Where Procreate fits POD
Procreate is uniquely strong for:
- Hand-drawn pet portraits and illustrations
- Hand-lettering and custom calligraphy
- Watercolor and painterly styles
- Custom commissioned artwork as POD upsell
For typography-heavy or template-driven POD work, Photoshop / Canva / Illustrator are usually faster.
Step-by-step setup
- Use Procreate for hand-drawn POD assets. Pet illustration, hand-lettering, custom artwork. iPad workflow is faster than Photoshop for hand-drawn work.
- Export from Procreate at print resolution. 300 DPI PNG at print size. Procreate handles this natively.
- Install Print It My Way. Customer-facing personalization handled by the designer app. Install from the Shopify App Store.
- Upload Procreate exports as template assets. Hand-drawn templates, illustrations, hand-lettered designs uploaded to Print It My Way's template library.
- Customer personalizes Procreate-designed templates. Customer adds their name, photo, or text to the hand-drawn template. The POD designer app handles the customer interaction.
- Use Procreate for custom commission work. Some POD stores offer 'commission custom illustration' tier ($75-200 upcharge). Procreate is the typical tool for fulfillment.
Hand-drawn POD niche
Some POD stores position around hand-drawn artwork:
- Custom pet portrait (hand-painted style)
- Hand-lettered family quotes
- Custom watercolor illustrations
- Botanical / floral hand drawings
Procreate is the standard tool. Output uploaded to the POD designer app as templates or per-order assets.
Commission tier upsell
'Have an illustrator hand-draw your pet portrait' is a premium POD tier ($75-200 upcharge over standard photo print). The flow:
- Customer orders premium tier in POD designer app
- Customer uploads pet photo + notes
- Order routes to your in-house or contract illustrator
- Illustrator hand-draws in Procreate
- Illustrator uploads finished art to the order
- Customer approves → production starts
Procreate for hand-drawn work, POD designer for customers
Procreate creates the artistic assets; Print It My Way runs the customer flow. Install Print It My Way free.
Install Print It My Way — Free See the photo upload comparison →Frequently asked questions
Is Procreate good for POD asset creation?
Excellent for hand-drawn work — pet portraits, hand-lettering, watercolor styles. Less efficient than Photoshop / Canva for typography-heavy templates.
Can customers use Procreate in the POD flow?
Indirect only. Customers can create artwork in Procreate and upload as PNG to the POD designer app. Most customers don't have Procreate.
How do I offer 'hand-illustrated' POD upsells?
Premium tier in the POD designer app. Customer pays $75-200 upcharge; routes to your illustrator who hand-draws in Procreate; uploads to the order.
What's the Procreate export format for POD print files?
PNG at 300 DPI. Procreate exports natively at the canvas resolution. Set canvas size to match print dimensions before starting.
Is Procreate's $13 one-time cost worth it for POD?
Yes if you offer hand-drawn positioning. One-time purchase, no subscription. Faster than Photoshop for hand-drawn iPad work.
Is Print It My Way free to install?
Yes. Print It My Way is free to install from the Shopify App Store. The Free plan covers most small stores; paid plans unlock higher order volume, advanced features like Cart Transform per-character pricing, premium fonts, and white-glove support. There is no upfront fee and no credit card required to install.
How long does Print It My Way take to set up?
Most stores set up their first personalized product in under 15 minutes. The Shopify App Store install takes about 60 seconds; adding text fields, photo upload, color swatches, and live preview to a product takes 5-10 minutes. Catalog-wide rollout (50+ products) uses bulk-apply templates and typically takes 30-60 minutes total.
Does Print It My Way work with Shopify Basic, Shopify, Advanced, and Shopify Plus?
Yes. Print It My Way works on every Shopify plan including Basic, Shopify, Advanced, Plus, and Shopify Starter. Some advanced features like Cart Transform (per-character pricing) and B2B company accounts require Shopify Plus, but the core personalization fields, live preview, and order capture work on every tier.
Does Print It My Way slow down my Shopify store?
No. Print It My Way uses Shopify's storefront block architecture, which loads only on personalized product pages and doesn't add render-blocking scripts site-wide. Lighthouse and Core Web Vitals scores on personalized product pages stay green when the app is configured with default settings.
Does Print It My Way work with Printful, Printify, Gelato, and other POD partners?
Yes. Print It My Way has native integrations with Printful, Printify, Gelato, and other major print-on-demand partners. The customer's personalization data flows through Shopify's standard order pipeline, so any partner that reads line-item properties (which all major POD apps do) receives the print files automatically.
Does Print It My Way support Shopify Markets, multiple currencies, and multiple languages?
Yes. Field labels translate per language, upcharge prices can be set per currency, and the personalizer fully supports right-to-left languages including Arabic and Hebrew. The personalizer also handles Unicode for Cyrillic, CJK (Chinese/Japanese/Korean), Greek, and accented Latin characters with appropriate font fallback.