Recipes: your price formulas
Every recipe setting in Print Price Engine, covering ingredients, markup, wastage, rounding, preset sizes, dimension limits, cut shapes, and product assignment.
A recipe is the complete price formula for a product type: which ingredients go in, what margin you take, what sizes customers may order, and which products it powers.
The pricing controls#
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | The ingredients in this product, each with a quantity |
| Markup | Multiplier on variable (material) costs: 1.5 = 50% margin on materials. Fixed costs pass through at cost |
| Rounding | Optional price ending, e.g. 0.99 turns $12.37 into $12.99. Without it, prices round up to the cent |
| Wastage buffer | Extra material allowed per job, added to each dimension before the area is costed |
| Discount rule set | Optional link to a volume discount tier set |
The size controls#
- Preset sizes: one-click size tiles (e.g. "A4, 21 × 29.7 cm"), shown as a grid or list
- Allow custom sizes: let customers type their own width × height
- Min/max width and height: hard bounds; the calculator won't quote outside them
- Quantity style: quantity as tap-tiles or a stepper input
- Dimensions use your global unit (mm, cm, inch, or foot), set once in Settings
Production settings#
For die-cut products, recipes also carry production metadata that rides along to the order:
- Cut shape: Rectangle, Square, Circle, or Oval
- Corner radius and bleed (default 2 mm)
- Media background: Clear, White, or Holographic
Extras#
- Custom options: dropdowns, radios, or priced text fields; see Options and artwork uploads
- Artwork upload: toggle the drag-and-drop upload field per recipe
Assigning recipes to products#
Two mechanisms, mixable:
- Manual assignment: pick specific products (or single variants, so "Matte" and "Gloss" variants can carry different recipes).
- Collection link: link the recipe to a Shopify collection and every product in it is covered; the link stays in sync automatically as products join or leave the collection.
Products without any recipe simply show standard Shopify pricing, and the calculator stays hidden.
Most print shops need surprisingly few recipes: one per process (vinyl stickers, banners, canvas), not one per product. Assign each recipe to a collection and new products price themselves the moment you add them to the collection.
Related guides#
- The storefront calculator for what customers see per recipe
- Getting started for a first recipe walkthrough
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