems](https://printblob.com/guides/woocommerce-local-pickup-print-shop/)
- [WooCommerce order statuses for a print shop: custom statuses for artwork, printing and pickup](https://printblob.com/guides/woocommerce-order-status-print-shop/)
- [How to add a size chart in WooCommerce for t-shirts and hoodies](https://printblob.com/guides/woocommerce-size-chart-t-shirts/)
- [WooCommerce personalised product plugins: product add-ons or a product designer](https://printblob.com/guides/woocommerce-personalised-product-plugin/)
- [WooCommerce colour swatches for t-shirts: swatch plugins, variation photos or one recoloured photo](https://printblob.com/guides/woocommerce-colour-swatches-t-shirts/)
- [DTF gang sheet builder for WooCommerce: sell gang sheets and transfers on your own website](https://printblob.com/guides/dtf-gang-sheet-builder-woocommerce/)
- [What you need to start a t-shirt printing business: equipment, supplies and an online shop](https://printblob.com/guides/start-t-shirt-printing-business/)
- [Jersey name and number size: back, front and sleeve numbers by sport in inches, cm and pixels](https://printblob.com/guides/jersey-name-and-number-size/)
- [What size should a sublimation design be for shirts? Paper sizes, design sizes and the file format](https://printblob.com/guides/sublimation-shirt-design-size/)

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Page: https://printblob.com/guides/custom-text-woocommerce-products/

See also: [docs](https://printblob.com/docs/index.md), [features](https://printblob.com/features/index.md), [situations](https://printblob.com/situations/index.md), [compare](https://printblob.com/compare/index.md), [demos](https://printblob.com/demos/index.md), [tools](https://printblob.com/tools/index.md), [themes](https://printblob.com/themes/index.md).