# A print shop taking custom orders online A print shop uses PrintBlob to let customers design their own print on the product page instead of emailing artwork. Each order arrives with its design, a preview and the customer's images; with PrintBlob Pro it also arrives with print-ready files of each printed side, a 300 DPI PNG, a vector PDF and an SVG, and a place in the print queue. The free plugin is enough to start taking front-printed t-shirt orders. ## Who is this for? A print shop, a DTG or DTF printer, or a garment decorator with a WooCommerce site, who today takes custom work by email: a customer sends a logo, asks where it can go, waits for a mock-up and approves it. Online, the customer does that layout themselves, on your product, at your prices. ## What changes with PrintBlob? - **The layout is the customer's.** They place their artwork inside your print area, at the real size in centimetres, and see it on the product in the colour they order. - **The order is complete.** The colour, the size, which sides are printed, a preview of each and the images they uploaded are on the order. Nothing is in a separate email. - **The files are ready (PrintBlob Pro).** Each printed side is a transparent PNG at 300 DPI, a vector PDF and an SVG at the print area's size, made when the design went into the cart. The guide [print-ready t-shirt files](/guides/print-ready-t-shirt-files/) explains what that means for each print method. - **The work is listed (PrintBlob Pro).** The print queue shows what is still to print across all orders, oldest first. ## What should I know before I start? - **Price per printed side.** Each product has a print price for the front, and with Pro for the back and each sleeve, added only when that side has a print. With Pro, quantity breaks lower a side's price from the quantities you set; the guide [how to price custom t-shirt printing](/guides/price-custom-t-shirt-printing/) covers the options. - **Screen printing and offset.** The PNG is for DTG, DTF and transfers. PrintBlob Pro's vector PDF and SVG keep typed text and vector art as shapes, and with the ICC profile your printer gives you it also makes a CMYK PDF; colour separations, and Pantone or spot colours, are still yours to make. - **Proofs.** There is no proof-approval step built in: the customer approves their own design by ordering it. ## How do I try it? Open the [print file demo](/demos/#print-files) to see the PNG an order would carry, then install the free plugin on your shop and turn the designer on for one t-shirt. ## How does an order go through the shop? 1. **The customer designs.** On the product page they upload their artwork or type their text on the product, choose the colour and size, and see the price with the print added. 2. **The design goes into the cart.** Its preview, printed sides, colour and size show in the cart; with PrintBlob Pro the print files of each printed side are made at that moment. 3. **The order is paid.** WooCommerce takes the payment as usual. The order screen and the emails show the design's preview. 4. **You print from the queue.** With PrintBlob Pro, PrintBlob › Print queue lists the item; Download order (ZIP) gives its print files and a print list. 5. **You mark it printed.** Mark printed takes it off the queue and adds an order note. Then ship it as any WooCommerce order. ## 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 - [Installation](https://printblob.com/docs/installation/): PrintBlob needs WordPress 7.0, WooCommerce 10.0 and PHP 7.4 or newer. Install the free plugin from the WordPress.org directory or as a zip, set up your first product, then add PrintBlob Pro when you need it. - [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. - [How to make a custom t-shirt website with WooCommerce](https://printblob.com/guides/sell-custom-t-shirts-woocommerce/): How to make a website where customers design their own t-shirts and you sell and print them, step by step in WooCommerce: products, colours and sizes, a product designer, pricing per printed side, and print files with every order. - [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. - [Print-ready t-shirt files: format, transparency and resolution](https://printblob.com/guides/print-ready-t-shirt-files/): What makes a t-shirt print file ready to print: a transparent PNG at 300 DPI at the printed size, or a vector file where the method takes one. Why customer photos print blurry, why backgrounds print as boxes, and what DTG, DTF, screen printing, vinyl and embroidery each need from you. - [WooCommerce order statuses for a print shop: custom statuses for artwork, printing and pickup](https://printblob.com/guides/woocommerce-order-status-print-shop/): What WooCommerce's own order statuses mean for a shop that prints customers' designs, which emails each one sends, how to add a custom order status such as Awaiting artwork or Ready to collect with a plugin or code, and how custom statuses work with a print queue. ## The features that matter here - [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. - [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. - [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. - [Every colour from one product photo](https://printblob.com/features/colours/) (Free): PrintBlob recolours one white product photo to every colour of your WooCommerce colour attribute, keeping folds and shading, and adds a Colours block. ## Questions ### Do I need PrintBlob Pro to start? No. The free plugin takes orders for the front of its bundled t-shirt and keeps every order's design, preview and the customer's images. PrintBlob Pro adds the print files, the queue, the back and sleeves and your own products. ### Can customers send artwork I check before printing? Their uploaded images are kept in full with the order, and the designer warns them when an image is too small to print sharply. You can still contact a customer before printing, as with any order. ## 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 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 mug printing business selling custom mugs online](https://printblob.com/situations/mug-printing-business/) - [A custom cap and hat business](https://printblob.com/situations/custom-hat-business/) --- Page: https://printblob.com/situations/print-shop-custom-orders/ 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).