Freedom to Design Guide

IMPORTANT - NEW CUSTOMERS please register by entering your name, email address and date of birth. A password will be sent to your email address almost immediately which will allow you to proceed to choose a product and create a design.

When you enter your email address and password we will create your own exclusive Design Folder where you can save all your design masterpieces before you decide to improve or buy them.

General Recommendation
The website works great in Internet Explorer. However, it will work even better and faster using one of the following web browsers: Firefox or Opera.

How to shop the store

The “HOME” page is the store directory.

Choose the area of the store you want to visit by clicking in the blue category boxes near the bottom of the page.
“NEW CUSTOMERS ” See above.
“LOGIN” is for customers who have already registered. You can change your password or email address. This will open your Design Folder so you can improve your saved designs, copy them to other products, or go to checkout to buy. Or click on a category in the header menu to create a new design.

The “CATEGORY SHOWCASE” pages

Choose the product you are interested in designing by clicking on the description under the relevant picture, or the picture itself.
Check the details: color, size, cost and shipping cost.
Select the size and color of your chosen product by clicking the circles next to the relevant descriptions
When you have selected the product size and color you want, click “GO DESIGN”
To go to another “CATEGORY SHOWCASE” click from the header bar menu.
To go back to the “HOME PAGE” click the footer bar menu option.

The “DESIGNER” page

This explanation will cover how to select an area of your chosen product to design, then how to bring in an image to that design area, and then how to use all the design features in the “Designer” page.

Select which design area you want to start with in the “SELECT DESIGN AREA” box.

Click on the small blue arrow to view all design areas for the product.
Click on your chosen design area and then click “Confirm”.
Repeat the above process to select all the design areas you want to design and when you click confirm, your current designs will appear in the product diagrams at the bottom of the page.
The product diagram at the bottom of the page shows all the design areas available. By holding the cursor over an area in the diagram it will tell you its design area description.
You now have 2 options:

OPTION 1

“Select image from Freedom to Design library”

There are 4 ways to browse the library:

Type in a search keyword, eg, dolphin
Click on an “Image Tag” category, and click “search” below. Remember to clear any previous searches before your next search by re-clicking the tag.
Do both the above at the same time, eg, click the “Animals” image tag and type “dolphins” into the search keyword. Then click “search”.
Continue to click “Next page”

You can select more than 1 category at a time to narrow your search, eg “landscapes” and “photographs”
Scroll through the pages by clicking “Next” or “Previous” page.
Some of the images may appear at first with black backgrounds, or even totally black. The system takes a few seconds extra to load these images, and if you want to check them you may need to wait for a few seconds.
Select an image, the image quality details will appear in the “Quality Chart” to give you an estimate the selected image at various print sizes, and click “Use in Design”.
You can repeat the above steps as many times as you like to bring 1 or many images into the “DESIGNER” page.

OPTION 2.

“Add OWN image to library” - download a picture from your own computer

If you have not already logged in please do so by clicking on the “Login” menu option on the header bar.
In the “UPLOAD A NEW IMAGE” page follow the instructions listed.

First click “BROWSE” on the right. This will take you back into your computer where you can locate the image you want to upload. (This is usually located in your “My Pictures” folder.) Double click your image and this will return you to the download page with your file listed in the box.
Next, click the Upload button to upload the image to our server. (This may take a few minutes, especially for larger images.)
Your original file name will appear in the “name / description”. You can then re-name your image and assign it to the relevant categories by clicking one or more of the category description boxes. This is important if you want to find the picture again at a later stage or if you want to allow your image to be used by other designers.
If you want to allow your image to be used by other designers please click the box next to “Make my image public”. This will take it into the Freedom to Design library.

If you have selected for the image NOT to appear in the Freedom to Design library it will go into your own exclusive “My Images” library.

When you are finished entering information for your image, click the “Add to Database” button, which will insert your image into either your exclusive “My Images” library or the main “Freedom to Design” library.

