Kornitˣ LGM Virtual Product Creation Guide

,

Kornitˣ LGM Virtual Product Creation Guide 

Prepared by Cobi Martin

 

Introduction

The following document has been written to instruct Legends Global Merchandise (LGM) in how to create Virtual Products in the Kornitˣ Platform. 

This guide covers: 

• How to create a virtual product ID in the Kornitˣ Platform 

• How to configure the virtual product with the correct print and neck label artwork files 

• How to add the required data to pass orders correctly for the product 

• Frequently asked questions 

How To Use This Guide

The guide outlines the steps necessary to successfully create a Virtual product in the Kornitˣ platform that can be published and sold online by LGM. 

The exact steps will vary per design depending on the number of print areas used. 

The artwork and data steps can be done in any order, but both rely on the existence of a Virtual product ID in the Kornitˣ platform. For this reason, Creating the initial virtual product ID should always be the first task undertaken. 

As an artwork file is a pre-requisite to create a virtual product as outlined in this guide, you may elect to use a temporary placeholder image as the artwork to initially create the virtual product ID. Using this approach would allow the data steps on the virtual product to be completed in lieu of the approved artwork file(s) becoming available.  More information will be provided on using a Placeholder image in the Virtual Product Creation: Artwork section later in the guide. Here is the link to Kornitˣ Artwork Submission Requirements which defines this process - Link

Blank Product & Categories

A Virtual product can only be made from a Fulfiller-approved base product known in the Kornitˣ platform as a ‘Blank’ product. 

The Blank represents an available Wholesale SKU (eg: Gildan 64000, Bella & Canvas 3001, etc) that has been configured to produce a printed output recognised by a Kornit printer. 

Each Blank features a ‘Print area’ for each position on the garment that is available for decoration eg: Front, Back, Left Sleeve, Right Sleeve, Neck Tag. 

Available Blank Categories

All blanks for Legends are available within the following categories: 

1. Master Blanks Standard - 758901
   
2. Master Blanks XDI  - 759362
3. Master Blanks Neon - 759361

Important note: Please ensure that you choose the correct Blank for your intended decoration method e.g.: DTG (Standard) / XDI / Neon. 

Accessing Categories

Product Categories are an essential element for managing products and every new product created must be placed within a category.  

To help simplify the product management for LGM, we ask that you request for any additional categories to be created by Kornit. This will ensure that we can provide access to those categories across all LGM users. To request a new category to be created and shared with all users of the platform, please raise a support ticket with the following link. 

To view available categories, head to the "Settings" cog wheel in the bottom left corner of the Kornitˣ Platform. Click on the "Categories" option which is shown in the below screenshot. 

Some categories you may have "read" access to whilst others have "read/write" access to, this access is determined by your user permissions. For example all blank product categories will be read access while all virtual products created will be read & write access. 

Virtual Product Creation

Creating the ID

The Kornitˣ platform features a Virtual Product Creator which offers several different creation processes for creating Virtual products. 

The optimal routine for creating Print on Demand products to suit LGM requirements is called the Artwork creation process. 

The Artwork creation process should be the starting point for every LGM virtual product ID as it offers the most time efficient means to select the Blank colour for the specific design. 

The routine always adds the selected artwork to the first print area configured on the Blank (which will always be the Front with garment Blanks). The file can be removed manually afterwards if needed (for instance if there is only a Back print). 

Additional manual configuration of the virtual product will always be required to finalise certain product artwork elements such as neck labels (mandatory), or additional decoration locations (design dependant). 

What do I need? 

1. The Wholesale Blank SKU that the design is intended for 
2. Artwork image file of the design (if available otherwise a placeholder can be used – see below) 
3. The brand name, design name and design code 
   

 How does it work?

Open the Kornitˣ Platform and from the left-hand menu choose Catalog > Product Manager 

Click on the New Product button in the top-right corner of the interface 

From the Create Product menu, select the Virtual as the type of product and then choose Artwork as the creation process. 

You’ll notice from the top of the following page that there are three steps which walk you through the virtual product creation process. 

Step 1: Select Blanks

The 'Select Blanks' step shows a list of any Blank Products that your user account has access to. 

Remember to select the correct category for your intended decoration method (2D Standard / XDi / Neon) to see the Blanks that are available to use. 

