Shortly after getting started with Templett, you’ll want to upload your own design elements so you can start using them in your templates. Elements can be photos or clipart images. Once you upload an element, you can reuse it in as many templates as you’d like. It will stay in the Elements area and you just have to click it to load it onto a template. You can search for elements using the title and tags you set when uploading them.
File Types
You have three file types you can use as Elements. You can upload PNG’s and SVG’s and JPEG’s. There are different advantages and disadvantages to all of them but you’ll probably end up using all of them in your designs. You can not use any other file type.
PNG
One of the main advantages of PNG’s are that they can be transparent or have transparent parts to them. The downside is that PNG’s are rasterized images so you cannot change the colors. Another disadvantage is that PNG file sizes can become quite large if you’re not careful. When working with files on the web, we need the file size to be small enough to work with in the browser but high quality enough to print.
SVG
SVG’s are the preferred file to use if you can. Unfortunately, an SVG will never look like a PNG. SVG’s are vector files, you can scale them infinitely without ever losing quality. This is a huge plus! SVG files are also usually very small file sizes. This makes them perfect for working with on the web and because they can scale without ever losing quality, they are also perfect for print.
JPEG
If you need to, you can also upload JPEG files as elements. This is useful if you want to add a background image to your template but it’s not going to be a seamless background that would normally go in the backgrounds section. If you do this. Be sure your background is slightly larger than your template so the bleed works correctly if the customer chooses to use it. For example, if the template is 5″ x 7″, upload a background that is 5.25″ x 7.25″ or larger.
File sizes
Since Templett is a web application, the normal rules of desktop applications do not apply. For example, in Photoshop, you can work with very large files sizes. Your computer can handle those large file sizes usually without you noticing. Unfortunately, browsers totally rely on the speed of the internet connection of the person using it. This will cause problems when working with large file sizes in Templett. The browser has to download the file before it can be displayed to the user on their screen.
When working with templates, we need to balance the file size with the image quality so the application runs fast enough but the printed work also looks high quality. This can certainly be done though, and we do it for you automatically.
Uploading Elements
1) Click on the “Elements” tab on the left hand side.
2) Click the upload button.
3) Select any image you have on your computer.
4) Add tags for the element. This will help to find it quickly, if you want to use it again on another template in the future. This is helpful when you have hundreds of elements to look through. You have a maximum of 10 tags you can use to describe your element. You can use as little as one tag if you’d like.
*Note: You’re able to upload multiple elements at once by selecting multiple files on your computer using the shift key on your keyboard. If you have too many elements for the total size limit, you’ll see a message pop up asking you to remove some files.
5) Click or drag the image you want to use from the elements section and you’ll see it on your template.
6) You can resize the image by clicking the corner anchor and dragging it in or out. You can also use the “scale” button from the tool bar to easily change the size of your element. You can move it around and center it. You’ll see the purple line appear when it is centered.