Category Archives: MyStyle Renderer

Announcements, MyStyle Customizer, MyStyle Renderer, MyStyle WP Plugin Updates, New Features, Personalization, Woo Commerce, Wordpress

2024 Updates

Well, it’s been way too long since we’ve done a blog update, but for good reason.  Mainly, because things have been running pretty smoothly and we’ve stayed busy!  In fact, we have done tons of updates in the past year that you may not be aware of yet…

Here’s just a few highlights:

3D Models with HD Resolution

We have done a number of implementations with 3D previews both in-customizer and in-website, as well as in our Render and Configur8 apps as well.  Typically we use a variety of traditional UX flows for the design or configuration options, and then visualize that in a 3D preview so that designing is still easy to do, but with the added bonus view in 3D so that it can be spun around in all directions, zoomed in and out, and inspected all in HD resolution.

Shopify Integrations

We often get asked about Shopify support.  We now have a couple different ways of integrating and some completed working Shopify integrations that use our customizer for a full customization experience.  For this we do not offer an “App” in Shopify since that comes with a lot of strings attached.  Instead, for now at least, we have a VERY lightweight easy copy-paste integration that drops into the theme code and wa-la, you can enable any product for customization with our full design tools, and Render for print.  This can be up and running in just a day or two.

Magento Integrations

We’re doing Magento integrations again but it’s only recommended for corporate clients.  We can integrate with the current version of Magento very quickly and easily to add Customization or Configuration to products on the front end in ways that can carry through to ERP, OMS, etc.

Rendering Capabilities

We’ve made a number of special rendering capabilities for multi-sided layouts, PDF output, common page size wraps, editing and rotation options, and a whole bunch of other stuff to make print files come out the right way every time for specialized cases.

WordPress/WooCommerce Plugin Updates

Our WordPress/WooCommerce plugins continue to be our most robust solutions.  This includes so much more than just customization and configuration, but also content management for saved designs, design collections, and built in growth strategies that you can really take advantage of to expand a site for growth.

And Much More

And, beyond this we’ve done a lot more, too.  Contact us if you have any questions about your own ideas or needs for customization of your ecommerce products.

Announcements, MyStyle Renderer, MyStyle WP Plugin Updates, New Features, Personalization, Uncategorized, User Experience

3D Capability Now Available

Welcome to 3D

We are proud to announce that we now have 3D capability available on the MyStyle Customizer V5.1 or higher. This feature allows our users to fully view their custom products in a fully functional three dimensional model. Directly in our customizer software. Your users will be able to upload, design, and then preview their creations in fully functional 3D!

How to use

For this example we will be using makecanvasprints.com

Select a Product

The first step is finding the product you want to customize and the selecting our customize option.

product,custom,3d,design

Add a Custom Design

After selecting customize you will move to our Customizer software where you, or your users, can choose to create a custom background within our software. Users can also upload their own images from the web or personal libraries.

Click For 3D Preview

Once the image or background has been uploaded and edited simply select the preview button and view your product in fully functional 3D!

Additional Functionality

While inside the 3D preview the user will have the added functionality of zooming in to have a closer inspection or rotating in any direction desired. The 3D preview feature adds a layer of immersion for the user and gives a better sense of what the final product will look like before it arrives. This feature will be available for our Premium Members here at Mystyle Platform!

Implementation

To have the new software available, Standard and Managed licenses should contact us to have this enabled for their mystyle sites or customizers.

MyStyle Renderer, New Features

Renderer 3.23.2 Adds Render-to-Cloud with Share URL for Faster On-Demand Order-to-Print Workflows

For common print workflows where the printer is not the order processor, the new feature in the MyStyle Renderer version 3.23.2 is perfect for you.  Recently released, this new feature can really help speed things up for anyone with an order-processing and web-to-print workflow that requires sharing the print file with another person, team , or partner company: Render-to-Cloud!

Streamlining Common Web-to-Print Order Processing Workflows

A lot of MyStyle enabled clients and online stores have very similar fulfillment processes, that is, they always involve rendering a print file for production to make and send out the order(s) once the order is placed, to begin the on-demand production and fulfillment process.   Often, the person processing the order is not the same as the person creating the print.  In that case, the workflow would involved emailing or uploading the file to a dropbox, or an FTP, or something like that.  Well, no more!  Print files that are sent to someone at a production house or print department to do the print and/or dropship can now be sent without having to download or manually upload it to get a shareable URL or attachment.  Instead, you can now just send the print direct to the MyStyle platform cloud storage, included at no extra charge with all licenses!

