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Four steps, and only the first one is a one-off. Upload a PSD template, give it artwork, pick which frames to render, and collect the ZIP. Nothing is published anywhere until you choose to publish it.

1. Frames → upload the PSD template you own. PSDmate finds the Smart Object layer itself.
2. Generate → upload your artwork file, or type a prompt and let the AI draw it.
3. Tick the frames you want and press Generate.
4. History → download the ZIP when the run finishes.

Not to render. PSDmate reads the Smart Object layer server-side and applies your artwork through the template's own transform, so nothing is installed on your machine. You only need an editor to build or repair a template — and there is a free Photopea editor built into the Projects page for that.

You bring your own — bought from Creative Market, Envato or Etsy, or shot yourself. That is deliberate rather than a gap: templates from a shared library show up in thousands of other shops, and identical scenes sitting side by side on an Etsy search page cost you the click.

Five mockup renders a month and no AI image generations. The free plan opens the dashboard home, Generate, Frames, Projects, History and Settings. Bulk runs, