[kaputski]

Hello everyone... We have a very successful screen printing business in our area. However we are beginning to lose customers due to lazyness (people don't want to come into the store anymore)...and some online shops. We'd like to take our business online to compete with some other online stores. After checking a few sites...I like how you can edit your shirt...add art, text and such in real time on the site. You can see exactly what you will be getting. I've been searching forever trying to find software like that..but i'm coming up empty. Was just wondering if there is software out there that already exists that any of you might know of? I could hire a developer but that will cost alot and will the online business we draw pay for the high cost? I was hoping there was a program out there already made and is flexible to be customized. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Rob

 

[sarafina]

I know of no software that provides that but I have seen several shops provide that option throught their spreadshirt or cafepress shops. Something to consider.

 

[kaputski]

No those types of shops are heat press or iron on...i ordered a shirt from cafepress once and it was not Screen Printed...but their software they use is what i'm looking for...something like that...

 

[jdr8271]

The programs that those companies use are all created specifically for those companies. If you are not a programer, you will need to hire a programmer to make something like that for you. Those programs would be really expensive and difficult to make.

 

[Rodney]

Yes, the software that powers those sites is written by their in house employees (developers).

I have gotten emails from companies offering similar software (using flash I think), but the price they were asking for it was about the same as if I hired my own developer.

I'm not sure the investment would be worth the return, but I'm sure that type of software is out there.

 

[printchic]

Hi Rob,

Just wanted to say "be careful" when looking for "pre-made" scripts.

- Check out the company throughly.
- Do a search "online" for any "reviews" on the company
(You can usually do that by typing in the company name and putting reviews behind the name)
- Ask other's have they dealt with the company
- Try out the software DEMOs "ENTIRELY" in both "NETSCAPE", "INTERNET EXPLORER" and any other browser you think they customer might use. Granted a lot of people now use "Internet Explorer" but there are people that use other browsers (msn, aol, etc.)
- Try out the admin area "entirely".
- Create a t-shirt using their demo script and then sign in and see if it creates the file (you print from) if that is one of the mentioned features

As everyone says the large companies that are selling online like spreadshirt.com, customink.com had the script written directly for them.

So if you do find something being sold as a ready made script make darn sure you know who you are dealing with, if the script works 'well' (doesn't have a lot of quirks in it), etc.

 

[Designashirt]

Greetings All,

All of you who have weighed in on the fact that most online companies who have had software created, either did it in house, or paid big bucks to others to create it for them.

I would be very leery of buying software from say an Indian company that has software that looks very similiar to DesignAShirt. I promise you that we have sued everyone we have found using this ripped off software, and will continue to do so.

Any questions, email me at DesignAShirt or pick up the phone and call me.

John

 

[T-BOT]

Greetings All,

All of you who have weighed in on the fact that most online companies who have had software created, either did it in house, or paid big bucks to others to create it for them.

I would be very leery of buying software from say an Indian company that has software that looks very similiar to DesignAShirt. I promise you that we have sued everyone we have found using this ripped off software, and will continue to do so.

Any questions, email me at DesignAShirt or pick up the phone and call me.

John

Hi John, interesting topic.

A friend and I have been playing around custom designing graphics/t-shirts software for about a year now. Not to sell it, more of a fun thing to learn about java/php, personal use or free to our friends and affiliates. Mind you it's not completed and it may never be. lol

From my experiance, i think anyone can hire a developer and have custom made software for just about anything our days.

example: being able to design a shirt online where the user can incorporate various materials, like Glitter plastisol inks and vinyls in the same design.

From your professional point of view, where do you see the next level of online shirt design in the future ?

btw, had my first look at you site software, well done. Didn't even know you existed. i was aware of spreadshirt and cafe press. Your software is way up there too.

 

[Designashirt]

Thanks for your kind words.

You are correct that anything can be created these days w/ some intelligent coding. What I have learned is that putting all of the moving pieces together can really take a lot of time and huge amounts of effort from many different people.

Where is the business headed? Great question. I believe that more and more screenprinters will find for themselves that it makes sense to move to an online design/ordering process. Even if you did it with no intention of going outside of your own client base, it makes so much sense.

I owned my "old" screenprint and embroidery company for 18 years before creating DesignAShirt. What we have learned from DesignAShirt is that alot of our "old" customers want the ability to go online, see their art work that we uploaded for them, put it on different colored shirts, play with location and sizing, see different pricing points based on color of shirt, quantity, etc, and best of all they do this all on their own time. I am not paying to have one of our sales associates quote them a hundred different ways. They now can get exact pricing, place their orders, or just figure out what font they want to use just by going to my newer website.

