A personalization field is the thing that turns a fixed design into one a shopper can change. This guide explains what a field is actually made of, so the Personalization tab reads as a set of decisions rather than a wall of controls. It is for anyone who has marked a layer editable and then wondered what the rest of the panel is for.
Four parts, two of them invisible
It starts from a layer
You do not create a field and then attach artwork to it. You take a layer that already exists on the canvas and mark it editable, and the field is what that produces. The value the shopper enters replaces what is on the layer before the design goes to print.
That is why the panel opens with the layer’s name at the top. See make fields customer-editable for the marking itself.
The label is the whole ask
Label is what the shopper reads above the control. Placeholder is the grey example inside an empty box. Help text sits underneath for anything the label cannot carry on its own.
Write the label as the thing you want, not as the field’s job. “Your name” beats “Text field 1”. If a shopper has to guess what goes in the box, the placeholder is where you show them.
The input type decides the control
Input type is what the shopper actually gets. The choices are Single line, Paragraph, Image upload, Color picker, Font picker, Dropdown, Number, Date, Checkbox and Radio buttons.
The type changes the rules underneath it. A single line offers a character limit and an allowed-character rule. An image upload offers file types, size and resolution instead. A number offers a range. Pick the type first; the rest of the panel follows from it.
Personalization form fields shows what each one looks like to the shopper.
The rules decide what gets through
Required to order is the strong one. A required field with no value blocks the add to cart, and the shopper is told which field is missing.
For text, Max length caps the length and shows the shopper a counter as they type. Allowed characters narrows what is accepted: Anything, Letters only, Digits only, Letters and digits, or a Custom pattern. Shrink to fit shrinks a long value to fit its box rather than letting it overflow the design.
Common questions
Can one layer have more than one field?
Yes, when they change different things about it. A text layer can carry both the words and a font choice, because those are separate channels on the same layer.
Does a required field stop the shopper from designing?
No. It stops the add to cart. They can fill in everything else first and come back to it.
What happens to a field if I delete its layer?
The field has nothing left to change. Delete the field too, or the customizer asks the shopper for something that no longer lands anywhere.
Can I reorder the fields the shopper sees?
Yes, in the Form view of the Design Studio's customer form dock. See customizer layout and field order.
Next
Read what publishing does, or set the field order the shopper meets in customizer layout and field order.
Every term used here has a one-line definition in the glossary.