Step 3: Add your print area
Step 3 of 7 · Make your first product
This is the step that quietly decides whether your finished prints come out crisp or sloppy. A print area pulls double duty: on screen it’s the playground you hand the customer (the box they’re free to design inside) and behind the scenes it’s the exact rectangle, at the exact real-world size, that gets sent to your printer. Get it right and orders arrive production-ready with nothing for you to fix; get it wrong and you’re rescaling files by hand at 11pm. Here we’ll place the area over your mug’s print zone, set its true size in millimetres, and tune how it looks and behaves for the customer.
Why print areas matter
The print area does two jobs at once:
- It fences in the customer. They can only add and move content inside it.
- It defines the print file. When you fulfil an order, Sigmira crops the design to the print area and outputs it at the exact size and resolution you set here.
So getting the print area right is what makes the difference between a design that looks fine on screen and a file your printer can actually use.
Create a print area
- In a view, start a new print area. The New Print Area dialog asks for:
- Name — a label for your reference (e.g. Chest, A4 front).
- Export Width (mm) and Export Height (mm) — the real-world print size in millimetres.
- Click Create Print Area.
The print area appears on the canvas. Drag and resize it to sit over the printable region of your product. You can add more than one print area to a view (for example, a chest logo and a back print).
Appearance & behaviour
Select a print area to open its settings. The Print Area tab controls how it looks and behaves for the customer:
- Border Color — the colour of the print-area outline (a colour picker plus a hex field).
- Border Visibility — when the outline shows:
- Always visible — the outline is always on screen.
- Never visible — the outline is hidden (the area still works; customers just don’t see its edge).
- Show on element cross — the outline appears only when a customer drags an element across the boundary, as a gentle hint.
- Border Radius — rounds the corners, from 0 (square) up to 100%. At 100% it shows (circle) — useful for badges and round labels.
- Warn when elements leave area — when on, customers get a warning if part of their design sits outside the print area (where it won’t print).
- Clip elements outside area — when on, anything past the boundary is visually cut off, so the design always stays within the shape.
- SVG Shape Contour — for non-rectangular print areas. Upload an SVG outline (↑ Upload SVG File or paste the SVG), then Apply Contour to make the print area follow that shape. The status shows ✓ Contour active or No contour, and ✕ Remove Contour clears it.
Print output
The Export Settings tab controls the file your printer receives:
- Export Size (mm) — the Width and Height of the final print, in millimetres. This is the size that matters for production (the on-screen canvas size from your view is just for designing).
- Bleed (mm) — extra margin added around the edge for cutting, in millimetres (default 0). Ask your printer whether they need bleed and how much.
- Minimum DPI — the lowest acceptable image resolution. Sigmira will Warn customer if image resolution is below this value, so blurry uploads get caught before they’re ordered.
- Export Format — the file type:
- PNG (transparent background) — best for prints where the background should be see-through (most apparel/DTG).
- JPEG (white background) — a flat image on white.
- PDF — a vector-friendly file, common for professional print.
- Trim transparent edges on export — Crops empty transparent pixels from PNG exports, so the file is tight to the artwork.
These output settings can also be driven by a print method if you produce the same product several ways. Set them here for a simple single-method product.
Different settings per variation
If your product has variations, the Variations tab lets a print area use different settings for a specific variation (for example a smaller print on the kids’ size). You don’t need this for a standard product; it’s there when you want per-variation control.
Keep going
- ← Previous: Step 2 — Add your product views
- → Next: Step 4 — Add a starting design
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