Getting started with Print Price Engine

The app's dashboard walks you through a five-step Get set up checklist, and this guide follows it end to end, including building your first ingredient and recipe along the way. Budget fifteen minutes to your first live calculator.

Step 1: Install and grant permissions#

Install the app from the Shopify App Store and approve the requested access. The dashboard opens on the checklist with Permissions already ticked; the remaining steps are covered below.

Step 2: Create your ingredients#

Ingredients are your raw costs. Open Product Ingredients > Add Product Ingredient:

1. Name it (e.g. "3M Vinyl Roll") and pick a type: Media, Ink, Labor, Laminate, or Finish.
2. Enter what it costs you and choose the cost unit: per roll, per sheet, per metre, per m²/ft²/cm², per litre, per hour, or fixed per item / per order.
3. For roll media, add the roll's width and length. The engine derives the per-area cost automatically.

A typical print shop starts with two or three: the media itself, a laminate, and a labour rate.

Full detail on every cost unit in Ingredients and cost units.

Step 3: Build your first recipe#

A recipe is the price formula for a product type. Open Product Recipes > New recipe. The first question is how to assign it: Single product (with optional variant) or Whole collection, so the recipe automatically applies to every product in it.

Once assigned, the recipe editor opens with the assignment at the top and three tabs: Form, Pricing, and Preview.

The Pricing tab#

This is where the maths lives:

1. Add your ingredients with quantities (vinyl + laminate, for example).
2. Add preset sizes for one-click choices, and tick Allow Custom Dimensions so customers can enter their own width and height, with optional min/max bounds.
3. Pick your quantity options: link a discount rule set for volume pricing, or list quantities manually.
4. Set your markup multiplier (e.g. 2.5 means cost × 2.5) and an optional wastage buffer per side.

The same tab also holds the storefront toggles: itemised cost breakdowns, Allow File Uploads for customer artwork, the artwork positioner, and the Canvas Design Studio hand-off if you run both apps.

As you build, the panel at the bottom shows your live cost per square centimetre, price, and profit margin, so you can sanity-check the formula before a customer ever sees it. Click Save Logic when you're happy.

The Form tab#

The Form tab controls what the customer actually sees: size and quantity selectors, the artwork upload, and any extra blocks you add (dropdowns, swatches, checkboxes, text fields and more), each with its own label, help text, and conditional visibility.

The Preview tab#

Preview runs the real storefront calculator against your draft recipe, so you can click through sizes and watch the price respond without leaving the admin.

Step 4: Activate the engine#

Back on the dashboard, click Activate engine. This registers the cart transform function with Shopify: the piece that applies your calculated price at checkout. Without it the calculator can quote, but checkout would charge the product's base price, so the app won't let you skip this.

Step 5: Add the app to your theme#

This step has two halves, both launched from the checklist:

1. Click Open theme editor, open a product page template, and add the Price Calculator app block where you want the form to appear. It only renders on products that have a recipe assigned, so it's safe to add globally.

1. In the theme editor's App embeds panel, switch on the Cart Price Enforcer embed, then save. It keeps cart prices honest if a customer edits quantities after configuring.

The checklist verifies both automatically; once it can see the block in your published theme it flips to "Calculator detected".

Step 6: Custom reorder and a plan#

Two housekeeping steps finish the checklist. Set up custom reorder gives customer accounts a Reorder action that preserves custom sizes and artwork; the checklist links you to checkout settings to disable Shopify's native Buy Again so customers don't bypass it. Then choose a plan: see Plans and billing for what each tier includes.

Step 7: Test it on your storefront#

Open a product with a recipe assigned. Pick a preset size or enter custom dimensions, upload artwork, and watch the price update as you go.

Add it to the cart and check the result: the line item carries your calculated price, with the width, height, and artwork stored as properties, and they follow the order through checkout and into the order details.