2021-04-21 Print Quality Comparison
Printforia (who prints our apparel) released a detailed comparison of their print quality (on a basic tee) vs a few popular printers on Printify. It's basically an Ovaljet vs Kornit comparison, and the difference is pretty dramatic.
2021-04-10 Blueprint Template Behavior Changes
Minor changes to the way blueprint templates work:
Tags now begin at 1 instead of 0. Thus {{tag1}} is the first tag.
The
{{title}}token renders the design title text without processing it by the blueprint template title first.
We've edited all existing templates to compensate. You don't need to take action, but if you use templates, you might want to read the example at the end of the documentation.
2021-04-08 Black Mugs
OrbitKit can now put a black background on your mugs. More details, including a picture here.
2021-03-27 Impending Fulfillment Products Price Changes
Just a heads up - our shipping costs have gone up. For hoodies, the costs have gone up substantially. We're still working out the details, but part of the change will be a shift to weight-based pricing for shipping. More news soon.
2021-03-25 Mugs!
You can now add an 11oz coffee mug to your fulfillment blueprints and your listings will automatically be updated. This is the first of many new non-apparel products coming down the line. Be sure to read the documentation about shipping profiles.
2021-03-07 Society6 - Re-authenticate With Airlock
S6 changed their auth system. You will need to re-authenticate using the Airlock chrome extension, then unpause your venue(s).
2021-02-15 - Shirtee
We've added support for publishing to Shirtee. More info here.
2021-01-30 - Teespring Fixed
Teespring is running again after some major changes to their UI. You might need to reconnect with Airlock.
2021-01-06 - Teepublic Integration Down
Bad news here. Teepublic added some fairly extreme anti-bot measures that will probably block OrbitKit for the foreseeable future. We are investigating workarounds but do not have a timeline.
2021-01-05 - Tostadora
We've added support for publishing to Tostadora. Currently in beta status, you can publish apparel and masks to their US, UK, French and Italian sites. More info here.
2020-12-26 - Archetypes as Presets When Manually Exhibiting
This one is a little hard to explain but should be clear enough when you use the Manually Exhibit dialog. Instead of clicking each blueprint you want, you can pick an archetype which will select the relevant set of blueprints. Screenshot.
2020-12-23 - Hold Orders For Time Period
You can now specify a (venue- or blueprint-specific) time period to hold orders. If you want to give yourself a guaranteed two hour window to make changes, you can.
2020-12-22 - Order Editing, Cancelling, Holding
You can now edit (and cancel) orders in the OrbitKit UI. There is a narrow window of opportunity for this before orders are too far along in the print process. To extend that window, you can also hold orders by default. More documentation here.
2020-12-18 - Spreadshirt Auth Issues Resolved
Spreadshirt venues should once again work normally.
2020-12-10 - Long Sleeve Tees
Long-sleeved tees are now available for OrbitKit Fulfillment. Add them to your multi-product listings!
2020-12-06 - Archetype Cleared On Some Designs
We recently found a bug that allowed folks to manually exhibit designs that had an archetype. Those manual exhibits were at risk of being "cleaned up" at any time! To be safe, we've cleared the archetype of any designs in this state. If you'd like some expert help organizing your archetypes, reach out and we'll be happy to assist.
2020-12-03 - Significant SKU Changes - Important!
To ensure fast print times through the holidays, we are rolling out some significant changes to our product assortment (disabling hard-to-source colors, changing tee models). This doesn't require you to take action - we will sync listings - but please read the full announcement.
2020-12-02 - Shopify Setup Video
If you're looking for a little help getting set up with Shopify, here's a full walkthrough designed for the novice OrbitKit user.
2020-11-24 - Society6 Backgrounds
You are no longer limited to just white backgrounds at Society6! Create a blueprint with a dark background and sell on many more products. See the documentation here.
2020-11-11 - Etsy Shop Sections
We added more ways to determine what section your Etsy listings should be in, including the ability to infer it from your design's tags. Documentation.
2020-11-09 - Full Internationalization At Etsy
OrbitKit will now publish text in whatever languages you have enabled in your Etsy shop (and have stored at OrbitKit).
2020-11-07 - Keep Manually Uploaded Images At Etsy
There's a new sync option for Etsy: Ignore Manually Uploaded Images. This lets OrbitKit update mockup images while preserving mockups that you have uploaded by hand.
2020-11-04 Sync Profiles
You can now customize what parts of a listing are synchronized between OrbitKit and the POD platforms. If you want more manual control, this is for you!
2020-10-23 Custom Roles and Permissions
You can now create custom roles with limited permissions. More documentation here.
2020-10-19 Create Order API
You can create manual fulfillment orders via the API. More documentation here.
