What is Live Preview?

Live Preview uses digital technology to simulate how your sticker or label will look once printed. You’ll see how your design interacts with different materials and finishes — from shiny holographic to transparent and kraft paper.

Think of it as trying out your design on a virtual sticker, before it’s made.

A white layer (sometimes called a mask) is a layer of white ink printed under your design. It blocks the material effect when you want solid colors.

In the Editor, you control this in the Material effect bar. That’s where you decide if your colors should:

• Stay solid (with white under)

• Take on the effect of the material (color + material combined)

• Disappear completely, leaving only the raw material

Let’s say you have this design of a penguin holding a banana.

• If you apply no white layer, the banana and penguin will both take on the glitter effect.

• If you apply a white layer only under the penguin’s body, it will print solid, while the banana keeps the material (Glitter) shine.

You can also create partial white layers for softer or semi-transparent results. Our print experts fine-tune these levels for the best outcome, so you don’t need to think about exact percentages.

In other words:

• Material effects = what you see and set in the Editor

• White layers = the technical print setup behind the scenes

When your design loads, up to eight colors from your artwork appear in the Material effect bar below your file.

• By default, all colors are set to No effect.

• To change, click a color in the effect bar and choose one of three options:

  • No effect → Color is printed solid.

  • Color effect → Color blends with the material.

  • Full effect → Color is removed and only the pure material shows.

Other tools in the bar:

• Invert → Reverses the color effects.

• Reset → Returns everything to default.

• Light/Dark mode → Test against different backgrounds to see your sticker pop.

Yes!

• You can always leave comments for our print experts with special requests (e.g., where to apply white, what opacity levels you want).

• If you’ve already included your own white layers in your uploaded file, we can detect them. Live Preview won’t display them in version 1.0 yet, but we’ll add that in a future update.

Live Preview groups similar colors together. For example, in this penguin design, it might apply the same material effect to all the orange/red areas — like the beak and feet.

If you only want some of those areas to have a material effect (for example, keeping the beak solid but letting the feet shine), just leave us a comment. Our team will make sure it’s set up exactly how you want before printing.

Currently available on desktop for:

• Die Cut

• Labels on Roll

• Heavy Duty

• Hang Tags

• Front Adhesive

• Epoxy 3D

• Floor Stickers

• Wall Stickers

• Removable

• Singles on Sheets

Not yet available for:

• Kiss Cut

• Sticker Sheets

• UV DTF Transfer Stickers

• Heat Transfers

We’re working on Live Preview 2.0 to support all products, plus mobile and tablet. Stay tuned!

No stress. If you’re not sure how to prepare your file or where to add white layers, just leave us a comment in the Editor. Our team will double-check and make sure everything is set up perfectly before printing.