Why have my custom decoration areas moved?

When a product image is updated, the visual representation of the product itself is modified, often to reflect changes such as improved photography, or new versions of the product. To understand why decoration areas appear to shift when product images are updated, it’s important to grasp the relationship between the product images and the custom decoration areas applied to them.

Here's an explanation of what is happening:

Product Image vs. Custom Decoration Areas

• Product Image: This is the image of a particular view of the product that you see in the catalog. It may undergo changes over time to reflect the most accurate or appealing representation of the product. These updates might include resizing, cropping, or repositioning the product image to better fit design standards or display preferences.
• Custom Decoration Areas: These are the regions on the product where customers can apply custom designs, logos, or other graphical elements. You set these areas based on a fixed reference to the original product image, but the decoration areas themselves are not tied to the product image in a dynamic way.

Why Custom Areas Don’t Adjust Automatically

When you create custom decoration areas, these areas are defined as specific regions on the product image. However, they are static in relation to the original product image. This means that when the catalog product image is updated, the decoration areas remain in their original positions, referencing the old image layout.

If the updated product image is altered in any way (e.g., a change in position, crop, zoom, or rotation), the original placement of the custom decoration areas may no longer align properly with the new product image.

For example:

• If the product image is positioned or cropped differently, the decoration areas that were previously aligned with the original product may appear misaligned or scaled incorrectly.
• Similarly, if the new image has a different orientation, it might make the decoration areas seem out of place, even though they are technically in the same relative position.

The Impact of Catalog Updates and Manual Product Image Changes on Custom Areas

Since the custom decoration areas are positioned relative to the original product image, and not tied to the underlying product data, they can appear to "move" or "shift" when the product image changes. This is because the reference points for these decoration areas might now correspond to different parts of the updated image.

A warning message in the interface will inform you that, when switching to custom areas, these areas will no longer automatically adapt if the product image changes. As a result, you may need to manually adjust the custom areas to restore proper alignment or scaling after a product image update.

How This Can Be Addressed

• Manual Adjustments: After a catalog update or a manual update to a product image, you may need to manually reposition or resize the custom decoration areas to align with the new image. This involves visually checking the placement of decoration areas and adjusting their boundaries to fit the updated product.
• Consideration of Product Image Changes: following catalog or product image updates, it’s a good practice to check the product updates for any changes to images that might affect the alignment of custom decoration areas.