2020-10-13 Fulfillment Product Stock Levels
When configuring Etsy/Shopify blueprints, OrbitKit now shows you which colors are most thoroughly stocked and will have the fastest fulfillment times. More information here.
2020-10-10 Etsy Shop Section
You can configure the Shop Section for listings in your Etsy blueprints.
2020-10-09 Improved Multi-Product Etsy Listings
All sizes and colors can now be offered in multi-product listings at Etsy, and you can now customize how variations are shown. More explanation here.
2020-10-05 Multiple-Product Listings For Shopify & Etsy
Sell tshirts, hoodies, tanks, etc in a single listing! Documentation is here.
2020-09-19 Place Orders Manually
You can now place fulfillment orders manually. If you create a Manual Venue, your design library becomes a product catalog, complete with shopping cart! More documentation here.
2020-09-19 Search For "has tags"/"no tags"
Try searching for @TAG and !@TAG.
2020-09-19 Order Notes
You can attach private notes (for your benefit only) to Orders.
2020-09-14 Brief Fulfillment Delay
Due to intense wildfires and terrible air quality in the US pacific northwest, fulfillment was delayed for a couple days while the print team installed air scrubbers. Production has resumed and the backlog is gone.
2020-08-26 Etsy Shipping Profile
If you connect (or reconnect) your Etsy venue, OrbitKit will create a shipping profile that mirrors our shipping prices.
2020-08-17 Direct Etsy Integration
You can now use Etsy with OrbitKit Fulfillment. Documentation is here.
2020-08-06 Price Drop!
We dropped the price of OrbitKit Everywhere subscriptions. Starter is $29/mo, Pro is $59/mo. These will automatically take effect on your next billing.
2020-07-24 Expanded Developer API
Several new endpoints (venues, blueprints, exhibits) have been added to the OrbitKit Developer API.
2020-07-23 Download Your Artwork
If you'd like to bulk download your artwork to your computer, we provide a helpful tool to make that easier.
2020-07-21 Drag To Select
You can drag to rubber-band select designs instead of clicking checkboxes.
2020-06-23 Partial CSV Downloads
You can download CSV metadata for a subset of your designs by selecting those designs on the Designs page and clicking on the orange action button bottom right corner. Also, CSV generation is much faster, even for very large libraries.
2020-06-15 Searching and Sorting Fulfillment Orders
The fulfillment orders page now has filtering and sorting options just like designs and exhibits. For assistance, look for the help drawer icon '?' in the top right corner.
2020-06-09 Simple Tag Ordering
By popular demand, tag order is now design-specific rather than global to your organization. Reordering tags on one design will not affect other designs. Note that you must now explicitly order tags on all new designs uploaded to OrbitKit!
2020-05-28 Printful Mockup Styles
You can now configure the mockup style used when publishing Printful exhibits. There is a setting on the blueprint edit page.
2020-05-28 Fine Art America Background Color
For FAA blueprints, you can now choose the background color directly on the OrbitKit blueprint edit page. No more mucking with the blueprint listing's description.
2020-05-21 Language Sensitive UI
In the top-right corner of the OrbitKit window there is a language selector. If you switch it to (for example) german, the UI will display the german translations for your designs and searches will search the german text.
2020-05-19 Mockup Quality Options
For Shopify venues, you can now select high-quality PNG mockups or fast-loading JPG mockups. Check your venue detail page.
2020-05-06 Youth Tees
Youth tees are now available for OrbitKit Fulfillment. We have also added heather colors to most products.
2020-05-04 Faster Queue Processing
Since everyone is trying to sync their entire libraries to add face masks, we've seen some deep queues develop. We have rolled out major changes to ensure both faster processing and more "fair" prioritization.
2020-04-24 Shopify Shipping Profiles
You can now configure which shipping profile is used for products published to Shopify (OrbitKit Shipping Rates is now just one of the options). We've also significantly lowered international shipping prices to many popular worldwide locations!
2020-04-24 Face Masks
Redbubble and SpreadshirtEU have both released face masks. If you would like to update your listings, just enable them in your blueprint and re-sync the exhibits for that blueprint. Note: Due to the sudden rush, it might take a while to update everything. 2020-04-27: TeePublic too. 2020-04-30: Fine Art America too
2020-04-15 OrbitKit Fulfillment for Shopify Is Live!
You can now use OrbitKit Fulfillment to publish and sell products on Shopify. The documentation is here. Video walkthroughs coming soon!
2020-03-24 -- Favorite Tags
You can drag tags into the sidebar where they will remain bookmarked until you drag them off. Click on them to select those designs. Handy for quick access to your niches or other high level organizational tags.
2020-03-23 -- Private Tags
You can add tags that start with $. These tags are private to OrbitKit to help you organize your library. They are not published to venues. Eg, $topseller.
