This article takes you through the basics of creating your first live image.
Creating a Live Image
To create your first image select ‘New Image’ from the navigation, accessed from any screen by clicking in the hamburger symbol top left next.
You now need to enter the following details:
Name
Use something memorable to identify this image later
Data Source
Select from the list your desired data source including Personalised Images, Twitter, Instagram, Custom Data Feeds, Location, Weather and more.
Template
The final option is to choose how to create the image:
Template
Data sources with a template are a read-made image you can customise, ideal for playng around with Reignite for the first time.
Background Image
If you have a design in mind you can create from a background image either loaded from a file or specifying a URL. The canvas will then be created to the exact dimensions of the image and you can add any additional content and merge fields to the image.
Empty Canvas
If you prefer to create from scratch select this option and an empty canvas will be created.
Working with the Canvas Editor
The Canvas Editor is a similar experience to using Photoshop. You add layers of objects, and can move them around, rotate, resize and change the ordering. All elements can be formatted using shadows, borders, colours and transparency amongst other options.
Any edits you make are automatically saved – there is no save button.
Settings Panel
The first thing to do when creating a new image is to adjust the settings in this panel.
Image Name
This is the name of the image you can change at anytime.
Labels
Labels are handy words you can assign to the image to help you search for it later. Use the enter key to save each label and add as many as you wish.
Lock
Once you have finished editing the campaign and you are ready to send an email using this image we recommend locking the campaign from further changes to prevent accidental edits as these will show immediately in any images viewed by your customers.
Canvas Panel
Choose canvas size
The width and height of the canvas is set in pixels. You can change this at anytime. Changing the width will add or crop the canvas on the right hand side, while changing the height will add or crop from the bottom of the canvas.
The width of the canvas should be the same as the desired width of the image in your HTML email template.
Background Colour
Choose a hex colour using the picker or by entering a value here. The background colour will now change. If you have a background image covering the entire canvas you won’t see the background colour.
Links & Fallback Panel
Link
Enter the URL where you would like to take anyone clicking on the image. Use the jigsaw piece to add merge tags from the data source into the URL.
Fallback Link
If you have added any merge tags to the above link, and in the event these merge fields are all empty then you can specify a fixed URL to take the clicking customer to. This prevents any unwelcome 404’s of broken links.
Fallback Image
In the event the data source returns no data you can specify a different image to show.
Preview Panel
In order to allow you to see a real-life version of the image populated with data while editing you can enter values here. This is also useful for seeing what the image will look like for different people.
The preview data will only pull through in the canvas when the switch at the top of the page is in preview rather than edit mode.
Each data source will have a different set of preview options. Refer to each individual data sources guide to understand what each of the options do.
The values you enter here don’t have to be what you use in your final email. When you create the tags to drop in the email you have the opportunity to change this and add any dynamic values like merge tag syntax from your email marketing platform.
Add elements
Now we have configured our canvas and have entered some preview values we can start editing and customising the image by adding elements.
To add different elements click on the red plus button which presents you with 3 types of elements:
Text
This adds a text box where you can enter both static text that everyone will see but also merge fields. Text can be formatted just like in any graphics or word processing tool using the formatting options at the bottom of the page.
Image
You can add static images from loading a file or providing a URL, or dynamic images that use merge tags from the images data source to pull in different images. For example if you are building a product image from a data source of products you could specify the image URL field and everyone will see different images for different products.
Read our separate guide on inserting images.
Shapes
Reignite has a number of pre-configured shapes you can add to the canvas. These are useful for creating buttons, roundels or other simple graphic elements you can then customise the size, position, colour, shadow, border, transparency and rotate as desired using the formatting toolbar.
Editing Layers
Once you have added any of these objects you can move them around your canvas by dragging with your mouse, or by using the arrow keys for finer precision.
Resizing them is achieved by clicking and dragging any of the boxes on the blue border of the object. To maintain the aspect ratio of the object drag from the diagonal corners and the height and width will be resized in proportion.
Each layer can also be rotated by clicking on the square above the layer and dragging it accordingly.
Each object added is created as a layer in a similar way to how Photoshop operates. Right clicking on the layer on the canvas or in the layers panel presents a menu. These options are:
Insert merge field
On text layers this allows you to insert merge tags to show fields from your data source.
Forward & Backward
Layers can overlap and sit on top of others. To alter a layers position in the stack use these options to send them forward or backward. Alternatively you can drag the layer from the right hand menu to the desired position.
Centre
You can drag layers off the canvas area so if you lose one in doing this use this option and it will be brought back to the centre of the canvas.
Rename
You can rename layers so it is easier to find in the list of layers
Duplicate
Use this option to create a copy of the layer
Delete
This will delete the layer. Alternatively you can use your delete button on the keyboard. If you accidentally delete a layer use the undo button to restore it.
Crop to Fit
For dynamic images there are 2 ways these can be resized to fit your image box. Read more about this in our guide to adding images.
Formatting Options
At the bottom of the canvas there are a number of format options for the layer you have selected. These are broken into 5 tabs and contain the following:
Changing the Canvas
Above the formatting menu at the bottom of the canvas are useful options:
Undo & Redo: You can undo any mistakes with this button, and then choose to redo them again if required.
Zoom: To get a closer look at the canvas you can zoom in for precision work. To get back to the actual size of the canvas move marker to the very left again.
Edit & Preview Mode:
By default the canvas is set to edit mode which allows you to add any objects and make any edits you require.
However, this will not show merge tags and dynamic images will show the preview image you specified.
To see how the image looks with real data based upon the data returned from your preview values we can go into preview mode using the switch at the top of the canvas.
Here you can see the canvas using live data. You can also make some edits in preview mode. You cannot add any new objects or edit text in preview mode, but you can move layers and change any formatting, including on dynamic elements. This allows you to easily craft your design with real data.
To see how the image will look with different data simply change the values in the preview menu.
Simply switch back to edit to make any further changes.
Generate Tags
To get the code to add to your email template click on this button and configure the tags. Read our guide on this.
