Mockup Templates: How They Work

Templates let you reuse a winning mockup style across products and designs. Create once, apply everywhere.

What is a Mockup Template?

A mockup template is a reusable configuration that captures your winning mockup style. It defines how your design graphics should appear on t-shirt mockups across different color variants. Once you've created a template, you can apply it to multiple products and designs without redoing the setup work.

A Template Stores:

  • Source t-shirt product – The Shopify product used to define available colors
  • Color variants – The list of colors from the source product (e.g., Black, White, Red, Yam)
  • Base mockup image per color – Your mockup image for each color (e.g., black-tee.png for Black variant)
  • Optional light/dark shirt groups – Grouping colors so you can use different graphics for light vs dark shirts
  • Design placement & scale – Position, size, and rotation of the design graphic defined with a test graphic
  • Optional visual enhancements – Settings like flat vs fold-following placement, brightness/contrast adjustments, or displacement effects for realistic "printed on fabric" results

Creating Your First Template

The template creation wizard in PrntFlow guides you through six steps. Each step builds on the previous one to create a complete, reusable mockup template.

1

Name Your Template and Choose a Product

Start by entering a template name. The name cannot be empty—if you try to proceed without one, the app will show an error.

Next, search and select a Shopify t-shirt product from your store. PrntFlow reads the product's variants and color options to build the template. The selected product must have at least one color variant, otherwise you'll see an error like "Selected product has no colors."

You can also tick a "Set as default template" checkbox. Only one template can be the default at a time—this will pre-select your template when uploading mockups to products later.

2

Upload Base Mockups per Color

For each color in your chosen product, you'll see a file input to upload a base mockup image. Supported formats include PNG, JPG, WEBP, and AVIF, with a maximum file size of around 50 MB per image.

Example uploads:

  • • black-tee-mockup.png → Black variant
  • • white-tee-mockup.png → White variant
  • • red-tee-mockup.png → Red variant
  • • yam-tee-mockup.png → Yam variant

Not all colors are strictly required, but colors without a base mockup won't receive generated composite mockups when you apply the template later.

3

Group Colors into Light and Dark (Optional)

This step allows you to tag each color as "light" or "dark." Grouping colors controls which graphic slot (Slot A vs Slot B) will be used when you apply the template to products.

For example, if you tag Black and Navy as "dark" and White and Cream as "light," you can upload a light-colored design for dark shirts and a dark-colored design for light shirts when applying the template.

If you skip this step, all colors will use the Slot A graphic when applying the template—one design for all colors.

4

Upload a Test Graphic

Upload a test t-shirt graphic to use in the placement editor. This could be a sample design, your brand logo, or any graphic that represents the type of content you'll be applying to products later.

PrntFlow stores this graphic and its thumbnail so it can be reused in placement previews. This test graphic helps you visualize and adjust the default placement for all future designs that use this template.

5

Set Default Placement

Using the interactive placement editor, drag your test graphic into position on the base mockup and adjust the scale so the design sits correctly (typically on the chest area of the t-shirt).

You can choose between two placement modes:

  • • Flat placement – The design is placed directly on the mockup without distortion
  • • Fold-following (warp) placement – The design follows the folds and contours of the shirt for a more realistic "printed on fabric" effect

Placement is stored as normalized X/Y/scale values, so it adapts to different output dimensions while maintaining the same relative position and size.

6

Review and Save the Template

Before saving, review the template summary showing your template name, selected product, colors, and placement settings.

When you click "Save Template," PrntFlow saves everything: the template name, product reference, base mockup images, color groupings, test graphic, and default placement. If this is your first template, the app records this milestone (firstTemplateCreatedAt).

After saving, you're redirected to the template list, and your new template becomes immediately available in the Upload Product Mockups workflow.

Default Templates

Only one template can be set as the default at a time. The default template is automatically pre-selected when you open the Upload Product Mockups screen, saving you time on repeat workflows.

  • • You can mark your first template as default during the creation wizard by ticking the "Set as default template" checkbox
  • • To change the default later, go to Manage Templates and set a different template as default
  • • When you set a new default, PrntFlow automatically unmarks the previous default template
  • • Having a default template streamlines the mockup upload process—your most-used template is always ready to go

Reusing Templates Across Products

Once a template is saved, you can apply it to any t-shirt product in your Shopify store that has similar color variants. Templates are the main way to keep your mockups consistent across your catalog.

Example:

You create a template called "Studio 1717" from a product with Black, White, Red, and Yam variants. You define the placement using a test graphic.

Now, for every new design you create, you can select a different t-shirt product (as long as it has those colors or a subset), upload the new design graphic, choose the "Studio 1717" template, and PrntFlow will generate mockups using the same placement, base mockups, and settings you defined earlier.

Updating a Template

You can edit templates later if you need to change the placement, swap out base mockups, or adjust visual settings. When you update a template, new generations using that template will use the updated configuration.

Note: Updating a template does not automatically regenerate mockups for products that already used the old version of the template. Existing product media in Shopify remain unchanged. If you want to apply the updated template to existing products, you'll need to regenerate mockups for those products manually.

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