topic Re: Zazzle tool arcaic and impossible in General Zazzle Discussion

Zazzle tool arcaic and impossible

MPFG-sos — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 01:00:37 GMT

So i started using zazzle a few weeks back and can honestly say the time i have invested so far has been so frustrating and painful. The design tools are awful.

For instance there is no position or size info on a motif on the desing panel so its nigh impossible to place design motifs at measured intervals . And the guidelines are worse than useless. ( I am not talking about tiling which has issues too including when you want to tile with a photo)

what is the ribbon length in the design tool so i can see where I need to put the space to ensure equal spacing between motifs for a continuing design along yards of ribbon? why would it be so hard for zazzle to tell us thisso we know where they design is repeating and can include the correct space at the end of panel

Dimensions for some designs are different in different parts of zazzle

Position and repeating text in near impossible to judge for gaps and the alignment tool pushes motifs and text into the bleed area when you align horizontally

The guidelines for placing images on gift bags is erreonous and refers to lines that do not appear on the accompanying graphic...talk about not even bothering to test what is written

When you place some designs on the zazzle design panel it is diferent to the dimension i set in my graphic design tool...it is either stretched or compressed even though I used the dimensions as set out in the info on the products

Product that could have the same dimensions are different ?

Some products that have different sizes within the same product that nigh impossible to cover with one design, eg gift bags .. but yet they are set as the same product ?

I could go on and on

why are there no clear instructions and why are the tools so poor ?

Zazzles USB is there ability to provide personalisation on a range of products including photo personalisation. But Etsy and Amzon are hot on their heels and the arcaic and poor tools means zazzle hasnt bothered to invest and i think there days a renumbered. They seem to want to keep all their design instructions opaque ? why not write some clear instructions that could help new designers?

Some of the photos in the mockup section have errors or distort designs

And they havent bothered to use updates that enable designers to not spend hours aligning and sizing stuff

It really is so poor. Its almost like they dont want new designers to suceed and stay

Or maybe they cant be bothered

Re: Zazzle tool arcaic and impossible

JerryLambert — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 04:27:11 GMT

As far as PODs go, and I work with all of them, Zazzle has the best design tools by far.

Here is a simple guide for the design tool.

Here are more tutorials.

Because Zazzle's tools are constantly evolving, some things in the tuts may be outdated. And also because of this, there will be bugs in the tools.

Zazzle's design tools aren't built to replace image editors like Photoshop or Illustrator, but they are pretty good for a POD. Etsy is not a POD. They use 3rd party services like Printify and Printful, whose tools are similar to Redbubble. Very basic. And Amazon's design tool is even more basic. If there are better ones, I haven't found better ones than Zazzle's. Please enlighten me.

Re: Zazzle tool arcaic and impossible

Jadendreamer13 — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 06:58:10 GMT

I create all my designs in Illustrator and Photoshop, and then I move them to Zazzle’s design tool to create and add any template options. This works best for me. I agree that Zazzle’s web-based design tool can feel very limiting to designers who have spent years using high-end illustration tools, but the design tool does the job that it’s intended to do — provide tools that designers can use to create products that customers can easily customize.

Re: Zazzle tool arcaic and impossible

Ricaso — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 07:37:47 GMT

I respectfully disagree. Zazzle's design tool has always been the best out there. We've used almost every POD site there is at some point and Zazzle beats them.

Re: Zazzle tool arcaic and impossible

restarter — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 09:23:56 GMT

It is my experience that of the POD Marketplace sites I have tried*, ZAZZLE is the site with the best tools.

*(Redbubble, Teepublic, Society6, Fine Art America, Pixels).

Re: Zazzle tool arcaic and impossible

Amanda23 — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 21:21:10 GMT

Unfortunately, your experience of the design tool has not been at the best time. They are making a lot of changes right now and performance has been inconsistent for many of late.

However, as many others have stated, Zazzle's tool is by far the best for POD (at least the places I've tried: RedBubble, Printful, and FourthWall.)

Re: Zazzle tool arcaic and impossible

Bepina — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 07:05:39 GMT

At the beginning it was a bit frustrating when I started with Zazzle, I was a bit confused how to use it (and still learn sth new even today) but I now love it as it gives you freedom in designing product like no other POD site. Others can't compare in my opinion. Sure there is always room for improvement but it's actually good for what it is supposed to do. Just give it some time.

Re: Zazzle tool arcaic and impossible

MPFG-sos — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 14:08:22 GMT

Thanks for the replies

Sure Zazzle has the ability to personalise in a way no other tool can but it is also very difficult to use if you are trying to be productive ...I am talking about manipulating templates to fit to designs, etc

And it doesnt have to be this way...simple fixes

I found today I cant make a copy of my saved design easily without jumping through hoops

These are simple things that make life so much more difficult for percisiona and productive work

I will keep at it for now

BTW I am not designing in Zazzle ...just using ti to add repeat templates

Re: Zazzle tool arcaic and impossible

sharonrheafords — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 18:06:35 GMT

... but now we have the new one. I loved the old one. The new one is making me clean my house and get off the laptop 🙄

Re: Zazzle tool arcaic and impossible

sharonrheafords — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 18:08:25 GMT

Jerry, how do you like the new one? I don't. I was very happy with the old one .... c'est la vie ....

Re: Zazzle tool arcaic and impossible

Scott — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 20:32:47 GMT

I'm locking this discussion because it's unclear whether it's related to the new design tool or old design tool. If you have feedback on the new design tool please leave that here: https://community.zazzle.com/t5/general-zazzle-discussion/follow-up-update-on-post-for-sale-flow/m-p/240499