If you’ve been reading the Zazzle Tech Blog you would already know about this, but for those who haven’t, we’ve got a new feature in the design tool that allows you to copy and paste objects within your design. Check out more details on Tech Blog, it really applies to everyone, not just the tech heads out there.
As can be expected, those of us here at Zazzle HQ spend quite a bit of time browsing Zazzle throughout the day. I’ve had the great joy of discovering many hundreds of great artists and galleries on the site and I wanted to give a quick shout out to some of the cooler galleries I’ve come across. This list is definitely not comprehensive and please feel free to share your own favorites in the comments below.
Here are 16 of the contributors included above. The additional 33 contributors will be listed in two future blog posts.
These contributors represent such diverse locations as
We shifted to the new gallery framework in July 2006 and it’s been an exciting last eight months. The primary goal of the new gallery framework was to help contributor’s unleash their creativity and make an experience that reflects their unique style and artistic talent. We wanted the framework to be more flexible since everyone has their own preferences for style and design. We’ve been absolutely blown away with what you guys have created!
There are more changes to the gallery framework on the way and all feedback is much appreciated. Please keep the suggestions coming!
Zazzle Me pics are blowing up! Check out this Zazzle user sporting cbolsch’s t-shirt “Happiness.” Think it’s cool, want to do it yourself? Well you too can upload your own picture (or “Zazzle Me” pic as we like to call them) wearing one of the sweet products created by your favorite contributor, or even by yourself! It’s easy to do, just post a comment on the product page with an image attachment and wham it’s done, faster than you can say “Zazzle Me Baby!”
Here is the picture again, just in case you’re lazy and don’t want to go to the page…
Well, now we do! And Cut, Paste, and Delete as well. You may have already noticed a little dropdown button we snuck into our design tool, under the Customize It tab on the right. Here’s what it looks like:
So what is this good for? Well, how many times have you wanted to select elements in your design and Copy them? Or Paste what’s on the front of your shirt to the back?
I know I appreciate being able to Select All and Delete, when my artistic inspiration leads me to Blandville, just off the coast of The Boring Sea. Nothing like wiping the slate clean every now and then (better known as destroying the evidence).
We know this small but very useful feature will help speed up monotonous design tasks, and ultimately lead to a more creative design session!
Duplicating or Moving a Design
Using multiple selection, you can duplicate or move an entire design containing multiple image and/or text design objects from one side of a shirt to the other side. This should come in handy when working on any multi-sided products, such as shirts, card, and calendars. To duplicate a design on another side of a product, follow these simple steps…
Now, if you would like to move a design rather than duplicating it, simply use the “Cut” option in step 3 above.
Positioning Integrity
One of the neat things about the way we implemented copy-and-paste is in maintaining the positioning integrity. What this means is that when you copy-and-paste a group of design objects from one side onto another, the pasted group not only maintains the correct positioning relationships between the various objects in the group, but the group as a whole is also positioned similarly on the new side as it was on its side of origin. So, in cards for example, this allows one to duplicate the exact layout of the “inside left” side to the “inside right” side with a simply copy-and-paste (or cut-and-paste, if you want to identically move stuff across).
Load-on-demand Functionality
The copy-and-paste functionality, like the rest of the design tool’s client side functionality, is implemented using JavaScript. It’s worth noting that when we implemented this new feature we made the conscious decision to not add any additional weight to the initial page load. So, the JavaScript library that implements this and a few other advanced features is only loaded on demand – when the user invokes one of the features. So, on the very first use of copy, cut, or paste, there is a one time asynchronous “Ajax” service request that fetches the library and then continues on with the operation.
Appropriate Enabled States
When implementing the “Edit” menu, thorough attention was payed to the disabled state behavior for the various options. So, for example, if you have a side of a product selected that is completely blank, the “Select all” option is disabled because there is nothing to select. Similarly, if you’re on a side that does have design objects but nothing is selected, then the “Select none” option is disabled, because that’s already the existing state. Conversely, if you have all the design objects selected, then the “Select all” option is disabled. Finally, if nothing is selected, then the “Cut”, “Copy”, and “Delete” options are disabled.
Create a product today and try it out for yourself!
It’s time to slip out of those work clothes and get into that special mood for St. Patrick’s Day (that name is just so darn beautiful I tear up every time I type it). People are definitely gearing up for this great celebration from the looks of all the buzz around the last 10 Steps post yesterday, but we really want to push it and get people painting themselves green tomorrow. So, we’ve compiled a list of the Top 5 St. Patrick’s Day shirts that would drive even the most sober of people into uncontrollable laughter. Of course, if you’ve made a shirt that didn’t make the list, I defy you to prove why it should’ve… post a link to it in the comments.
Ohhh such double meaning….
Is that what the cool kids are callin’ em them these days?
This guy could be dangerous in the office…
“will work for ale”… nice!… hmm, wish I could do that…
“The Best Drinking Buddy a Man Could Have”… so true, so true
Check out more at the St. Patrick’s Day Showcase!
hey zazzle fans! what are they putting in the water over there? here’s the third cool tidbit to make its way to me in a week. this one fixes that nagging feeling you get when someone buys your shirt, but you have no idea if it’s going to intercourse, pennsylvania or french lick, indiana. before your inner-stalker gets too sweaty, looks like our security-friendly zazzlers are only showing the first name and town/state. check your royalty history shortly. oh, and yes, toad suck is a real place. -inzider
If you find yourself sitting at home this St. Patrick’s Day, wondering “What should I do today?” Then here is the list for you. We’ve got a complete breakdown of how you should spend your day, what you should eat, and what clothes to dress in.
Well, that is about all you’ll need to make St. Paddy’s ’07 the best ever. But, if you have some suggestions of your own, post them in the comments so others can benefit from your lucky experiences.
good afternoon zazzle fans! this little gem of a cell phone pic just showed up in my inbox. it appears as if our zazzlers are getting proactive about low-res artwork infiltrating its way into products. rumor has it that it should be working in a day or two. -inzider
We’re a little on the geeky side here at Zazzle and couldn’t help but notice that today is a special day for one of our favorite mathematical constants in the world – Pi!
Some interesting facts about Pi that I found on Wikipedia:
The internal Zazzle record for digits of Pi memorized is 32 decimal places by one of our head backend engineers Jason Li. Not too shabby even though he says his feat is way too lame compared to what Akira memorized.
Think you can do better than Jason? Leave a comment telling us how many digits you can do. It’ll be even better if you can link to a video of you performing your amazing feat. As an added incentive, we’ll send the winner a Pi inspired product from Zazzle like the ones below:
The first 300,000 digits of Pi poster
by
murkle99
Yes that’s right, in a effort to align with the Dark Side, the UK has plans to implement a ban on all Jedi lightsabers, the most useful and dangerous weapon in the Jedi arsenal. Without this weapon the Jedi are grossly under matched against their Sith counterparts. Below are just a few examples of classic duels between the Light and the Dark side that would have ended poorly for the Jedi had they been sans-saber.
Clearly, you can see that this planned ban is not good for Jedi around the world. Where would Luke be without his lightsaber? Still moisture farming on Tatooine, that’s where. Help fight this ban, get all the Star Wars gear that your heart could possibly desire in Zazzle’s Star Wars special collection.
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