Render-to-Cloud

The render-to-cloud option is found in the print image toolbar right next to the normal print file download buttons.

It depends how large your image is, but it typically takes a few seconds on a broadband connection.  Wait a couple seconds then…

Get Public Download Link to Share

Once the print image render reaches the cloud, a checkmark will show in place of the spinner, and a shareable public URL will be provided in the same window.  The green button will copy the URL for quick sharing.

Instant Download Link
The URL when, visited or clicked, will automatically download the print file to eliminate the Right-Click and Save-As type of steps for the production team receiving the URL.

This Is an Optional Feature for Sending to Out-of-House Production Teams

In-House Production Teams may not need this feature if doing rendering and printing in house. So, if you render and print your own images in the same place, you might not need this, as you can still  download and print the images just as you always have.

A Couple Steps Less is Always More!

For anyone else sharing print file links regularly, though, this might be a great time to say goodbye to your premium dropbox accounts, save a little money if current online storage methods are not necessary anymore.   Speed things up by eliminating a few steps!

Happy Rendering!

 

Announcements, General, MyStyle Renderer, Website Updates

Server Upgrade for MyStylePlatform.com – Clear Your Cache!

The server for this website (not our API or plugins, just mystyleplatform.com) has been upgraded to a new Google Cloud data center.

Google AND Amazon Clouds…

We’re happy to be using Google Cloud, a leader in cloud computing, in addition to Amazon AWS for our API itself still. It’s interesting to see and compare both platforms, and we may switch entirely to one or the other in the future, but for now we like this duality and in either case, performance is great.

Clear Your Cache

This upgrade required some IP address changes, so please Clear Your Cache if you’re experiencing any weirdness on MyStylePlatform.com or the MyStyle Renderer.

Faster Site Services

Otherwise, enjoy what should be a faster service from now on.

 

Cheers!

MyStyle Renderer, New Features

Renderer 3.20.1 Update: Edit and Switch Out Text and Emojis Directly within the Renderer

MyStyle Renderer Empowering Change

MyStyle Platform’s new Renderer feature empowers clients to edit and fix their own print files.  In just a few simple clicks, you can now edit and change text, emojis, etc.

Gone are the days of escalating renders just to switch out and edit text within your design!  MyStyle Platform is happy to announce our newly released feature that lets you edit a design’s text directly within the renderer.  Simply click, edit as desired, and save your print file!

How to Edit Text and  Emoji’s the Renderer

  1. Open the renderer and scroll down to the section “PRINT IMAGE(S)”
  2. Right click on the text/emoji/”object” you wish to edit.
  3. From the pulldown options, select “edit object”

4.  The “Text Lines” edit box will open.  The text you selected and wish to edit will be in the text slot “Text line#1”

 

5.  Highlight the text within the “Text line#1” & edit as desired

6. Edit text and click “Apply” to apply changes.

 

How to Download JPG Print File from Renderer

  1.  Click “JPG” button to download JPG  print file

 

Announcements, MyStyle Renderer, New Features, Printing

Renderer 3.19.0 Update: New JPG DPI Support Means Photoshop and Other Software Now Will Open MyStyle Print Images at 300dpi or Any Preferred DPI

This is a very old, very small, very annoying issue with resolution of JPEG and PNG files that every designer and printer is familiar with, and we’ve finally beat it.  Especially when it comes to JPG, if it wasn’t made with Photoshop, even though it was the right pixel size, it just wouldn’t open up at the DPI that it was created for (ie 300), and Photoshop defaults to whatever it wants (usually 72 or 96).  Well, we’re happy to say in 3.19.0+ we broke through and were able to add a new feature under the hood that automatically fixes this and makes rewrites the file data so that it will open up at the intended DPI in almost any software – Photoshop, Print Software – etc. Ring the bells. We did it.

