Live proof preview

SRD Designer splash logo

Preview position may vary slightly by screen. Final production layout is calibrated before manufacturing.

SRD Product Suite

Designer Help

SRD Designer Help

Create it. Check it. Order it.

Open a guide below or search the complete Designer Help Center.

Quick Start

Create it. Check it. Order it.

The SRD Designer lets you build a custom product, see how it will look, confirm the production details, and add the finished configuration to your cart. The tools you see depend on the product you choose.

Good to know: Opening Help will not erase or change your design. Close Help at any time to continue exactly where you left off.

  1. Choose a Product Family. Select Custom Print Design, Custom Die Vinyl Lettering, Standard Safety Signs, or Nitrous Bottle Labels.
  2. Set the job options. Choose the size, material, lamination, quantity, and any product-specific settings shown in Job Settings.
  3. Create the design. Add or edit the available text, artwork, header, shape, or symbol tools.
  4. Check the workspace. Keep every required design element inside the finished product or available installation space.
  5. Review Order Details. Confirm the size, material, colors, quantity, package quantity, and price.
  6. Approve the proof. Read every readiness message, confirm the proof, and add the design to your cart.

Choose What You Are Making

Custom Print Design

Choose Custom Print when you want a full-color printed product. You can combine text with an uploaded image and the available Header, Shape, and Symbol libraries.

Best for:

  • Full-color graphics
  • Logos and uploaded artwork
  • Printed backgrounds and multiple printed colors
  • Designs that combine text and graphics

Custom Print is printed. It is not individual cut-vinyl lettering.

Custom Die Vinyl Lettering

Choose Custom Die when you want text cut from solid-color vinyl. The unwanted vinyl is removed, and transfer tape keeps the finished lettering positioned for installation.

Best for:

  • Windows, vehicles, equipment, doors, and smooth sign surfaces
  • One to three separate text objects
  • Straight, Arch Up, or Arch Down lettering
  • Solid vinyl colors, including reflective options when offered

Custom Die is text-only. Customer artwork uploads, printed backgrounds, Shapes, Headers, and Symbols are not used in this mode.

Standard Safety Signs

Choose Standard Safety Signs to create a familiar industrial or workplace safety layout. Select the Header, size, material, lamination, font, font color, and customer message.

The message is automatically capitalized and fitted to the sign. Always review the complete proof and make sure the wording is appropriate for the intended location and use.

Nitrous Bottle Labels

Choose Nitrous Bottle Labels for a label set sized to a nitrous bottle. Select the bottle size, color or pattern, header artwork, material, lamination, and package quantity shown by the Designer.

The finished dimensions, package quantity, pricing, and Shopify product option are calculated from the selected bottle size, material, and lamination.


Understanding the Designer

Product Family

Product Family controls the complete workflow. Changing it changes the available tools, options, preview, pricing, and order details.

Job Settings

Job Settings contains options that apply to the whole product, such as:

  • Product or design type
  • Finished size or available installation space
  • Material
  • Lamination
  • Quantity or package quantity
  • Other options required by the selected family

Toolbar

The toolbar contains the objects available for the current design type. Tools can include Text, Artwork, Headers, Shapes, and Symbols. Custom Die intentionally limits the toolbar to production-approved text tools.

Workspace

The workspace is the editable product area. The visible design inside this area becomes the proof. Editing controls, selection boxes, resize handles, guides, grids, and the SRD PROOF watermark are editing aids and are not printed as part of the product.

Selected Object Properties

Select one object to edit its individual properties. Depending on the object and design type, the panel may show:

  • Text
  • Font
  • Font or vinyl color
  • Straight, Arch Up, or Arch Down
  • Arc Amount
  • Rotation
  • Shape style
  • Artwork replacement or removal

Click or tap an empty area of the workspace to leave object editing and return to Job Settings.

Order Details

Order Details summarizes the production choices and current price. Review it before approving the proof. It is the best place to confirm the selected size, material, colors, quantity, and family-specific options.

Readiness Message

The readiness message tells you whether the current design can be ordered. If ordering is blocked, the message identifies what must be corrected. The Add to Cart button remains unavailable until every required check passes and the proof is confirmed.


Working With Objects

Select and Deselect

  • Click or tap an object to select it.
  • A selected object shows its editing boundary and controls.
  • Click or tap empty workspace to deselect and return to Job Settings.

Move

Drag a selected object to move it. Keyboard users can use the Arrow keys for small movements and Shift + Arrow for larger movements when focus is not inside a text field or control.

