Reference: Image Template Options and Their Consequences

[ColsCreations]

When you set an image as a template there are various options at your disposal:

Fill, Fit, or None - determines how the user-uploaded image fills the designated template area.
* Fill = will resize the customer’s image to fill the entire dimension of your placeholder image. If their image is a different size than the placeholder, it will result in cropping and/or zooming of their image.
 * Fit = Will resize the customers image, maintaining proportions, to fit inside the dimensions of your placeholder image. This ensures their image will not be cropped off, but can result in background space showing.
* None = the customer’s image simply replaces your placeholder image and may be larger or smaller.

Masking - a separate shape layer added that virtually transparentizes part of the image
Cropping - changes the shape of the image
Flipping, Rotating - changes the positioning of the image

All these choices, alone or in combination, can get really confusing but there can be rather drastic consequences on the customer’s end so I think it’s important to get a grasp on them.
Since I don’t do many image templates myself I’ve been all over the map on this recently so finally made a live demo I could use for quick & easy testing & learning.

This all is probably old hat to many, but may be helpful for others like me trying to get a grip on how this all shakes out. (And there’s one combo I ran into that is a definite DO-NOT-DO.)  So …

1) The Adjust button does not appear on the product page to you as the designer.
If you want to see what the Adjust button does you have to view your product as someone else / anon shopper.

2) The Adjust button on the product page personalize menu won’t appear to a customer until after they have used Replace to upload their own image.

3) The Adjust button only appears for template images you have set to Fill.
 For plain templates, a customer can use the Adjust button to move their image around within the placeholder’s dimensions and/or resize it to make it fit better. However - and this is where the big problem comes in - if you’ve selected Fill for a template image you have also masked, things do not work as one might expect and it could cost you the sale.
Masking an image has the effect of cropping/cutting off parts of the user-uploaded image so it’s the mask shape. When a customer uses Adjust to tweak the size/positioning of their image within your masked placeholder dimensions, they can only see that “cropped” portion of their image. They can move that part of the image around and/or resize it, but there is no way for them to edit or even see their original size image. So if the part of the image that is showing is not the part of the image they want showing, there is no way for them to fix that, they are stuck with the “cropped” portion of their image. The only way for a customer to tweak their image is to

1. enter the Design Tool
2. click on the masked layer Group
3. click  the Unmask button
4. click on the image layer
5. click the Crop button
    - this reveals the original boundaries of the image plus the boundaries created by the mask
6. use the confusing drag handles to “un-crop” it and drag it to desired size/crop.
7. click Done to preview results

This is so difficult to explain in just writing that I don’t think there’s a chance in heck that a customer would figure out these steps if they need to tweak an image they uploaded via Replace on the product page template menu. They’re going to see that their uploaded image isn’t showing the portion they want and that the Adjust button isn’t letting them fix it and even if they go ahead and enter the Design Tool, odds are very much against them figuring this out.  So using Fill on a masked image template is the DO-NOT-DO thing; it prevents the customer from being able to tweak things to work if their uploaded image isn’t a perfect match for the masked template dimensions.

4) Moving past the Adjust issue with masked images set to Fill, the other important thing to be aware of is that anything you do to your template image will also be done to the customer’s uploaded Replace image. So if you’ve cropped, flipped or rotated your placeholder image, theirs will be too. There are cases where this could work but there are many cases where it’s just going to leave the customer perplexed and frustrated as to why their uploaded image is turning out upsidedown or backwards or cropped off…

So while I am a novice at image template, from my experimenting I can confidently suggest that

1. never use Fill on a masked image
   and
2. while it’s tempting to recycle an image you already have on file by cropping, rotating, flipping it to work with your new design, DON’T do that if its going to be a template image as it will create chaos for the customer.

Here is the live demo model I made.
It uses the same 1500 x 1500 square image as a template, as Fill, Fit and None, plain (blue), masked (green), and also cropped. flipped & rotated (black back side). You can use this demo from a customer’s perspective to compare how the different options turn out when uploading your own image via the Replace template option.

Image Template Choices - Live Demo

[samack]

Thank you so much for all your work on this!  Very helpful indeed!

Sandra

[ColsCreations]

I updated the demo to show the differing results of Fit vs Fill on the back cropped/flipped/rotated templates.

These are screenshots after I used Replace as a customer to add the ribbon image

You can use this as an easy way to learn how the different options effect the image, without having to publish something and then view it as a guest so you can try the Adjust button.

THIS is the direct-only link to the new demo. I’ve deleted the original linked in the first post.

[MOM]

@samack  @ColsCreations    I can only second what Sandra said!! Thank you so much - “Fountain of Wisdom”!!

[MOM]

@ColsCreations   You just inspired me to add a new section to our little resource page at https://sanfrancisco.zone/resources/ - thanks again for your always so valuable insight. It’s so spot on and will help me next year to weed through all my poorly designed products to replace them with improved versions. Col - you totally rock!!

[Cat_Ritchie]

Hmmm… I’m not sure what to make of the issue with masked images set to fill. I tried out your test image and indeed, you can’t get the replacement image to show anything outside of the original square that pops up. But, I use masks with fill all the time, and to the best of my knowledge I haven’t had an issue. I tested it out and it seems to work fine on this design: https://www.zazzle.com/orange_boho_floral_photo_wedding_save_the_date_magnetic_invitation-256999773965349166

I tested in in FireFox (that’s my logged out browser that I generally use for testing) so I tried yours in FireFox too and I get the same problem. I don’t know what to make of it. Maybe a bug? Or maybe we somehow did something different? I’m confused.

