A design only becomes personalizable when you decide which parts of it shoppers can change. This guide shows you how to turn an element into a personalization field, pick the right field type, and set its label, default, and limits. It is for merchants building a product in the Design Studio who want control over exactly what customers can edit.
What customers can edit
Not every element on the canvas is editable by shoppers. You choose which ones are. When you mark an element personalizable, it becomes a field in the customizer form, the form a shopper fills in to make the product their own.
These element types can become personalization fields:
- Text layers, for names, dates, and short messages.
- Photo layers, for photo uploads.
- Rectangle and Circle shapes, where customers pick a color.
- Dropdowns, where text or a shape becomes a list of preset choices.
- Special elements: City map, Sport route, Travel map, Star map, Moon phase, and Avatar.
- A multi-part graphic, where each part can get its own color picker.
Everything else stays fixed. That keeps your layout intact while still giving shoppers room to personalize the parts that matter.
To see how all of this looks from the buyer’s side, read how a shopper personalizes a product.
Make an element editable
You turn an element into a field with the P button in the floating toolbar. The same button opens the field’s details once it is already personalizable.
Select an element that can be personalized
Click the element on the canvas. Pick one of the supported types: a text layer, an image, a rectangle or circle, or one of the special elements. If the floating toolbar has no P button, that element type cannot be a field.
Click the P button to make it personalizable
The P button appears in the floating toolbar above the selected element. Click it once to turn the element into a customer-editable field and open its Personalization settings.
Edit the field details
In the Personalization tab, set the label, field type, and limits. If you return to an existing field later, clicking P opens these settings again.
Set the field type, label, and limits
Once an element is a field, you control how it behaves. The available field types depend on the element you selected, so you only see choices that make sense for it.
Choose the field type
Pick the type that fits the element. A text layer offers Text, Paragraph, Dropdown, Number, and Date. A rectangle or circle offers a color picker, a dropdown, or a checkbox. An image offers photo upload or a checkbox. A multi-part graphic offers a per-part color picker. Changing the type resets that field’s limits, so set the type first.
Set the label and help text
Give the field a clear Label, like “Your name” or “Choose a color”. Add optional Help text to explain what to enter, and a Placeholder to show an example inside the input. Turn on Required if the shopper must fill this field before they can check out.
Add limits for the field type
Each type has its own limits. For text, set a Max length. For a color field, set the allowed colors. For a dropdown, list the options shoppers can pick from. For a number or date field, set a minimum and maximum. These keep customer input inside what your print can handle.
Set image upload rules for photo fields
A photo field has its own rules on the Personalize tab. Under Customer photo, Framing forces the cropper to a shape; leave it on Free to let the shopper decide. The Upload and fit row below it, and the Upload rules row further down, each summarise their setup in one line, so you can read it without opening them. Click a row to open its page.
Upload and fit decides how much the shopper can do with their picture. Upload mode offers Direct upload, which takes the file as it is, Crop & adjust, which gives them a crop step, and Reposition only, which lets them drag and scale it inside the frame. Fill behavior is either Fit (show the whole photo) or Fill (cover area).
Upload rules governs the file itself. A photo field follows your store’s upload rules, which you set once on the dashboard’s Customizer page under Customer photos, and its row then reads Store rules. To give one field rules of its own, open its Upload rules and switch on Override store defaults. File types switches PNG, JPG, WebP, HEIC and SVG on or off individually. On a phone the upload button already offers the camera next to the photo library, so a shopper can photograph something on the spot.
Two DPI numbers, and they do different jobs. Minimum DPI flags a low-resolution photo to the shopper without stopping them. Hard block under refuses anything below it outright. Set the block to the minimum your print workflow can actually use, and leave a gap between the two so a borderline photo warns rather than fails. Max file size caps the upload in megabytes.
Process every upload the same way
The Personalize tab of a photo field has a Photo styles section: clean-up, artistic and color styles applied to every customer photo. Add one with Add photo style. They apply top to bottom, in the order of the list, and you can drag to reorder.
This is how you keep a shop’s look consistent when the artwork comes from customers. A greyscale filter on every upload means every portrait mug matches, whatever the shopper sent.
An AI effect here runs through your own connected AI provider, so it is billed to your key like any other AI generation. Read what AI generation costs before you put one on a field every shopper uses.
Use the Personalization tab for the rest
The Personalization tab holds the deeper settings. Set a Default value so the field starts pre-filled. Turn on customer choices, like letting shoppers pick a font or color, or allowing them to resize and reposition an element. Under Advanced, add conditional rules so a field only appears when another field has a value.
Why does my element have no P button?
That element type cannot be a personalization field. Only text, images, rectangles, circles, dropdowns, and the special map, moon, star, and avatar elements support it.
Where do font and color choices live?
Open the Personalization tab and look for customer choices. There you can let shoppers pick a font or color while still typing their own text.
Can a field appear only sometimes?
Yes. Open the Advanced section in the Personalization tab and add a conditional rule that shows the field only when another field has a value.
What happens when I change a field's type?
The type-specific limits reset, so set the field type first, then add its limits and label.
Once your fields are set, decide the order and grouping shoppers see. Next: customizer layout and field order.