Resize

  • Corner handles resize proportionally.
  • Left and right handles change width when that object supports width-only scaling.
  • Other side handles adjust the corresponding dimension when allowed.
  • The visible selection boundary follows the actual painted design.

For Custom Die text, the left and right handles let you compress or widen the lettering without changing its painted height.

Rotate

Use the Rotation control or the object's rotation handle when available. Keep all painted parts of the design inside the workspace.

Delete

Use the visible Delete X on the selected object, or use Delete / Backspace when the workspace selection is active and focus is not inside a form field.

Undo and Redo

Undo and Redo restore design-object changes such as adding, moving, resizing, rotating, editing, or deleting objects. Job options such as product family, material, lamination, price, and quantity are not design-history steps.

Common keyboard shortcuts:

  • Undo: Ctrl + Z
  • Redo: Ctrl + Y or Ctrl + Shift + Z

Select More Than One Object

On desktop, hold Ctrl or Shift while selecting additional objects. On mobile, use Select, tap the objects you want, and then use Done.

Multiple selected objects can be moved, deleted, undone, and redone as one group while keeping their spacing.

Align and Center

Use Align to line up selected objects by their painted boundaries. Center on Canvas centers objects in the workspace without stacking them on top of one another. Alignment works best after selecting every object you want included.

Editing Zoom

  • Zoom In and Zoom Out change only the editing view.
  • Relative 100% returns to the normal relative view.
  • Fit shows the complete workspace at the largest comfortable size.
  • Editing Zoom does not change the product's physical size or price.

Rulers, Grid, Guides, and Snap

These are editing aids only.

  • Rulers show the workspace in physical inches.
  • Grid displays a half-inch reference grid.
  • Guides can be positioned as visual alignment references.
  • Snap helps objects meet grids, guides, workspace edges, and other object boundaries.

They do not appear in the proof, cart, or finished product.


Custom Print Design Guide

Start the Job

  1. Select Blank Canvas and Print Design.
  2. Choose the finished size, material, lamination, and quantity.
  3. Add at least one eligible design object.
  4. Arrange the design inside the finished product area.
  5. Review Order Details and approve the proof.

Available Design Objects

Custom Print supports:

  • Up to three Text objects
  • One Uploaded Artwork object
  • One Header
  • One Shape
  • One Symbol

Choosing a new Header, Shape, or Symbol replaces the existing object of the same type. Remove the existing object first only when you want the design to have none.

Text

  • Enter the exact capitalization and spacing you want printed.
  • Choose a font and font color.
  • Use Straight, Arch Up, or Arch Down.
  • Arc Amount controls the curve on arched text.
  • Move, resize, widen, compress, and rotate as needed.

Upload Artwork

Use Artwork to choose a supported image from your device. The Designer places the image in the workspace, where it can be moved, resized, replaced, or removed.

For the best result:

  • Use the cleanest, highest-resolution original available.
  • Avoid screenshots when the original artwork exists.
  • Make sure important details are readable at the selected finished size.
  • Keep all artwork inside the workspace.

If a file is unsupported or cannot be read, the Designer will keep ordering blocked and ask for a valid file.

Why You May Need to Reselect Artwork

Web browsers do not allow a website to permanently restore a local production file after the page or cart has been reopened. When you choose Edit Design, the preview and placement may already be restored, but the Designer may ask you to select the original artwork file again.

Choose the same original file. Your saved placement remains intact, and reselection reconnects the production-quality file to the order. Canceling the file chooser does not remove the restored preview, but ordering stays blocked until a valid file is selected.

Headers, Shapes, and Symbols

  • Header artwork keeps its approved proportions while resizing.
  • Shapes can use the available solid or outline styles and colors.
  • Symbols come from the built-in production library.
  • These objects can be selected, moved, resized, rotated when supported, and removed.

Printed Color

Custom Print can display multiple colors because the finished product is printed. Screen color varies by device and is a visual preview, not a guaranteed color-calibration proof.


Custom Die Vinyl Lettering Guide

What “Available Installation Space” Means

Enter the maximum space available where the lettering will be installed. This defines the working boundary for the design. It is not a promise that every letter will fill the complete rectangle.

  • Maximum width: 48 inches
  • Maximum height: 8 inches
  • The final painted lettering must remain inside the available space.

The Designer measures the actual transformed vinyl lettering—not only the selection box—to determine whether it fits and can be cut reliably.