1. Master Blanks Standard - 758901  
2. Master Blanks XDI  - 759362  
3. Master Blanks Neon - 759361  
   

Scroll down the list and find the Blank product for the Wholesale SKU that you wish to create the Virtual product from (eg: Gildan 64000) and click on that row to select the product. 

With the Blank product selected, click Continue in the top-right corner of the interface to proceed to step 2. 

Step 2: Select Artwork

At this step you will add the initial artwork file needed to create the virtual product. 

In the Artworks section on the left side of the screen, click on the correct option for the decoration method of the virtual product you wish to create: 

1. Upload Artwork – Standard DTG 
2. Upload Print Ready Artwork – XDI / Neon 

The chosen file will be applied against the Front print area of the product. 

Note: If you do not have approved artwork ready, OR the product does not feature a Front print, a Placeholder image should be used at this step. This placeholder image can be manually replaced or deleted as needed once the virtual product has been created. We suggest using a transparent png file eg: 100 x 100 pixels in size for a quick and easy placeholder image. 

A pop-up window will appear next asking you to name the product

We recommend using the Design name and code in combination with the specific brand eg: 

Nascar Iowa Americana 1370500 

The name will be added as a prefix to the Blank name giving the result: 

Nascar Iowa Americana 1370500 – Gildan Adult T-shirt 

The benefit of naming the product at this stage is that it allows easier searches in the Kornitˣ platform later and avoids duplicate product names. 

Click the Upload button to continue, the routine will automatically progress to step 3. 

Step 3: Product Review

In the final step you will choose the Blank colour of the virtual product and decide on the category that it will be added to. 

Hover the cursor over the product thumbnail and three icons will appear as shown below. 

Delete/Cancel: 

Removes the Virtual Product, returning you to the start of Step 2 again 

(Note: The Blank is still selected, to change the Blank itself use the Cancel button in the top-right corner of the interface to exit the virtual product creator altogether, then click on New Product to start the process again). 

Choose Colours: 

            This is where you will select the colour of the Blank product to use with your design. 

Use the radio button in the top left-corner of the small icons to select the required colour. Hovering over each colour icon will reveal its name if there are colours that appear similar in tone. 

Once you have your colour selected, click on the Deselect all text to disable all other colours. 

View: 

Loads the product within our default app - this is not being used by LGM and can be ignored. 

Once you have finalised the colour of the virtual product, the product thumbnail will update accordingly. 

Note: If a transparent image was used as an artwork placeholder, then no design will be shown here. 

The last thing to do is to choose the category that the virtual product will be added to. Click on the ‘virtual products will be created in’ bar above the product image to launch the pop-up window where you can select the category. 

Click on Create Virtual Products in the top-right corner of the interface. 

The virtual product will be created and added to the specified category within Product Manager. A pop-up window will appear with post-creation options, click on Multi-Edit to manually edit the product. The other options are irrelevant to LGM and can be ignored. 

You can also find the newly created virtual product at the top of your Product Manager Screen as shown below: 

We suggest making a note of the product ID and adding it to the Legends Product Assortment sheet for the relevant product launch. 

Removing or replacing the Front artwork

It’s quick and easy to replace or remove an artwork file set against a print area. 

For instance, if you used a placeholder image during the Virtual creation process you will want to replace that once the approved artwork file is available. 

Equally, if you are creating a virtual product with no Front print and only a Back print, you’ll need to know how to delete the artwork that was added to the Front print area during the ‘Creating the ID’ step. 

Find the virtual product in Product manager and edit it.

Click on the Print section to the left of the page. Expand the print area that you wish to edit by click on the > icon on the right hand side of the print area row. 

Expand the artwork rollout 

Delete 

To delete the image, simply click on the Bin icon on the right hand side of the artwork row 

Replace 

            To replace the image, hover over the icon below the word ‘image’ and you will see two buttons: replace image on the left and download image on the right. 

Click on the replace image icon and upload the new file. Click on the replace image icon and upload the new file. 

!WARNING!: If you used a transparent image as a placeholder that image will appear transparent here too! 

Adding artwork to additional print areas

If there is a need to set up additional artwork on different print areas such as the Right Sleeve, Left Sleeve or the Back, these files will need to be added manually. 

 

Access the virtual product that you wish to update in Product manager. 

Head to the print area section on the product and you will find all available print areas such as the Front, Right Sleeve, Back or Left Sleeve. 

