LD Prep GFM Creation ©Melco eCommerce2008

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Table of Contents Page

How To Create A New File: Step 1 2

How To Draw A Mask: Step 6 4

How To Curve Smooth Vector Lines: Step 8 6

How To Create Another Mask: Step 9 7

How To Assign Colors To A Mask: Step 11 10

How To Assign Size(s) To A Mask: Step 11B 12

How To Build Color Combos: Step 11C 14

How To Add Product Descriptions: Step 11D 16

How To Import Another View & Create Its Mask: Step 12 18

How To create a Drop Zone: Step 13 23 How To Create a Drop Zone For Hats: Step 13B 26

How To Upload A GFM: Step 14 28

How To Do A Manual Upload: Step 15 31

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Step 1. How To Create A New File Open LD Prep. Step 2. Click: File New

Step 3. Browse for your product and open it.

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Step 4. Name the view that corresponds to your image, followed by your mask. Note: Your view name will appear in the design tool. Your mask name will not. Creating a mask will let you protect or apply color to areas of the image.

Example of the view name that’ll appear in the design tool:

Step 5. You can use the Fit Window button or Zoom Out button to better view your product.

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Step 6. How To Draw A Mask Click the Vector Fill & Edge Snap Mode button. Note: You can use these buttons either together or separately to create a vector mask.

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Step 7. Begin masking by outlining your garment with your mouse. Each color will have a separate mask name. For example, this product has two colors, pink and a cardinal trim. Since you’re going to assign the mask name “Base” to the color pink, you will only mask the areas that are shaded pink. Note: You can name the mask whatever you’d like. This name is for your reference only and will not appear in the design tool for your customers to see. Important keys on your computer:

• Backspace – If you’ve made a mistake, use this button on your keyboard to back up a few points.

• Esc – Use this button on your keyboard to start your mask all over. • Enter – Press this button once on your keyboard to close your mask. It will

connect your starting point to your ending point. In the project tree located on the far right of your screen, the mask will always appear as “Vector Fill” under your corresponding mask name.

Important: Remember to save your work as you go by clicking: File Save As Save as type *.gfm You can turn on/off your wire frame lines by clicking the Hide Wireframe Lines button in LD Prep.

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Step 8. How To Curve Smooth Vector Lines Smooth your lines by double clicking on your ‘Vector Fill’ in the project tree located to the far right of your screen. Adjust your anchor points by sliding the ‘Curve Smoothing’ bar to the right. This will ensure your edges won’t become pixilated in the design tool when it’s zoomed in on.

• Circles – Are curved points. • Triangles – Are straight points.

Important keys on your computer:

• Shift + Click on a vector point – This is to change your vector points from triangles to circles.

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Step 9. How To Create Another Mask Now it’s time to create a mask for the cardinal trim by clicking the Insert Garment Layer button. Note: Please refer to this button each time you want to create a new mask.

You can name the mask “Trim”. Note: You can name the mask whatever you’d like. This name is for your reference only and will not appear on the design tool for your customers to see.

To help zoom into a particular area, use the Graphical Zoom In button and with your mouse, draw a square over the area you’d like to focus on.

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Use the Vector Fill, Edge Snap Mode or a combination of both buttons to draw your mask. Press the Enter button once on your keyboard when finished masking.

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Step 10. Mask the tag by clicking the Insert Garment Layer button again and name the mask “Tag”.

Use the Vector Fill or Edge Snap Mode or a combination of both buttons to draw your mask. Press the Enter button once on your keyboard when finished masking.

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Step 11. How To Assign Colors to a Mask Assign information such as color, size, garment information, and build color combinations to your mask by clicking the Garment Properties button.

11A. Assigning Colors to A Mask(s) Garment Properties Colors (select a mask) Add Color…

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Fill in the color name and use either the dropper button or the Color… button to help select your color. If your supplier uses a color code, you can enter it into the color code space provided. After selecting a color, press Finish Editing. Tip 1: You may want to use your supplier’s color palette when selecting colors. An easy way to obtain this is to go your supplier’s website and use the dropper tool to select the color from their palette. Make sure to minimize your LD Prep window when doing this. Tip 2: If you fill in the “Color Name & Code” without selecting a color, the LD Prep will assume you just want the default color to appear. This is handy when you want your image to appear as is. Do this for tags.