Click onto your uploaded image you wish to bring into your design area and click “Use in Design”.
You can access your “My Images” library anytime when you go to select an image to use in a design. Simply click the blue title “My Images” at the top of the Library page.

When you have selected an image using the above procedures, please read below to see how to proceed.

If you prefer, you can send us your photographs, drawings, paintings, images (up to 8x11 inches) or 35mm slides and we will scan them into your library with our high quality scanners. Please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope with your documents to: freedom to design, 911-743 Railway Avenue, Canmore, Alberta, T1W 1P2, Canada.

To “MOVE” an image click on it and continue to hold the mouse button down. Then slide the mouse and the picture will slide with it.
To “RE-SIZE” an image
“BIGGER” = click on the image, hold the shift button and at the same time click and hold the left mouse button moving the mouse to the right.
“SMALLER” = click on the image, hold the shift button and at the same time click and hold the left mouse button, moving the mouse to the left.

“Lock Aspect Ratio”. To re-size an image but preserve its width / height ratio, click the image and then “Lock Aspect Ratio”.
If it is not ticked then you can stretch or squeeze the image as you like!
“Scale to Fit”. To enlarge an image to its largest possible size in a design area whilst keeping its shape, click “Lock Aspect Ratio”, click the image, and then click “Scale to Fit”.
“Stretch to Fill”. To enlarge an image to fill a design area, click the image, and then click “Stretch to Fill”.
“Move to Back”. When you have more than 1 image in the design area you may want to bring one forward or move one backwards. To move an image backwards, click it and then click “Move to Back”.
“Delete”. To delete one specific image in the design area, click on it and then click “Delete”. You can clear the entire design area by clicking “Clear All” at the bottom of the screen on the left.
“TEXT” To add TEXT or NUMBERS, write this into the box under “Write text”. Choose your font by clicking the arrow beside the text box and clicking your chosen text style.
Change the text color by sliding the arrows under the color box until your desired color is achieved. Then click on the “Add Text” box.
If you want to write text up or down vertically, or slanted at an angle, or even around in a circle, simply add one letter/number/symbol at a time, and position them once they are in the design area.
“Transparent” Box. This will allow you to see your design ON THE ACTUAL COLOR of the product you have selected. You can change the color of the design area to any color you want by following the next explanation point.
“BACKGROUND COLOR”. To change the background color in a design area click the arrows under the “COLOR” box and slide up or down until the desired color is achieved. Then click “Set Color” in the “BACKGROUND” box on the left side of the screen. (You may need to scroll down.) To change the color again, repeat the steps above.
You can see your designs in the product diagram box below the design area box.
To design another area click on the blue arrow under “Design Area” and click the area you want to design next. This area is confirmed above the design box.
“Preview” You are able to view your designs in the product diagrams in a larger format than on the “Designer” Page. To return to the “Designer” page to save your design, click “BACK TO DESIGNER”.
“Save to Design Folder” Remember to click “Save” after you have completed all your designs for that one product, eg back, front and sleeves. You will then be prompted to give a name to your design.
“Clear All ”. This allows you to delete the complete design area you are in. If you have more than 1 image or text box you can delete all of them by clicking “Clear All”.

“MY DESIGNS FOLDER” page

This is the page you are taken to when you Save a design from the “DESIGNER” page.
You can check which design areas you have used in your designs.
You can check the price of the product before you decide to buy it.
If you want to improve your design further, click “Open in Designer” and all of the design areas will be opened back in the “DESIGNER” page.
Ensure you re- “Save” you improved design with the same or different name, and then delete the old design by clicking “Delete this Design”.
To buy your masterpiece click on “Go to Checkout”.

“CHECKOUT” page

You will go to the checkout where you input your credit card details, shipping and billing addresses (you may want to send someone a gift to their address).
You will need to read the freedom to design terms and conditions and accept those by checking the “I accept” box.
When you confirm your order Freedom to Design will print it and send it to you within 7-14 business days.