One other note. I think that when the customer replaces the placeholder image with their own, they’re using some sort of AI or something to center the faces inside the space. At least it seems to work that way on my design. I tried with different images some that had the people off to the left or right, and it generally seemed to pop it in so the faces were in the center of the space. But now I’m so confused that I’m not sure exactly what is or isn’t happening!

Well anyhow, I also just wanted to highlight this point that you made: “…the other important thing to be aware of is that anything you do to your template image will also be done to the customer’s uploaded Replace image. So if you’ve cropped, flipped or rotated your placeholder image, theirs will be too.” 

That’s very true - I found it out the hard way! I’m now wondering if any of that sort of thing can be corrected with the adjust thing or if you’d need to enter the design tool to fix it.

OK, my head hurts. I think I’m gonna go watch mindless Hallmark Christmas movies now…

[Cat_Ritchie]

OK - I dug into it a little bit more, and I think that part of what’s going on with the fill/mask thing is that your example has the image aspect ratio set to 1:1 while my example leaves the aspect ratio freeform. I’m not sure that solves the entire problem - I still get some wonky results in my example product when replacing the placeholder with a variety of different images - but it did give my example a bit more flexibility than yours had, and I was able to get every test image I tried to work without entering the design tool, even though some required more fiddling than others. I’m pretty sure that my sample product pre-dates the new cropping tool, so I don’t know what the current default behavior is, but at the very least, the aspect ratio setting is yet another variable that probably needs to be considered here…

[ColsCreations]

Your template image is also square, as is mine. Difference is your mask is an oval while mine is a square. That shows me I was wrong about it “cropping” to fit the mask shape. That’s wrong. It’s cropping to fit the original template image shape. More about all this later, gott’a run right now.

[ColsCreations]

I dug into it a little bit more, and I think that part of what’s going on with the fill/mask thing is that your example has the image aspect ratio set to 1:1 while my example leaves the aspect ratio freeform. I’m not sure that solves the entire problem.

That’s it!

I played around with your template, my demo, and made several new ones using different shaped original template images and different shaped masks. When set to Fill, the user’s Replace image is zoomed in and cropped to be the same shape as the original template image. Using the Adjust button, you can move that cropped portion around and you can make it larger/smaller. If you fiddle with the confusing drag handles (which work differently depending on whether you use side or corner handles and are holding down Shift or not) you can un-crop it to get the whole image back to work with. But, as you have discovered, that’s only if the designer has clicked on Aspect Ratio for the template image and made sure it’s set to Freeform before publishing. Otherwise, the Adjust button locks the customer into whatever preset ratio.

That’s really bizarre. The Aspect Ratio setting is to me something you’d only look at before cropping an image, to set a defined crop size. If you’re just adding an image with no intention of cropping it, why even look at the Aspect Ratio options? It seems like it defaults to Freeform, but as you found, it is/was set to 1:1 on my demo and I have no idea why. So that’s the key. Even if the Designer’s original image is un-cropped, that setting determines how a user will be able to manipulate their Replace image. Huh!! And to add another monkey wrench, I’m finding this morning after multiple tests that for plain unmasked template images on Fill, even when set to Freeform, the user can’t change the aspect ratio (crop) via the Adjust button. The only way the drag handles become functional like that is when the image is masked. I clearly have lots more experimenting to do later. But for now - I stand corrected on my original advice to never use Fill + mask. As long as you’ve checked it’s set to Freeform, the user will be able to manipulate it via the Adjust button.

[Cat_Ritchie]

Woo Hoo! Well, that’s all very interesting. Thanks for sorting that out! I think that maybe the issues I was experiencing with my example have to do with the confusing handles on the adjust thing. I didn’t realize that the handles on the corners and the edges behave differently, let alone the shift thing. Oy, yet another variable to consider! I think this whole topic is a clear illustration of the fact that one man’s “intuitive” is another’s “WTF?!?” or something like that! :grin:

[KeeganCreations]

I have never once looked at aspect ratio since I crop my templates in Photoshop but this whole thread got me concerned. But I went into my masked photo templates and they had all defaulted to freeform. I did a sample of square, vertical and horizontal templates to see if there was an AI behind the scenes that was assigning an aspect ratio based on the template photo used. But they had all defaulted to freeform. Whew!

I’m a little surprised the forums are even open. I guess the mods took their holiday vacation and forgot to flip the switch. What a surprise they will have to come back in January and find a week’s worth of unmoderated threads. 😃

[ColsCreations]

Well, YOU sorted it out. I never would have thought to look in the Aspect Ratio menu.

And yeah, this crop combined with resizing in one confusing tool is the worst thing ever. I’m right there with you in finding it near impossible to use without accidentally doing something to the image you didn’t want to do.

[samack]

Wow!  So many variables! I have a lot of work to do once the replace option is back!  But glad I actually may know what I am doing now. I hope! Thanks to you both for sorting it all out!

[KBMD3signs]

Thank you for sharing it in your resources. I would have missed it and it is highly interesting.