The Decades-Old JPG DPI Issue

You may know the situation well:  the image is the right size in pixels, but it’s reading at the wrong DPI and so the “inches” measurement of the image is not correct.  That is, until someone opens it up, and changes the DPI in Photoshop or print software manually to 300 or whatever it needs to be – most systems default DPI is typically 72 or 96 dpi, sometimes 100. But, most images are rendered for print at 300dpi (Pro Magazine-level print standard), so opening at 72 etc is annoying and can cause wasted time in the production workflow.

One Does Not Simply, Set the JPG DPI

The reason that 300dpi doesn’t open up in Photoshop or print software, though, is because the JPG file format doesn’t natively support resolution settings, so there’s traditionally almost no online resources for setting unsupported meta data.  In HTML5 it doesn’t have any parameters to specify resolution, it’s purely pixel data.  In the eyes of the raw JPG format, resolution is irrelevant, there is image data at a size of pixels, and the resolution can be whatever the screen (or software) wants it to be, which is subjective and relative to the system / software, so it doesn’t specify it natively.   Additionally, the file code is not easily read or edited, so it’s not something that anything besides graphic design software can or would try to set. The problem is that Photoshop etc doesn’t have a setting to allow you to set the default image resolution, it detects it from your system (ie “72”) and just goes with that.  That by itself, is also very annoying (re: Photoshop fix this please).

Many people point out that resolution is arbitrary and subjective, because the pixel size of the image is the actual size of the data, but nevertheless others will argue that in practice the default DPI within Workflows can be important to eliminate room for error or misunderstandings about the intended print size. So in fact, it can be critical for smooth operations from web to print regardless of the file format’s native data spec.  So, we’ve searched and searched, literally for years, and thanks to some new advances in Javascript in the past year, we’ve found a way to do it without Photoshop, and it was not simple, but low and behold – IT WORKS.

Interestingly enough, as we dissect the byte code for a JPEG we see that there are meta data points for resolution that do allow us to inject settings here that Photoshop will read, and they’re actually in Dots Per Meter, as if ANYONE would even use that when DPI is the standard!  Imagine how old that must be.  We digress.

The New Age Fix.  Good News: We’ve Made It Automatic.

We’ve developed a way to set this DPI setting within JPG output in our MyStyle Renderer software.  With 3.19.0+ every JPG  comes with resolution meta data.

Whatever it says on page is the DPI, will be the DPI when re-opened in other software:

Drumroll… JPG Opens with Correct DPI!

JPG output files will open up at whatever DPI it says in the Renderer when viewed in Photoshop or Print Software, including both if that was the template’s original setting, and if you change the resolution manually after rendering it and then download the JPG.

150 dpi?  Sure.  300? Of course.  632 dpi?  Why not!

Bad News: There Is None.

This should alleviate one of the most annoying parts of printing with JPGs, and we’re so happy to advanced this aspect of the workflow for everyone who’s taking designs from web to print like our team does every day.

Goodbye, Extra Manual or Batch Processes!

Please note that if you have batch processes already made that set the DPI for your print files as a workaround for this, you can (or may need to) adjust or get rid of that now to streamline things a bit more knowing that the DPI is already set correctly.

Less is more.

 

MyStyle Renderer, New Features, User Experience

Print Image Renderer Now Offers Eye-Saving Dark Theme

If you utilize the MyStyle Print File Renderer with your production process, then at least one person on that team will appreciate this! We’ve released a new Dark Theme that can be chosen from the new minimized menu (three dots …). Once you choose this theme, it will fade the screen to dark greys instead of light greys.

Choose the Dark Theme from the menu and it will save your preference in your browser. Any time you use that browser it will automatically reload the theme. Click the same option again to turn it off and go back to the standard light theme.  Now that I’ve been using it for about a month in beta I can’t even go back to the light theme at all!  It’s soothing to use the theme.

I can also see why Adobe adopted a similar look in Photoshop as the dark neutral look allows for the print images themselves to really breathe and pop even in the darker ranges.

So, this can be a great eye saver (and battery saver) especially at night when darker UIs help reduce eye strain.  And, it looks pretty cool, too. Have a look:

dark theme print file renderer 2

If you  or your staff use the Print Renderer then enjoy the Dark Theme, your eyes will thank you!

If you don’t see it yet, clear your cache and refresh :)