How color count affects the design
Color count is one of the most important settings in a paint by numbers product. It controls how many distinct paint colors are used to represent the customer’s photo, which directly affects how detailed and complex the finished canvas looks.
- Fewer colors (e.g., 12) - Larger, simpler regions that are easier to paint. Great for beginners, children, or customers who want a relaxing project.
- More colors (e.g., 24-36) - Smaller, more detailed regions that more faithfully reproduce the original photo. Better for experienced painters who want a challenging, high-detail result.
Help your customers choose
Consider naming your variants in a way that communicates the experience level, not just the number. “Beginner (12 colors)”, “Standard (24 colors)”, and “Advanced (36 colors)” gives customers enough context to make the right choice for their skill level.
The acrylic paint palette
Instant Art Kit uses a palette of over 1,400 real acrylic paint colors. When the system converts a customer’s photo into a numbered pattern, it does not invent arbitrary colors. Instead, it maps every region in the design to the closest matching color in the physical acrylic paint palette.
This means:
- Every color number in the pattern corresponds to a real, purchasable paint
- The paint specifications sheet lists actual paint codes your factory or supplier can use
- There are no colors in the digital design that cannot be produced with real paint
This is what makes Instant Art Kit suitable for factory production, not just digital artwork. Your supplier receives a specification that maps directly to products they can source.
Mapping color counts to product variants
In Shopify, you typically offer different color count options as product variants. For example:
| Variant name | Color count |
|---|---|
| Basic | 12 colors |
| Premium | 24 colors |
| Deluxe | 36 colors |
In Instant Art Kit, you configure this mapping when setting up a product. Each variant is linked to a specific color count, so when a customer selects “Premium” on your product page, the system automatically knows to generate a 24-color canvas for that order.
Variants and canvas size
Color count variants can be combined with canvas size variants using Shopify’s variant system. For example, you might have a 30x40cm Basic (12 colors) and a 40x50cm Deluxe (36 colors) as separate purchasable variants, each mapped independently in Instant Art Kit.
What the factory receives
When an order is placed, the production files include everything your factory needs to fulfill it:
The numbered canvas
A 300 DPI TIFF showing the complete numbered pattern at print resolution. Each numbered region in the canvas corresponds directly to a color on the paint specifications sheet.
Paint specifications sheet
A document listing:
- Each color number used in the canvas
- The corresponding paint code from the acrylic palette
- The approximate quantity of each color needed for this design
Your factory uses this sheet to prepare the paint set that ships with the canvas. Because the paint codes reference a real, standardized palette, fulfillment is straightforward and does not require manual color matching.