Text-Object Allowance

The entered installation-space height controls how many separate text objects may be used:

Installation-space height Maximum text objects
0.50–3.99 inches 1
4.00–5.99 inches 2
6.00–8.00 inches 3

Custom Die never allows more than three text objects. Width does not increase the object allowance.

Text Rules

  • Each text object may contain up to 30 non-space characters.
  • Spaces do not count toward the 30-character limit.
  • Punctuation may be used with meaningful letters or numbers.
  • Punctuation-only text cannot be ordered.
  • Every text object must have at least 0.75 inch of meaningful painted lettering height after all scaling, width changes, rotation, and arching are applied.

The Designer checks each text object independently and identifies Text 1, Text 2, or Text 3 when a correction is required.

Straight and Arched Text

  • Straight uses no arc.
  • Arch Up curves the center upward.
  • Arch Down curves the center downward.
  • Arc Amount changes the strength of the curve.

When changing to an arched shape, the normal starting Arc Amount is restored. Strong curvature can make the painted lettering exceed the available space. If that happens, reduce Arc Amount, resize the object, widen or compress it, move it, or increase the available installation space when the real installation allows it.

The Designer does not silently shrink lettering below the practical cutting minimum just to force it inside the workspace.

Vinyl Colors

Select one text object before choosing Vinyl Color. Each text object can have its own solid vinyl color. White is the default.

Custom Die colors represent solid vinyl, not printed ink. Text outlines, color overlays, uploaded artwork, Headers, Shapes, and Symbols are not available in Custom Die.

Additional-Text Pricing

Text 1 is included in the base design price.

Installation-space height Additional-text charge
0.50–3.99 inches No additional text available
4.00–5.99 inches Text 2 adds $4.00
6.00–8.00 inches Text 2 adds $6.00; Text 3 adds another $6.00

The same additional-text schedule applies to standard and reflective vinyl. Order Details shows the exact current total before the design is added to the cart.

Cuttable-Detail Checks

The Designer checks the final physical vinyl paths for details that may be too small to cut or weed reliably. If the warning appears:

  • Make the lettering larger.
  • Reduce extreme horizontal compression.
  • Reduce a strong arc.
  • Try another approved font.
  • Shorten the text.

The warning clears as soon as the corrected final geometry passes.

Separate Text Objects and Overlap

Separate cut-vinyl text objects cannot occupy the same painted area. If the Designer reports an overlap, move or resize the objects until the visible lettering is separated. Selection boxes may touch; the painted vinyl paths are what determine a true overlap.


Standard Safety Signs Guide
  1. Choose Standard Safety Signs.
  2. Select the Header that matches the intended message.
  3. Choose the size, material, and lamination.
  4. Choose the font and font color.
  5. Enter the Customer Message.
  6. Review the automatically capitalized and fitted message in the proof.
  7. Confirm Order Details and add the approved design to the cart.

Helpful Tips

  • Keep wording direct and easy to understand.
  • Check spelling, numbers, voltage, distances, and equipment names carefully.
  • Reflective material improves nighttime or low-light visibility when light is directed toward it.
  • Lamination adds surface protection but does not make an unsuitable installation surface acceptable.
  • The customer is responsible for confirming that the selected wording, header, size, and placement are appropriate for the intended application.

Nitrous Bottle Labels Guide
  1. Choose Nitrous Bottle Labels.
  2. Select the bottle size.
  3. Choose the color or pattern.
  4. Choose the Nitrous Header artwork.
  5. Select Standard or Reflective material.
  6. Add lamination when desired.
  7. Review the finished label dimensions and minimum package quantity.
  8. Check the complete proof and Order Details before adding the label set to the cart.

Package Quantity

Nitrous labels are sold in package quantities that depend on the bottle size. The Designer shows the minimum package quantity and calculates the order using the selected bottle size, material, lamination, and quantity.

Reflective and Laminated Labels

  • Reflective material returns light toward the source and can improve visibility.
  • Lamination adds a protective clear layer over the printed surface.
  • The preview is a visual representation; material reflectivity and finish cannot be reproduced exactly on a screen.

Proof, Cart, and Editing an Order

Before Approving the Proof

Check every visible and written detail:

  • Spelling and capitalization
  • Numbers and measurements
  • Font and colors
  • Straight or arched text
  • Object position, scale, and rotation
  • Finished size or available installation space
  • Material and lamination
  • Quantity or package quantity
  • Current price

The editing watermark and editing controls are not part of the finished product.

Add to Cart

Add to Cart becomes available only when:

  • Required job options are complete.
  • Required design content exists.
  • The design passes the current family's production checks.
  • No required artwork file is missing.
  • The proof has been confirmed.

