When exporting an embroidered product to an integrated store, the thread choices made when creating the product will automatically be linked. This means when orders are placed through your store, we'll use the thread colours selected to fulfil the order.
In some cases you might might need to manually assign thread colours to make sure we know which to use:
Different variants
You may want different thread colours to be used for different colour variants, to help with contrast or for other design reasons.Manually linking
If you're linking a product that already exists in your store you'll need to manually define the thread colours. You can do this once to apply to all variants, or manually for each variant.
Assigning thread colours
Assigning thread colours to your product variants is simple and follows the same process regardless of the reason for doing it.
Adding a master design file
The first step, whether you're using the same design for all variants or adding different colour options to select variants, is to upload your master design file.
This design file is applied to all variants by default so if you were to stop after this step, the thread colours assigned will apply to all variants.
Head to your linking page at Account > Integrations then click Connected > Link products on the linked store you're editing products for.
Find the product you'd like to edit and click the Edit link. You can use the search function to search your product by name.
Scroll to the bottom of the product linking page. You'll find headings for Mockups and Designs.
There may or may not be a design & mockups saved under these headings, it depends whether you have exported from Inkthreadable or you're manually linking a product that already existed in your store.
If there is no design file & mockup you'll need to add them. Click Upload beneath the Designs heading and browse for your design file to upload it, then select which decoration area this design applies to.
After selecting your embroidery position, select your thread colours. You can select up to 6, and any threads marked with a star will cost an additional 99p per thread.
If you don't select any thread colours here we can't guarantee which threads will be used during production. Any mismatch will not be deemed a fault.
Adding a master mockup
Mockups are used during production to assess the decoration result. Navigate to the Mockups heading at the bottom of the page.
The system will automatically display any images available from your linked store's product page here. Click any you would like to use for mockups to add them to the product link.
Alternatively, you can upload additional files using the Upload button. If you don't have mockups available to upload you can download them from your Inkthreadable account. Learn how to download mockups from Inkthreadable here.
For each mockup uploaded, select which decoration area it relates to. We don't necessarily need one for each colour variant but you have the option to add them if relevant.
Your mockups must be representative of a decoration that Inkthreadable can achieve. Uploading unachievable mockups resulting in products that don't match will not be considered a production fault. You can download mockups from any Inkthreadable product page to upload here if needed.
Adding alternative thread colours to variants
A product can have multiple variants, each using different design files and thread colours.
In this example, the same design has different design variants depending on the t-shirt colour. The white t-shirt has red, black & green thread, and the storm t-shirt has pink, grey & green thread.
Each colour variant can sit under one product listing as each variant has the option to have a design file uploaded to it. The method is similar to uploading the master design file.
Scroll to any variant requiring an alternative design file.
In the right hand column you'll find the options for uploading alternative design files. Click the Upload button and browse for your design file.
The colours in your alternative file should match the thread colours you select to help with colour accuracy when assigning thread colours during production.
Do this for each variant needing its own design file, and remember to assign thread colours or the system will assign them at random during production.
Click Save to save all changes.
Digitising
All embroidery requires digitising before it can be produced. Each unique design will require digitising, but you can use the same digitised file with alternative thread colours at no extra cost. You can read more about digitising here.
Design file guidelines
Creating designs for embroidery has different considerations than for print. Embroidery works best with simple, bold lines and blocks of colour. You can read more about designing for embroidery here.