Online Designer FAQs

The Atomic Online Designer is a browser-based design platform that allows you to design your album artwork and merch without having to hire a designer, learning how to use a complicated 3rd party software such as Adobe Illustrator, or getting subpar results from another online designer. The Atomic Online Designer has been optimized for our packaging, our press, and our standards of quality, meaning you don't have to worry about the details - simply add your content and your design will be automagically exported with the perfect settings to ensure a quality print worthy of your music.

Once you place an order you will get an email with your order number and a link to the online designer. When opening the design tool it will automatically load the template for what you ordered, as long as your package style is currently available on the Atomic Disc online designer.

No, you can place your order and select the "Start Now - Pay Later" payment option in the checkout section. Then you'll get access to the designer. We will email you an invoice that needs to be paid before we can ship your order.

You can use the Atomic Online Designer to layout your images, artwork and text - and to send your print-ready designs directly to us.

No. When using the Atomic Online Designer, a cookie will be installed in your browser that will automagically save your design for 30 days. If you need to work on it at different times, please go back to order confirmation email that was sent to you when you placed your order. By clicking that link again, it will populate your in-progress design.

Please note, that this will only work on one computer and one browser. So for instance if you start designing on your MacBook Air in Safari, trying to open it up later using Chrome, will not load your progress.

The Atomic Online Designer can currently be used for the following package styles: horizontal styled Jackets &Atomic eco-packs™, Wallet Lites™, Digipack Lites™, Inserts and Posters. More templates are coming soon.

If the Atomic Online Designer does not support your package style, you will not be able to use it for the time being. You will need to continue to prepare your artwork as before, and submitting your print-ready files and following through our proofing process. Start by downloading the templates from the product page you ordered from. You will also find a Guide for setting up your graphics in your template download. And like always, if you have any questions about preparing files, give us a call at (503) 610-2929!

We hope to expand accessibility to all packaging styles, and in order to maintain the sort of quality you have come to love and expect from us here at Atomic, we are pushing the Atomic Online Designer out in phases. This allows for feedback from you guys so we can ensure that the quality is what we all expect, and giving ourselves the dedicated time to getting it done the right way, not right away.

When you submit your design, it goes straight to our approval queue. At the beginning of every business day, we review all designs that have come in, update barcodes as applicable and set them up in the production queue. Once the order is printed, assembled and packed up, it will be sent to you per the delivery instructions when you made your order. At this time, you will receive an email with your tracking number.

Nope - all you need is your web-browser of choice. The Atomic Online Designer is completely web-based and so you will not need to download anything in order to use it. You may choose to use another platform or program to refine or edit individual images, but it is not required.

The proofing process using our Atomic Online Designer is WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get. We give you the tools to craft your design so that when you are done, you are able to review your work on screen before you submit it. Once you submit it, we take the files, preflight, and print. There is no lengthy email proofing process.

Please keep in mind that color appearance can differ between your screen and the finished printed product. If this is of great concern you can call us at (503) 610-2929 or email production@atomicdisc.com to request a printed proof at an additional charge.

You absolutely can. When adding an image, you are given the option to either use royalty free, high resolution images from Pexels or vector icons from Iconfinder, and uploading your own images.

If you choose to upload your own image you acknowledge that you have full legal rights to use the images you upload.

Keep in mind that we still expect your images to have high enough resolution, and any RGB colors will be converted to CMYK in our export and optimization process. Thankfully, since the Atomic Online Designer is WYSIWYG we have CMYK Preview enabled on review, and any images that are suspected to produce a lower image quality will give you a warning message.

Please keep in mind that colors can appear different on your screen than on the printed physical product. If perfect color match is of paramount importance to you we advice that you call us at (503) 610-2929 or email production@atomicdisc.com to request a printed proof. Printed proofs has an additional charge.

Nope! I mean, you can try. But the Atomic Online Designer is set up to automagically convert any RGB colors spaces to CMYK, which may result in a color shift - especially for super bright, neon-like colors.

The lines that you see when the Atomic Online Designer loads into your browser are called the template lines. They indicate where your images must extend to (the BLEED line), where we will CUT (line) or FOLD (line), and SAFETY (line) which indicates that all text and important elements should stay within these.

The Atomic Online Designer has masks, which help to indicate bleed - this will not print. For the Digipack Lite™ 4 Panel w/ Pockets & Wallet Lites™ you will also see a PRINT MASK on the inside panels. No ink can be printed in these areas, as this is where we glue, fold and assemble these full coverage packaging options.

If you submit your design by 3PM PST, your order will be added to our production queue the following business day. From there, standard production times apply and will depend on which product you've ordered and the options you've selected.

Remember that if you ordered CDs, DVD, or Vinyl, you will also need to upload your audio or video files by following the instructions in your order confirmation email. Failure to do so will naturally delay the production schedule.

NO - ensure your design is completed before you submit. There is no proofing process other than your eyes. Upon hitting the "ALL DONE - SEND TO PRINT" button, your designs will load in a proof page. You can zoom in on each image by clicking on it. You will be asked to review and proofread your design, and confirm it is done before submitting it completely.

Nope, but you can. Our Atomic Online Designer has everything you need to find images, layout your text with a ton of free assets available to you. However, it is not a photo-editor, so we recommend using a photo editor if you would like to retouch or add filters to your photos before you bring them into the Atomic Online Designer.