2020-01-17 -- Printful Credentials Reset
Printful reset everyone's "remember me", so all Printful venues need to be re-authenticated with Airlock.
2019-12-28 -- Spreadshirt Requires Airlock
Spreadshirt venues must be re-authenticated using the Airlock chrome extension (check for v1.0.14 or newer). We have paused all Spreadshirt venues and purged old credentials. Don't forget to unpause your venues after you run Airlock!
2019-11-01 -- TeePublic Product Scaling
We used to use TeePublic's default scaling for most products. Now we draw scaling instructions from the blueprint for all products except apparel. Apparel still seems to work best with TP's default positioning.
2019-10-20 -- TeePublic Is Running Full Speed
Your full quota should publish to TeePublic each day. Make sure your tag orders are as intended (especially the first tag for each design) and doublecheck the sizing for phone cases and pillows in your blueprints!
2019-10-05 -- TeePublic!
You can now publish to TeePublic with OrbitKit. Be sure to read the documentation.
2019-09-11 -- Text Templates for Designs and Blueprints
You can now put special tokens in your design titles & descriptions (eg {{title}}, {{tag0}}) and also create special templates for everything published with particular blueprints. Documentation is here.
2019-07-31 -- Multiple Sides for Printful
OrbitKit now handles blueprints with multiple print sides. See the documentation for how this works.
2019-07-22 -- New Video on Venues, Blueprints, and Exhibits
Struggling to understand OrbitKit's publishing model? Check out this new video.
2019-07-17 -- International Text In CSV Import/Export
CSV export and import now includes all languages, not just English.
2019-07-05 -- Redbubble Errors Fixed
Redbubble added a few new product types, which prevented you from creating new blueprints at OrbitKit. This has been fixed.
2019-06-21 -- Queue Position
You can now see WAITING exhibits' queue positions on the Exhibits page. Note that each platform has a separate queue, so you will see #1 several times (once for each platform).
2019-06-17 -- Sorting Designs & Exhibits
You can now sort the designs and exhibits listing pages.
2019-06-13 -- 'Mature' Designs
You can now flag designs as 'mature', which will change their publishing behavior on some POD platforms. More documentation here.
2019-06-06 -- Manager Roles
You can now restrict access of your Organization's users (eg VAs) by assigning them roles. More documentation here.
2019-05-30 -- Reauthenticate Printful with Airlock
Due to a change in Printful's auth system, you must re-authenticate your Printful venues using the Airlock chrome extension (just like Redbubble). You will need v1.0.10 or later of Airlock (Google should update you automatically).
2019-05-25 -- Printful Update
Printful integration is much improved. Mugs and two-layer items work, positioning is better. If you find any other issues, reach out.
2019-04-29 -- Printful Integration
You can publish to Printful stores. This is new and still somewhat experimental - please read the documentation carefully. P.S. Printify is coming soon too!
2019-04-17 -- Import From Redbubble
In addition to Spreadshirt, we can now import your library directly from Redbubble. Details on the Import/Export page.
2019-04-16 -- Reauthenticate Teespring with Airlock
Due to some changes at Teespring, you must reconnect your Teespring venues using the Airlock chrome extension (just like Redbubble). Sorry for the inconvenience!
2019-04-16 -- CafePress Reauthentication
CafePress just changed everyone's passwords. You'll need to create a new password at cafepress.com (log out, then log in again) and reauthenticate your CafePress venues. Then you can unpause them.
2019-04-03 -- Manually Edit Exhibits
OrbitKit now lets you mark exhibits to prevent their product assortment, colors, pricing, and positioning from being overwritten during an OrbitKit resync. More details here.
2019-03-28 -- Import From Spreadshirt
OrbitKit can now import your existing design library directly from Spreadshirt. Check out the Import/Export page for details. Coming soon: Redbubble!
2019-03-19 -- Teespring Rate Limiting
Teespring is applying low rate limits to some accounts (probably based on trust score). If you hit the limit, you may see a small warning timer on your OrbitKit venue while it cools off.
2019-03-12 -- Update to Redbubble Positioning
We found an issue with artwork positioning too high on some Redbubble products. We have corrected that issue and are re-synchronizing the affected exhibits. This may take 1-2 days.
2019-03-08 -- New Redbubble & CafePress Positioning
The Redbubble positioning logic is now much smarter -- we now automatically center artwork on square products, even if your images contain asymmetric transparent borders. CafePress got an IQ boost too - consider resynchronizing your RB and CafePress exhibits.
2019-03-04 -- Referrals: 20% Revenue Share!
We have added 20% recurring revenue to our referral program - and folks who sign up with your offer code get a special discount. If you like OrbitKit, let people know! Read the program details.
2019-02-05 -- Developer API
We've published the beginnings of a developer API. If you'd like to automate OrbitKit, check out the developer documentation.
