Position

Frame position settings are located on the Ruler icon in the top menu bar. When a frame is selected the tab will show the position settings of the frame.

Frame Position and Size

Valid values for top, left, width and height are expressed in cm, inch, px, %, <%. The default unit, if none are present, is the unit set in the document settings. The % unit refers to the document width or height depending on the respective axis you are in. E.g. inputting 100% into width means 100% of the document width. %% means the same but for the other axis. <% means the minimum of both axes.

% and %%, <% units are especially useful to position items in a flexible document. Please also read the chapter on General concepts of Flex Designs

With the px, cm, etc. buttons below the input fields it is possible to change between different units.

One might also use calculations in all input boxes by starting with = followed by the calculation e.g. = 2*3cm+1cm.

Use Percent to Find the Middle.
If one would like to position a bar 1cm to the right of the middle of a double page. Simply input =50% + 1cm for the left position of the bar.

Reference Point Control

With the Reference Point control, the user can control the point of rotation as well as the point on the frame which represents the top-left position.

Anchor Control

The Anchor control is extremely useful for flexible document designs. This control sets the dock pointsof the Frame (normally top left) to the sides of the document (e.g. bottom, right) and can also anchor the width or height by selecting up to four of the anchors.

If the document size changes, the respective anchor points will move and reposition/resize the frame accordingly. An example template for a mobile phone cover can be found in the Printess program. To see this, just create a new template and select the phone cover example from the pre-made templates available in Printess.

Auto Frame Size (Only for Multi Line Text Frames)

By default Multi Line text frames grow in height when additional text is added, so height is set by the content. Here you can change this behaviour to let the text either grow in width or not grow (necessary to let the text flow between Frames).

Text in Auto Size mode can shift elments below in the same group on buyer side.
Learn more about shifting elements below Auto Size Text here

Converting Units

One can always convert units into each other. Either collectively by using one of the unit buttons at the bottom of the position field or selectively by clicking on one of the small triangles above the input fields. In this case, a selection popup will appear and offer different conversions. E.g. to convert the height of a frame.

Frame Name

Any frame can have a name. This name will appear in the Layer tab to easily identify the frame in the list. The frame name is also useful in the Styles tab where it can be used in addressing a frame.

Style Selector

Each frame can use multiple styles created in the Styles tab to change its style based on form field values or other conditions. Use the Style Selector to choose and add a style that should be applied to the frame. x Will remove a selected style.

Styles Overwrite Behavior
If one selects multiple styles containing the same properties e.g. color - the style which appears last in the style definition will determine the property independent from the order in which the styles are mentioned in the style selector of the frame. Also Document Styles will win over Template Styles.

Frame Markers

With Frame Markers you can either generate statistical data or implement a pay per artwork model with your buyers. You can mark every frame with a custom marker of your choice and after editing use the editor API to analyze the appearance and amount of certain tags.

Use the API method getBuyerFrameCountAndMarkers() to retrieve used Markers together with some other useful editing statistics. Read more here

Pro Tip One can also use this API call to analyze if the user has changed/added any frame on a specific document to e.g. determine if the buyer put something on the back of a T-Shirt …

Special Object & Text Properties

Depending on the frame type you will find additional text properties at the bottom of the Position tab.

Wrap settings:

All frames have Wrap settings which determine if Multi Line text will flow around the frame or the shape selected.

Frame Context Menu

The Frame Context Menu allows for arranging, aligning and spacing of Frames as well as copying, pasting and grouping of Frames.

Arrange

Here one can control the sort order in terms of being in front or in the back of a document. Note that Frames on Layers can only be arranged inside their Layer. So if the Layer is on top of other Layers one would also need to chnge the Frames Layer to get it behind the other Frames.

Spacing & Spacing (Document)

This function is only available if more than two Frames are selected.

Horizontal Between will arrange all selected Frames in a way that the horizontal distance between the Frames is equal.

Vertical Between will arrange all selected Frames in a way that the horizontal distance between the Frames is equal.

If used in the Context Menu Spacing (Page) Horizontal will position the leftmost Frame to the left border of the page and the rightmost frame to the right border of the page and equalize all distances between all selected Frames. The same counts for using Vertical between in this context Menu.

Horizontal Around will arrange all selected Frames like in Horizontal between, except that the same space is also added to the left and the right of a Frames. The given space is defined by the bounding box of the selection.

Vertical Around will arrange all selected Frames like in Vertical between, except that the same space is also added to the top and the bottom of the Frames. The given space is defined by the bounding box of the selection.

If used in the Context Menu Spacing (Page) the behaviour is the same except that the given space is defined by the Page itself.

Cut, Copy & Paste Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C & Ctrl-V

Copy and Paste as well as Paste in Place can be done for one or multiple selected Frames.

Pro Tip: In Printess, Frames can even get copied between documents and Templates without any issues. If a Frame gets copied into another document or Template it will automatically add all its neccesary Resources like Images, Fonts and Colors to the document it is copied into.

Group & Un-Group G

Frames can also get Grouped and Un-Grouped in the Context Menu which is also quite important for the Buyer side. Read more about Buyer Side Groups here

Set as Paste Board

Allows for defining the dimensions of the Paste Board by selecting a Frame. Read more about the Paste Board and this function here

Delete

This will delete all selected Frames.