Print on Demand Custom Artwork

Accessing customized print files on a per-order basis is a common scenario that print on demand stores are facing. Sometimes the custom files have unique artwork supplied by the customer or sometimes a plugin is building custom files with special text from the buyer. The problem to solve is how to attach the custom artwork file to the order so it can be sent to a printer for fulfillment.

Every store will have a different set of factors at play, so the best way to find out how this will work for your store is to start sending test orders into Order Desk. We'll go over the process of getting this set up in this guide and tell you what the next steps are you need to take and at what point our developers will be able to step in and work with you to finalize this setup.

Manually Adding Artwork in Order Desk

You can manually add artwork to the items in your orders here in Order Desk. To do this, open up the order in Order Desk and click on the item name:

Click on Add Variation, add print_url and the link to the artwork file, and save your changes:

You will also need to include the print_sku (the printer's code for the product) either as a variation or metadata. For more information on how to work with print on demand products in Order Desk, please review our print on demand fulfillment guide.

Automatically Sending Artwork to Order Desk

Realistically, what you are looking for is how to do this automatically so you don't have to manually add the artwork file every time an order comes in. This will take some testing and either setting up some more advanced rules using Twig or having your developer build a custom script to the Order Desk API.

First, you'll want to see if your shopping cart or website provides any way to attach a custom file with an order. If so, set this up on your side and you can start sending test orders through to Order Desk. After sending some test orders into Order Desk, contact Order Desk support and let us know:

• your Order Desk store name
• the order number(s) for any tests you sent through
• what the artwork files are that you are testing (the URLs)

With this information, we will look at your store to see if the files are coming through. If we don't see them, we'll check the API connection from your shopping cart to see if we can access the file. If so, we'll make sure to update how we pull the files for your store so they'll be added as the print_url for your items.

If your shopping cart doesn't provide any way to do this, you will need your own developer to build a custom script that will add a specific URL to these items when they're ordered and downloaded into Order Desk.