2019-01-30 -- Design By Humans!
You can now publish your designs to Design By Humans. Integration notes are here. As usual with new integrations, keep an eye out for anything amiss.
2018-12-20 -- CafePress Sizing/Positioning
We rewrote the sizing & positioning logic for CafePress. If you didn't like how designs were positioned before, you can re-sync your exhibits and OrbitKit will reposition the artwork.
2018-12-14 -- Bulk Edit Enhancements
You can now use the bulk edit tool to change metadata for languages other than English. You can also now set the title of designs.
2018-12-06 -- Internationalized Text!
You can optionally specify the title, description, and tags for your designs in German, French, and Spanish. These will be published to platforms that support multiple languages. See the docs for more.
2018-12-06 -- Replace Artwork
You can now replace the artwork image of designs. This can be useful if you need to upscale an image. This will not sync to already-published exhibits, but you can destroy/recreate those exhibits.
2018-11-25 -- Society6!
You can now publish your designs to Society6. Integration notes are here. It's beta, so let us know if anything seems amiss.
2018-11-15 -- Referral Program!
Refer your friends to OrbitKit and get free service! We'll automatically credit you with the first month's payment of anyone you refer. See this link (or your Settings page) for details.
2018-11-14 -- Pause / Unpause Exhibits
You can now pause exhibits (in bulk or individually). Paused exhibits will not be published (if they were WAITING) or synchronized (if they were READY). OrbitKit leaves them alone.
2018-11-06 -- Zazzle Paused
Zazzle says it's going to be weeks before they can fix the integration. We're looking into workarounds but for now we're stuck. We really feel bad about this so we're also working overtime on a new integration that has been frequently requested...
2018-11-01 -- Lower Price Tier
To accommodate folks with smaller design libraries, we've added a $35/mo tier that publishes 5 designs/platform/day. Reach out in the in-app chat if you'd like to switch!
2018-10-29 -- New Teespring For Everyone
We have enabled the new launcher for everyone. The queues are running a little behind but they'll catch up over the next couple days. If your account had CAPTCHA problems with Teespring in the past, now is the time to try again!
2018-10-23 -- New Exhibit States
We simplified the states of an exhibit and exposed the UPDATING state when a published exhibit is re-syncing. The happy path state diagram now goes WAITING -> PUBLISHING -> READY -> UPDATING -> READY.
2018-10-22 -- Pausing/Unpausing Venues
You can pause and unpause your own venues on the venue detail page. This will stop related exhibits going from WAITING to PUBLISHING.
2018-10-22 -- Image Resolution
OrbitKit displays the pixel resolution of design images on the design detail page and the designs list view.
2018-10-08 -- Spreadshirt Fixed
The "Duplicated content" error that affected a small percentage of Spreadshirt exhibits has been fixed. We are slowly republishing any that were BROKEN due to this error; you don't need to do anything.
2018-10-06 -- Better Archetypes UX
We condensed the archetypes listing page so it's easier to see at a glance. You have the option of picking archetypes from the blueprint edit page.
2018-09-29 -- Archetypes
This is the biggest change to OrbitKit we have made since launch! Please watch the video introduction.
2018-09-19 -- New Exhibits Actions
New bulk actions on Exhibits page: "Re-synchronize these" and "Replace blueprint".
2018-09-18 -- Checkboxes for Exhibits
You can select individual exhibits for actions on the Exhibits page. Works exactly the same way the Designs page works!
2018-09-13 -- Private notes
You can attach notes to designs for your own private bookkeeping purposes. This data is not sent to the PODs.
2018-09-12 -- Export, then import
We've completely revised the Import/Export process. You can now export all of your design metadata, bulk edit it in a spreadsheet, and upload it back into OrbitKit. This also allows you to make backups of your metadata.
2018-09-06 -- Twice the Spreadshirt!
We have split Spreadshirt into two separate platforms, North America and Europe. This means each gets a full quota of exhibits!
2018-09-05 -- Delete designs
You can now delete designs in bulk from the floating menu on the Designs page.
2018-08-30 -- Checkboxes!
You can select just a couple designs at a time for bulk operations. By default everything that matches the search is selected; if you manually check some designs, only they will be selected.
2018-08-26 -- New search help
Try the little help icon to the right of the search bar on the Designs and Exhibits pages. It will help you formulate queries such as searching by blueprint or by exhibit state.
2018-08-23 -- New exhibits page
Check out the new Exhibits page (or just click on one of the now-hotlinked numbers in the Exhibit Statistics card below). You can select exhibits by searching and move them to the front of the WAITING queue, re-enqueue BROKEN exhibits, shuffle priorities, and delete in bulk.
2018-07-07 -- Zazzle is now available!
This integration is more complicated than most, so
please read the guide carefully