Select the print area you require, such as the Back in the example below where we want to add Back print artwork. 

Select the “+ Artwork” Button on the print area underneath the artwork tab. 

Upload the required artwork and use the drop-down menus to specify the correct type and fit mode for your chosen decoration method. 

 

Please see the table below for reference: 

Decoration Method	Type	Fit Mode	File Format
DTG	Raster	Contain	png
XDi / Neon	Verbatim	Actual	tif

Adding Neck Labels to Tag print Areas

Neck label artwork files need to be set against the Tag print area for each available garment size, this ensures the fulfiller prints the correct tag for each size on demand.  

 

To set this up, go to "Print Areas" and select the "Tag" area which is set on every virtual product as shown below.

Open the "Tag" print area using the > icon and expand the artwork area shown below.

Head to the "+ Artwork" button and click it the number of times for the available sizes of the product, eg: for the 64000 this is always 6 times.

The artwork section will then appear like the image below, you can leave the type as "Raster" but the Fit Mode must always be changed to "Contain". This ensures that the artwork will be contained within the 76 by 76 mm label print area and ensure that none of the image is cropped.

Upload the neck label artwork files for each size option by selecting the "Add an image" button shown below.  

After uploading the images we need to associate the label against the specific colour and size combination it is intended for. 

 

Click on the 3 lines dropdown in the Variants column shown below: 

The following pop-up window will then present a list of all available colour and size combinations for the Blank. 

 

Toggle the ‘All’ button at the top of the window to deselect all colour and size combinations and then choose the specific combination which applies to the artwork file you selected. 

 

For example, in the image below the White M variant is selected and this should correspond to a White virtual product with a Neck Label artwork file that displays the size M. 

This process must be repeated for each neck tag size to ensure the correct file is sent to the fulfiller when an order is placed. This is crucial to ensure the correct tag is printed. 

 

Once the neck label artwork has been associated with the correct colour and size variant, remember to "Save" the changes to the print area.

We recommend sense checking you neck tags to ensure the correct tag is assigned for each colour – to do so, click on the Print Test button at the top of the screen as shown below. 

The print test window will open, change the “Aspects” drop down to the “Tag” view.  

 

Now that the “Tag” is showing, expand the size tab and cycle through the options to check that all sizes have the correct artwork applied. 

If a size is missing artwork, or is associated against an incorrect size, return to the print area section and verify each neck label artwork file using the process above, fixing any mistakes. 

Note: When you make a change in the Variants window, if the Save button does not turn blue then the page must be reloaded and the change made again (this can be the cause of some changes not being saved correctly).

Once you are happy that each tag is correct you can close the Print Test window. 

Creating a Thumbnail image

A product thumbnail provides an easy way to identify each virtual product in Product Manager. 

Whilst the system will automatically generate a thumbnail image based on the initial image uploaded, occasionally there will be need to replace this as the product evolves (or if a placeholder image was used when the Virtual ID was created). 

To create or add a thumbnail, head to the "Assets" section in the "General" menu as shown below.

The section will display the "Product Image". 

With this you can either upload a thumbnail you may already have. (We recommend this option for XDi and Neon products)

For standard DTG you can use the "eye" tool which will allow you to create a thumbnail based on the artwork file in combination with the preview image.

Click on the eye button and a popup will appear. Simply click Save to save a thumbnail of the preview that you see on screen.  The view buttons below the preview can be used to select a view other than the Front if necessary.

Once saved you will receive a message stating that you have "Successfully Uploaded Asset". Click OK to return to the product. 

Data & Branding

The following parts of this document will detail the exact data and branding we expect to be added to each virtual product. 

This is a key step in the creation and ensures all your products adhere to the data & branding we would expect. This has been broken down into the following sections.

1. UPC Number
   
2. Brand Naming
   
3. Brand Requirements
   
4. Virtual SKU Mapping

UPC Number

UPC Numbers are set on products at the variant level that have variable options which need to send unique information to the fulfillers (such as UPC Numbers, Aspect and Print Sizes).  

Within the variants of the virtual products we must have the UPC Number added under the Virtual EAN column, this ensures the correct barcode is sent to the fulfiller when sending out orders. 

To access the variants simply click into the virtual products "General" menu and select "Variants" as shown below. 

Within "Variants", you will see the below which details the fulfiller SKU, Production Attributes, Aspects (Colour) and Print Size. 