Repeat these steps again to obtain the other colors. Remember, they are: (Select mask) Add color… (Enter color name & select color) Finish Editing…

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11B. How to Assign Size(s) To A Mask Garment Properties Sizes Edit Sizes…

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Fill out the information and click the Add Size button. Do this for every size.

• Size Code: This will appear in your admin (punchsystem.com) under manage orders.

• Weight: This is the weight of your product in lbs.

• Price: This is the cost of your product. You will be able to mark-up your

product in your admin so we suggest entering the cost at which you pay and not what your customer’s will pay for this product.

• To delete, highlight the size you wish to remove, and press the delete

button on your keyboard. Note: Anything that’s typed into the “Size” field will be visible on your site so we recommend that the spelling is accurate in this field.

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11C. How To Build Color Combos Although you’ve assigned colors to your mask via Colors Add Color…, you must create your color combos or they will not appear on your site. Colors that appear in the Color Combos window will be the final colors that are available for this product. There are two options for building your color combos.

1) Garment Properties Color Combos Add/Edit Combo…: Use this button if you have multiple masks with colors assigned to them. This will allow you to build your color combinations.

OR 2) Garment Properties Color Combos Add All: Use this button if your

product is simple and has only one mask with colors assigned to them. When you click this button, all the possible color combinations will appear in the color combos window.

Note: You must have a default color selected. Please use the Select As Default button to do so.

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Garment Properties Color Combos Add/Edit Combo…: This is where you’ll build your color combinations. After selecting your combo’s, click the Build Items button once. You will not get a confirmation after you click this button, so be sure to just click it once. For example, the steps would be as follows for this product: Heather Pink / Cardinal Build Items Heather Blue / Navy Build Items Heather Green / Forest Build Items Heather Purple / Purple Build Items Heather Tan / Chocolate Build Items Press the OK button after all of the color combo’s have been built.

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11D. How To Add Product Descriptions Select Info under your properties tree and fill out the information.

• Charactors that cannot be used are: < > = + & ® © ™

• Charactors that can be used are:

% - _ ~ ‘ , . $ # “ / \ ? * ! @ : ; ( ) ^

• Supplier: If you have a supplier, you may enter it here. This area is linked to: Manage Orders Order Workflow Management Order details. Your customers won’t see this; it’s for your reference only.

• Mill: Enter the product brand such as Hanes, Bella, Gildan, etc.

Your customers won’t see this; it’s for your reference only.

• Mill Code: Enter a short code as a reference for your mill. 10 characters max. This area is linked to: Manage Orders Order Workflow Management Order details. For example: “HA” for Hanes. Your customers won’t see this; it’s for your reference only.

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• Product: Enter your product name. This field is limited to 34 characters. Your customers will see this, it will appear on your website in the d

esign tool (see image below).

• Product Code: Enter the style code that your supplier has set for your garment. 10 characters max. This area is linked to: Manage Orders Order Workflow Management Order details.

• Description: Enter the product description.

Your customer will see this, it will appear on your website in the details page & in design tool (see image below).

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Step 12. How To Import Another View & Create Its Mask Import the back image by clicking the Insert Garment View button. Note: Please refer back to this button to import other images to mask such as the left and right side views.

Browse for your product and open it.

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Name your view.

Now you will create a mask for the back by clicking the Insert Garment Layer button. Note: Please refer back to this button each time you want to create a new mask.

Usually, you will want the colors that were assigned from the front to carry over to the back. To do this, your mask names must be identical to each other. Therefore, you’ll need to use the mask name “Base” & “Trim” for the back as well.

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Click on the Vector Fill & Edge Snap Mode button and begin masking.

Now you’ll create a mask for the cardinal trim by clicking the Insert Garment Layer button. Note: Please refer back to this button each time you want to create a new mask.

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You will name the mask “Trim” because you want the same colors that were assigned to the “front trim” to carry over to the back trim.

