Overview
Instant Art Kit is a complete platform for selling custom art kits (diamond painting, paint by numbers) on Shopify. It handles everything from the customer-facing upload experience to production-ready file generation for your supplier.
Let’s take a quick tour through the three main parts of the system:
- Storefront - What your customers see and interact with
- Dashboard - Your control center for managing orders and products
- Backend - The automated processing that happens behind the scenes
The storefront experience
This is what your customers see when they visit your Shopify store and want to order a custom art kit.
The upload button
On your product pages, customers see an Instant Art Kit upload button. You can customize the button’s appearance (color, text, styling) to match your brand.
When a customer clicks the button, the Instant Art Kit upload interface opens.
Upload and customize
Your customer can:
- Upload their image - Drag and drop or browse for a photo
- Change size - Select different canvas sizes from your product variants
- See the crop live - Adjust how the image fits the canvas in real-time
- Generate a preview - Click “Generate” to see what their finished art kit will look like
- Order the preview - When they’re happy with the result, they can add it to cart and checkout
Live preview interaction
The magic happens here: customers can experiment with different sizes, adjust the crop, and see exactly what they’ll get before ordering. This builds confidence and reduces returns.
Every time they click “Generate,” a preview is created based on the product settings you’ve configured.
The dashboard
Once customers start ordering, you’ll manage everything from the Instant Art Kit dashboard.
Monitor print jobs
The Print Jobs section shows you which orders contain line items that Instant Art Kit has processed.
- See which orders have print files ready
- Download production files for your supplier
- Check processing status
- Navigate to the full order in Shopify
This is your quick reference view to see what’s ready for production.
Create products
The Products section is where you map your Shopify products to Instant Art Kit.
- Connect Shopify products to Instant Art Kit
- Map product variants (sizes, stone types, etc.)
- Link products to templates
- Configure processing settings
This tells Instant Art Kit which products should offer custom image processing.
Learn more about product mapping →
Design templates
The Templates section lets you design the layout of your production files.
- Create templates with your branding
- Add logos and order numbers
- Link templates to products
Templates ensure every production file has a consistent, professional look.
Manage billing
The Billing section shows your current plan and transaction details.
- View your current plan (Free during beta)
- See plan features and transaction fee
- Upgrade when paid plans launch
Configure settings
The Settings section is where you customize Instant Art Kit for your brand.
- Customize button colors (primary, secondary, ghost)
- Manage translations via Shopify’s Translate and Adapt app
The backend (the stuff you don’t see)
This is where the real magic happens. Instant Art Kit automatically processes images and generates production files without you lifting a finger.
Preview generation
Every time a customer clicks “Generate” in the upload interface:
- We receive the preview request with the uploaded image and selected product
- We process the image based on the product settings (canvas size, color count, stone type, etc.)
- We generate a preview image showing what the finished art kit will look like
- We return the preview to the customer in seconds
This happens in real-time while the customer waits. The preview is optimized for web display and shows the customer exactly what they’ll receive.
Product-specific processing
Each product you map has its own settings. A 40x50cm diamond painting with 60 colors is processed differently than a 30x40cm paint by numbers with 30 colors.
Instant Art Kit automatically applies the correct settings based on which product and variant the customer selected.
Production file generation
When a customer completes their order:
- We receive the order from Shopify
- We start background processing to generate print files
- We create production-ready files:
- CMYK .tiff template (for printing)
- Excel pattern file (for supplier import)
- Files are added to the order and ready for download
This process is intensive and happens automatically in the background. You don’t need to do anything. Just download the files when they’re ready and send them to your supplier.
Why background processing?
Production file generation can take 30-60 seconds because we’re creating multiple high-resolution files in CMYK color space with exact color matching, patterns, and legends.
We do this in the background so it doesn’t slow down your customer’s checkout experience. By the time you check your orders, the files are usually already ready.
File delivery
Once processing is complete:
- Files are added to the order and ready for download
- Preview images and uploaded photos are retained for 30 days
- Production files are retained for 60 days
- You can download them as many times as needed within the retention period
Simply download and forward to your supplier. Everything they need is included.
Learn more about production files →
Ready to get started?
Now that you understand how Instant Art Kit works, you’re ready to set it up for your store.