We must head to the dropdown and enable the "Virtual EAN" toggle. 

Once selected the Virtual EAN area will appear in the variant menu as shown below, here you have to set the UPC Number which has been provided by Legends. 

Make sure you pick the correct variant (size/colour combination) for the associated UPC Number

Once set, simply head to the "Save" button option below. 

After saving, proceed to the next virtual product that needs a UPC number added to the Virtual EAN column, and repeat the steps above.

Brand Naming

The Brand Name, Brand Name (Short) and Brand Code need to be set up on your products for reporting purposes. To do so, simply head to the E-Commerce section on the products. 

Within the E-Commerce Section head to the "Brand Name", "Brand Name (Short) and "Brand Code" and set the brand merch team and the brand event/launch related to the virtual. So for this example we are setting "Activision Blizzard" to the Brand Name, "Diablo" to the Brand Name (Short) and "Prime Evils" to the Brand Code

Brand Name = Merch Team. E.g. Activision / NASCAR

Brand Name (Short) = Franchise/Event Name. E.g., Diablo / Darlington

Brand Code = Campaign Name (Optional). E.g., Prime Evils / 

The purpose of including the "Brand Name", "Brand Name (Short)" and the "Brand Code" is so that when it comes to pulling reports, it shows the data behind which brands are selling best.

Brand Requirements

The Branding attributes will be preset by the Kornitˣ Onboarding team, If you require any additional branding attribute sets please contact the team.  

Applying Attribute Sets

It is good to understand the manual method of setting the Branding Attribute Sets, this is ideal for setting it one at a time. To set this, simply head to the "E-Commerce" section of the virtual product as shown below. 

Head to the "Branding Attribute Set" on the data and selecting this will show the dropdown which collates all of the branding attribute sets which contain the branding requirements required for the fulfiller to print the order. 

Once selected, the data will appear like the below, which details which branding elements will be received by the fulfiller. 

Once set, select the "Save" button and move onto the next product in your sequence. 

Virtual SKU Mapping

Retail SKU mapping ensures the correct retail SKU is stored against an order within the Kornitˣ Platform. We have to set the correct SKU, virtual product ID and Variant IDs. 

There are 2 ways to add this data - either manually or via a bulk import. We recommend the bulk import for updating products in bulk, this means you are not taking time to manually set the data. The following sections will explain the methods and benefits to each option in more detail. 

This SKU mapping will always be set on the "Legends Global Merchandise" sales channel, set under ID 1005535. To locate this simply head to the "Settings" cog wheel at the bottom of the page. There will be 5 options that you see, "Companies" is the one we require for this.  

The companies will appear and we need to select the "Legends Global Merchandise" option with ID 1005535. We need to click into this. 

The company basic details will be listed, you just need to select the "Advanced" menu as shown below.

All other options can be ignored as this has been set by the Kornitˣ Onboarding team. 

Within the "Advanced" menu options, the "SKU Mapping" sub menu must be selected and this is where we can manually or import the correct data that we need. 

Gathering the SKU Mapping Data

We will now detail how to gather all of the relevant information from the platform. 

Accessing the "From SKU"

The "From SKU" is the Legends SKU and this will be known for each virtual, the SKU includes the design code, colour code and size code. 

Accessing the "To Product ID"

The "To Product ID" must be the virtual product ID and this can be found either by clicking into each individual virtual product as shown below. This ID can also be seen in the top URL of each virtual. 

Accessing the "Variant ID"

As for gathering the variant ID, you need to head to the virtual product, and within the "General" menu select "Variants" as shown below and the ID can be seen selected in the below screenshot. 

Now each way of gathering the data has been shown we will detail how to manually add the data within the sales channel. 

Manual Method

Taking all of the data we have sourced, to set this manually select the "+ Add SKU Mapping" and a row will be created.

You then need to press this button for each virtual and size to set. For example, if there is a virtual with 6 sizes to set we would only press that 6 times. 

Once pressed you can then set the data gathered under the "From SKU", "To Product ID" and "To Variant ID" as shown below. 

Finally hit the "Save" button and this SKU mapping will be set and orders for that virtual or virtual products will flow through to the fulfiller correctly. 

Still Need Help? 

You can access raise a ticket with our technical support teams using the buttons below. 

Raise a support ticket 

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