Use the Vector Fill, Edge Snap Mode or a combination of both buttons to draw your mask. Press the Enter button on your keyboard when finished masking.

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Step 13. How To Create A Drop Zone You must first measure your garment by using the Ruler button before you begin drawing your drop zone boxes. This is a set up procedure. You will only need to measure each view once and not for every drop zone. Measure all views, even if they don’t contain drop zones. This is to ensure the zooming feature works correctly. Measure products by clicking the Ruler button.

After clicking the ruler button, right click on a point on top the garment and hold the click while drawing a line down to the base of the garment, then release the click.

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After releasing the click, you will see the ‘Ruler Dimension’ box appear. In the True Dimension field, you will need to enter the actual garment dimensions. You can either get these specs from the supplier’s website or take a measuring tape and measure the actual garment. The actual measurement of the garment is necessary in order to get the drop zones proportional to the garment.

Drawing The Drop Zone Click Insert Application Area to begin drawing your drop zone box.

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You can adjust your drop zone boxes by double clicking on Application Area that will appear on the far right side of your screen in the project tree window. Once the Garment Properties window appears, you can adjust the width and height of your drop zone, name it, and assign a specific application type if necessary.

• Black box – Drop zone is set for both print & embroidery. • Green box – Drop zone is set for printing only. • Red box – Drop Zone is set for embroidery only.

Note: The drop zones will not adjust according to the size of the garment, therefore you must create drop zones to your minimum width and height. To draw a suggested application area, draw a drop zone within another drop zone.

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Step 13B. How To Create A Drop Zone For Hats 1) Front View

• Measure from the bottom of the eyelet down to the seam of the bill. Add 0.5” to the actual measurement. For example, if the actual measurement is 3”, you would record it in LD Prep as 3.5”.

• Typical DZ: 5”Wx2.5”H • For Visors: 4”Wx1.25”H

2) Back View • Take the actual measurement from point A to point B on a 2D flat

surface. • Typical DZ for hats with an adjustable strap: 4”Wx1”H • Typical DZ for flexfit hats: 4”Wx2”H

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3) Side Views • Measure from the bottom on the eyelet down to the edge of the hat.

Take the actual measurement. • Typical DZ: 2”Wx2”H • For Visors: 1”Wx1”H

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Step 14. How To Upload A GFM Once your gfm’s are created in LD Prep, you can upload them into your admin (punchsystems.com). Product Management Product Management (Select Product Type & Style) Add Product Browse…(upload gfm) Once the gfm uploads, you will be asked to fill in the ‘Short Name’ & ‘Style Code’. The other entries should automatically be filled in for you.

• Short Name: This is a short title for the product that will appear in the ‘Product Catalog’ page. It will be in html, therefore readable by search engines. This is the name that’ll appear in: Manage Orders Order Workflow Management Order details.

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• Name: This is the long title description that will appear in the design tool. It will be in flash, therefore not readable by search engines.

• Code: This is the product style or part # that your supplier uses to identify the product. This code is what you will see in: Manage Orders Order Workflow Management Order details.

• Style Code: Enter your mill name & style code here. This will act as a

quick reference to identify your product from a list of products.

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• Product Description: This is the product description that will appear in the details page of the product catalog and in the design tool.

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Step 15. How To Do A Manual Upload This step is optional. Complete these steps only if necessary. There may be times where you would need to upload your pictures manually. Reasons for uploading manually include:

• Specific views need to be modified. • Products containing patterns such as polka dots, camo, checkers, etc.,

that may be too difficult to mask in LD Prep. • You’re getting imaging errors (x) such as these in your admin site:

To manually upload images, you must first save your jpegs from LD Prep: Click the Save Garment Jpegs button Save as file type “All Combinations *jpegs” (this will save all your color combinations in every view).

Your jpegs will look something like this:

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Log onto your admin site (punchsystems.com): Product Management Product Management (Select Product Type & Style) Edit

Click the Save & Continue and go to page 2 of 3. Under *images, Browse and upload your jpegs individually according to their view and color.