Chapter 1 - Introduction

The wePrint Design Studio is an advanced web based tool that allows companies in the printing industry to provide customers with the ability to design their own artwork. Although, the original intent of the wePrint Design Studio was tool serve the printed garment market, the tool could be used for any printing application, such as, embroidery, signs, business cards, bumper stickers, and magnets. The tool can also be used in the vinyl industry or rhinestone applications.

1.1 Tool Features

The wePrint Design Studio allows customers to:

• create text.
• change text font, size and color
• add stroke to text
• curve text
• rotate or flip text
• add a symbol from the symbols gallery
• change the color and size of a symbol
• rotate and flip the symbol
• upload an image
• re-size the image
• rotate or flip the image
• save a design under their email address
• search the database for their designs

The wePrint Design Studio can be configured by the site owner as follows:

• Add and remove products (images, pricing, sizing info)
• Add and remove symbols from the symbols gallery.
• Add images to the stock images gallery.
• Add designs to the Our Designs gallery.
• Add and remove tool features such as "Add to Cart" button.

The wePrint Design Studio has a back-end processing page for:

• Creating an image of the customers design to be used for printing.
• Scale the image.
• Download the raw XML design file.
• Use the AI Plug-in to create an Adobe Illustrator script file

1.2 Design Studio Requirements

The wePrint Design Studio is unique from many similar tools on the market, in that, it is based on a server-side graphics tool called ImageMagick. ImageMagick is a very powerful tool for manipulating images and vector artwork. Most tools on the market are base on Adobe Flash, which runs in the browser. Although, flash can be quicker to respond to user interaction it is also limited in the features. As more features are added, the Flash file becomes larger and requires a longer load time for the user. The wePrint Design Studio runs from the server, so as more features are added there is minimal increase in load time. The disadvantage to a server tool is that slow cheap hosting companies may cause latency in responding to user input.

The software packages that are required to run wePrint Studio are some of the most popular we tools so a large number of hosting companies can be used.

• Linux Server - a large majority of hosting companies offer Linux servers.
• PHP5 - the most popluar language for creating dynamic web pages
• MySQL 4 or 5 - the most popular database tool on the market
• ImageMagick 6.3.5 or greater - most good hosts have this tool installed
• Ion Cube decoder - The wePrint Design Studio php files are encoded using Ion Cube encoding. In order to decode the files on your server, one of three things is required:
  1. The Ion Cube decoder software is installed on the server, which some hosts have.
  2. The decoder is included with the wePrint installation package and is uploaded. This decoder will try to load during the web page load, if your hosts allows dynamically loaded php modules
  3. If your host doesn't allow dynamically loaded php modules, than they should allow you to load this module using a line in a local php.ini file

  There is a utility file that is included in the installation package that can be used to investigate the Ion Cube decoder status - the file will be located at on your site at: /designstudio/encrypted/ioncube/ioncube-loader-helper.php Browse to this page on your site and follow the instructions.

Hosting Options

1. A shared host - This is the most cost effective solution. However, the hosting company loads many sites onto the same server and one site could slow down the others. You have no ability to load your own software. The cost is about $5 to $30 per month.
2. A Virtual Private Server or Virtual Dedicated Server (VPS or VDS) - In this case your site is placed on a server with less neighbors and you are given a guaranteed amount of CPU speed and RAM usage. This option is becoming more popular and less expensive. You are usually given the ability to change the software on your portion of the server. The cost is about $25 to $50 per month.
3. Dedicated Server - The hosting company provides you with your own server. You need to install and maintain the software. The cost is greater than $200.

Certified Hosts
We maintain a list of hosts that we have tested wtih wePrint Design Studio. An updated list can be found HERE.