# A mug printing business selling custom mugs online To sell custom mugs online from your own WooCommerce shop, let customers design the mug on its product page and take each order with a print file you place on your sublimation template. With PrintBlob Pro, a mug is a mockup on your own photo: one side, or a front and a back either side of the handle, each with its own print area, print size, print price and 300 DPI print file. The free plugin designs only on the front of its bundled t-shirt, so mugs need Pro. ## Who is this for? A shop that sublimates mugs, or a t-shirt printer adding mugs, that wants customers to order a mug with their own photo, logo or name from the website instead of emailing artwork and waiting for a mock-up. Starting a mug printing business means blanks, a printer and a press, and a niche to sell to; this page is about the part online: how a customer's design reaches you ready to print. ## What matters in PrintBlob? - **Your mug, on your photo (PrintBlob Pro).** A mug is a mockup like any product: a photo of the mug, the print area drawn on its face and the real print size in centimetres. Customers see the print area as a dashed line on your mug and place their photo or text inside it. - **One side or two.** Switch on only **Front** for one design, or **Front** and **Back** for a design either side of the handle. Each side has its own photo, print area, print size, print price and print file. The designer calls them Front and Back, so say in the product description which side of the handle each one is. - **The size of each side.** Enter the size your template gives that side: on a two-sided 11 oz mug, half the wrap, about 4.25 × 3.5 in (10.8 × 8.9 cm). The wraps of 11 oz and 15 oz mugs, and where the handle leaves its gap, are in [mug design size](/guides/mug-design-size/). - **Photos that print sharp.** A customer's photo is the usual mug order. While they place one, the designer shows its resolution at the side's print size and warns below 150 DPI, before they order. - **A file for each printed side (PrintBlob Pro).** When the mug goes into the cart, each printed side becomes a transparent PNG at 300 DPI at exactly that side's size: a side of 4.25 × 3.5 in (10.8 × 8.9 cm) arrives as 1275 × 1050 pixels. The order also keeps the customer's images as they uploaded them. - **The print queue (PrintBlob Pro).** **PrintBlob › Print queue** lists the designed items of processing and on-hold orders still to print, oldest first. **Download order (ZIP)** gives an order's files, each named with its order item, and a print list. ![The Printable sides box: a t-shirt photo for Front and Back, each with a dashed print area, Choose photo, Print width (cm) and Print height (cm).](/generated/media/admin-mockup-editor-1200.webp "The mockup editor in PrintBlob Pro, shown with the bundled t-shirt: a mug gets the same boxes with your photo.") ## What should I know before I start? - **Recolouring.** Leave **Recolour the photo to the colour the customer picks** unticked for white mugs. It tints every white and grey part of the photo, the inside and the handle included, so it suits mugs coloured all over. - **Price per printed side.** Each side's print price is set per product and added only when that side has a print, and PrintBlob Pro's quantity breaks lower it from the quantities you set; [how to price custom t-shirt printing](/guides/price-custom-t-shirt-printing/) works the same way for mugs. - **Setting up the product.** Colours, a simple or variable product and the designer tab are in [sell custom hoodies, mugs, tote bags and caps](/guides/custom-hoodies-mugs-tote-bags-caps-woocommerce/). ## What are the limits? - **No wrap template.** PrintBlob does not lay the sides out on a mug-sized sheet, mirror them for sublimation or add bleed. You place each side's file on your own template, as you would a file a customer emailed, so print one test mug before you take orders. - **Flat sides, not a wrap.** Each side is one flat rectangle on a photo of one face of the mug. A design meant to run all the way round is not shown as it will look, and a tapered mug's curved template is yours to make. - **No 3D mug.** PrintBlob Pro's 3D view is made for garments on a hanger. A mug with one side shows no 3D button; for a two-sided mug, set **Product view** to **Front and back only (2D)** in its PrintBlob tab. ## How do I try it? Open the [print file demo](/demos/#print-files): it runs on the bundled t-shirt, and each side of a mug gets its file the same way, at the size you set. Then photograph one mug and make its mockup with PrintBlob Pro. ## How does a mug order go through PrintBlob? 1. **Photograph the mug.** A white mug square on, the handle to one side, on a plain or transparent background. For a design on each side of the handle, photograph the other face from the same spot. 2. **Make the mug's mockup.** With PrintBlob Pro, open PrintBlob › Mockups › Add mockup, tick Customers can print on this side for Front (and for Back on a two-sided mug), draw each print area and enter its print width and height in centimetres from your template. 3. **Turn the designer on for the mug.** In the product's PrintBlob designer tab, tick Designer, choose the mug's mockup and enter each side's print price. 4. **The customer designs and orders.** They upload a photo or type a name on the mug, see whether the photo prints sharply at that size, and add it to the cart. Each printed side's file is made at that moment. 5. **Print from the queue.** PrintBlob › Print queue lists the mug; Download order (ZIP) gives each printed side's PNG, with its PDF and SVG, and a print list. Place the PNGs on your sublimation template, print, press, then select Mark printed. ## Try it in the live demo **The print file of an order.