Truthfully though, there are alot of customers that we still have that want to come in, have their hand held and feel that they are getting that customer appreciation that you can't get over the web. 2 very different types of customers, and still they both can bring you a ton of business, the web based one, much more cost efficiently.

FYI, it is rare that I have time to post often, so don't read too much into it if you don't see me post alot.

Cheers!

John

 

[T-BOT]

thanks for taking the time to answer my question.

as for the " ParaSite " peeps that ripp you off, they usually fade away because they can keep up with developers like yourself and others.

With some, what will you sue them for ? their scooders........bwahahaha.

cheers.

 

[Designashirt]

The out of country scoundrels are the tough ones. There is a whole lot of stuff you have to do to file against someone in a foreign country, especially in India. We are pursuing that.

I have one that is here in the U.S. that has agreed to a settlement, is paying damages, and will be shutting his site down next week. If I have time, I will post the site as soon as all documentation has been signed. What usually happens is: if after seeing our lawsuit, they would prefer to settle, we take a penalty payment for the fact that they infringed on our software and copyrights, we also then look to see what their sales were, and take additional monies for that, and finally we take control and ownership of the domain name that they were using to get this business.

It is quite a pain, and even after all that, the only person that is probably happy is my legal team. They make a lot of money for all of the filings, and paperwork involved.

 

[T-BOT]

a pain it is, a lawyer friend tells he feels like a priest, peeps only come to him when they need to confess their problems. lol

back in the 90's i was involved with a little concept project "PO-click" sorta like Ebay, online transactions buying/selling.

Now that I look back at it, so primitive, I'm almost embarrased to talk about it.

good luck.

 

[TahoeTomahawk]

Hi,
I scanned through the posts looking for links and didn't see any. So if someone already posted this software, SORRY!

Here is a pretty nice one I found, but there is a few bugs they need to work out. And the demo doesn't have any info on how to configure it.

http://www.harboarts.com/?page=flash_t-shirt_designer

 

[Rodney]

greed to a settlement, is paying damages, and will be shutting his site down next week. If I have time, I will post the site as soon as all documentation has been signed.

Please do NOT post the site here on the forums, thanks

We do not allow company bashing here on the forums. Feel free to continue to post and share any tips you have with the community though.

 

[Sidney022]

Greetings All,

All of you who have weighed in on the fact that most online companies who have had software created, either did it in house, or paid big bucks to others to create it for them.

I would be very leery of buying software from say an Indian company that has software that looks very similiar to DesignAShirt. I promise you that we have sued everyone we have found using this ripped off software, and will continue to do so.

Any questions, email me at DesignAShirt or pick up the phone and call me.

John

OK? Well, I have been reading and reading... not one of these posts answers the question?? The question was, where can the average person starting out, that hopes to find their niche, get that kind of software? I am not looking to rip ANYONE off. I am looking to be able to compete at all with the big money companies. It is a great concept, however, I am not a software designer nor do I have thousands of dollars to spend on it.
Isn't the point of this forum to help people out? There are BILLIONS of people in the world and many of them own more than one t-shirt! I know just by myself, I have at least 50 t-shirts! I am not looking to rip anyone off, I am just trying to do something for myself that I love and am passionate about... So, again... does anyone know where to look for affordable software to design a shirt online, that won't get us sued by Designashirt??

 

[millyperu]

Check out this companies:

expertlogo.com... this guys are very nice!
tshirtdesignsoftware.com
ShirtSoftware.com

Good luck with your online project!

 

[Uncle John]

Am I missing something here? The forum has a Preferred Vendors section and in it I think Expert Logo does what your asking. Cost an arm and a leg but maybe not for your use.
John

 

[Rodney]

Am I missing something here?

The original post was about 2 years ago

 

[rrc62]

As has been stated, that would be doable in Flash. Might be a good excuse to learn Flash. It's not really something that could be sold as an off the shelf solution. Your graphics will be different than mine, and the last time I played with Flash, the graphics could not be added at run-time. In other words, the Flash app has to be built for you and if you add or change designs, the app would have to be updated. It would still be way cheaper than hiring a Java programmer, which is what I used to do in a previous life.

 

[Uncle John]

Didn't see that the post was so old, just trying to help.