Edit Design From the Cart

Use Edit Design in the cart drawer or full cart to reopen the exact configured design. Make the changes, recheck the proof, and choose Update Design in Cart.

Updating replaces the managed design in the cart. It should not create a second copy of the same configured line. If uploaded artwork must be reselected, follow the artwork-reselection instructions before updating.

Quantity

The cart and Designer show the quantity for the configured product or package. Changing quantity changes the number of configured products or packages—not the number of design objects inside one product.

Remove Design

Remove the configured design from the cart when it is no longer needed. Removing it does not affect other normal products or other configured designs in the same cart.


Materials and On-Screen Color

Standard Material

Standard white material is intended for normal printed use on a suitable clean, smooth surface.

Reflective Material

Reflective material returns light toward its source. It does not glow by itself, and the reflective effect cannot be accurately shown on a normal screen.

Lamination

Lamination adds a clear protective layer to printed products. It can improve resistance to handling and exposure, but installation surface preparation and product suitability still matter.

Cut Vinyl

Custom Die uses solid-color vinyl rather than printed ink. The surrounding background is the installation surface itself. Transfer tape is used to keep separated letters or design parts positioned during application.

Screen Color

Phone and computer displays vary. Preview colors are for design guidance and may not exactly match physical vinyl, reflective material, or printed output.


Fixing Common Readiness Messages
Message or condition What it means How to fix it
Add a design object The current product needs eligible content. Add Text, Artwork, Header, Shape, or Symbol as allowed by the selected mode.
Text is outside the workspace Some painted lettering crosses the finished boundary. Move, resize, widen/compress, rotate, or reduce the arc until it fits.
Objects overlap Two separate production objects occupy the same painted area. Move or resize the objects until the visible painted areas are separated.
Text is below the practical minimum The final painted lettering is too short for reliable Custom Die production. Enlarge it, reduce compression or arc, or shorten the wording.
Details are too small to cut reliably A physical stroke, gap, island, or closed detail is below the production threshold. Enlarge the object, reduce distortion, reduce the arc, shorten the text, or choose another font.
Too many text objects The installation-space height allows fewer objects than the design contains. Remove an object or increase the height when the real installation space permits it.
Text is too long That text object exceeds 30 non-space characters. Shorten or divide the wording while staying within the height-based object limit.
Reselect artwork The preview was restored, but the browser no longer has the original production file. Choose the same original artwork file again.
Select a valid artwork file The selected file is missing, unsupported, or unreadable. Choose a supported, readable original image.
Confirm the proof The design is ready but has not been approved. Review every detail and check the proof-confirmation control.

Mobile Tips
  • Use the Designer's Zoom and Fit controls to view the workspace comfortably.
  • Use Select and Done to choose multiple objects.
  • Tap an object once to show its properties and editing controls.
  • Tap empty workspace to return to Job Settings.
  • Use larger, deliberate touches on handles when resizing or rotating.
  • Browser zoom changes your view only; it does not change the product size.
  • If the on-screen keyboard covers a control, close the keyboard after entering text and continue editing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will the SRD PROOF watermark or editing boxes print?

No. Watermarks, selection boundaries, handles, guides, grids, rulers, and editing controls are editor-only aids.

Can I upload a logo for Custom Die?

No. Custom Die is currently a text-only solid-vinyl workflow. Use Custom Print Design when you need uploaded artwork or a printed graphic.

Can Custom Die use more than one color?

Each separate text object can have its own solid vinyl color. One text object cannot use a printed gradient, overlay, or outline.

Is Available Installation Space the exact finished lettering size?

Not necessarily. It is the maximum area available for the complete design. The actual painted lettering can be smaller and is shown in the workspace and proof.

Why is Add to Cart disabled?

Read the current readiness message. A required option, design object, artwork file, production check, or proof confirmation is incomplete.

Why do I have to select my artwork again after Edit Design?

For security, web browsers do not permanently restore a local file from your device. Reselecting the original file reconnects it to the saved preview and placement.

Can I edit a design after adding it to the cart?

Yes. Use Edit Design in the cart drawer or full cart, make the changes, confirm the proof again, and update the design in the cart.

Does Editing Zoom change my product size?

No. It changes only your view of the workspace.

Why does reflective material look normal on my screen?

A screen cannot reproduce the way reflective material returns real light. The preview shows color and layout, not the full reflective effect.

Are screen colors exact?

No. Screen settings and lighting vary. The preview is a design guide, not a calibrated physical color sample.