** What PrintBlob Pro makes when a customer adds a design to the cart: a transparent PNG of each printed side at 300 DPI, exactly the print area’s size (3307 × 4252 pixels for the front), and the preview the cart and the order show; in a shop it also makes a vector PDF and an SVG of each printed side. In the demo the PNG and the preview open in a window to download, marked “printblob.com” in a corner; a shop’s own files carry no mark. [Open this demo](https://printblob.com/#demo?view=default&color=black&text=Good%20days) · [All demos](https://printblob.com/demos/) ## Set it up - [Mockups](https://printblob.com/docs/mockups/): A mockup is a product photo for each printable side, with its print area and the real print size in centimetres. PrintBlob Pro makes every order's print files at that size: a 300 DPI PNG, a vector PDF and an SVG. - [Products](https://printblob.com/docs/products/): To sell a product with the designer, open the product's PrintBlob designer tab, turn the designer on, choose its mockup and set a print price for each printed side. - [PrintBlob Pro](https://printblob.com/docs/pro/): PrintBlob Pro adds print-ready files of every order (a 300 DPI PNG, a vector PDF and SVG, and a CMYK PDF through your printer's profile) with the customers' original images, your own products and photos, back and sleeve printing, a 3D view, design templates, a clipart library, quantity breaks, names and numbers for team orders, a print queue with ZIP downloads, and your own fonts. - [Mug design size: 11 oz and 15 oz sublimation template sizes in inches, centimetres and pixels](https://printblob.com/guides/mug-design-size/): The print size of an 11 oz and a 15 oz mug's full wrap in inches, centimetres and pixels at 300 DPI, compiled from printers' and blank makers' published print areas, with where the wrap goes round the handle, how big each side of a two-sided print is, and how to set up the file. - [Sell custom hoodies, mugs, tote bags and caps in WooCommerce](https://printblob.com/guides/custom-hoodies-mugs-tote-bags-caps-woocommerce/): How to add hoodies, mugs, tote bags and caps next to t-shirts in a WooCommerce shop with a product designer: what changes for each product, its print areas and sizes, the photos it needs, and how to set each one up as a variable product with its own mockup. - [How to price custom t-shirt printing](https://printblob.com/guides/price-custom-t-shirt-printing/): A method for pricing custom-printed t-shirts in an online shop: what each shirt really costs you, pricing the blank and each printed side separately, minimums, extras like sizes and colours, and how to show it to customers. ## The features that matter here - [Mockups and print areas](https://printblob.com/features/mockups/) (Free, with more in PrintBlob Pro): A mockup is a product photo per printable side, the print area drawn on it and its real size in centimetres. Free: the bundled t-shirt. PrintBlob Pro: your own products. - [The product designer, with text typed on the product](https://printblob.com/features/designer/) (Free): PrintBlob's designer for WooCommerce: customers place photos, logos and text on the product photo, type straight on the product, and add the design to the cart. - [Print-ready PNG, PDF and SVG files and the print queue](https://printblob.com/features/print-files/) (Free, with more in PrintBlob Pro): Every WooCommerce order keeps its design. PrintBlob Pro makes each printed side's print files at the exact print size: a transparent 300 DPI PNG, a vector PDF and an SVG, and a CMYK PDF through your printer's profile if you want one. Its print queue gives each order's files in one ZIP. - [Front, back and sleeve printing](https://printblob.com/features/back-and-sleeves/) (Free, with more in PrintBlob Pro): Print on the front with the free plugin; PrintBlob Pro adds the back and the left and right sleeves, each with its own photo, print area, print price and print file. ## Questions ### Can customers design a mug with the free plugin? No. The free plugin designs on the front of its bundled t-shirt only. A mug is your own product on your own photo, which needs PrintBlob Pro's mockup editor. ### Does PrintBlob make a full-wrap sublimation file? No. Each printed side arrives as its own transparent PNG at 300 DPI at that side's print size. You place the files on your mug template, mirror them if your printer needs it, and add any bleed the template asks for. ### Can I sell 11 oz and 15 oz mugs? Yes, as two products. Each product chooses one mockup and the print sizes are the mockup's, so a 15 oz mug, being taller, gets its own mockup with its own print areas. ### Can I sell mugs and t-shirts in the same shop? Yes. Each product chooses its mockup, so the bundled t-shirt and your mug sit side by side, each with its own print areas and print prices. ## 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. ## Try it on your own shop PrintBlob is free in the WordPress.org plugin directory: install it, turn the designer on for a product and take a design order. PrintBlob Pro is $69 a year or $99 once (limited-time offer until 31 December 2026), with a full refund within 14 days. [Install PrintBlob free](https://wordpress.org/plugins/printblob/) · [Download free (0.8 MB)](https://printblob.com/downloads/printblob.zip) · [Free and Pro compared](https://printblob.com/pricing/) ## More situations - [A print shop taking custom orders online](https://printblob.com/situations/print-shop-custom-orders/) - [A team kit or club shop](https://printblob.com/situations/team-and-club-kit/) - [Shirts for events and promotions](https://printblob.com/situations/events-and-promotions/) - [A merch shop for a brand or a creator](https://printblob.com/situations/brand-and-creator-merch/) - [Schools, charities and other organisations](https://printblob.com/situations/schools-and-organisations/) - [A custom cap and hat business](https://printblob.com/situations/custom-hat-business/) --- Page: https://printblob.com/situations/mug-printing-business/ See also: [docs](https://printblob.com/docs/index.md), [guides](https://printblob.com/guides/index.md), [features](https://printblob.com/features/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).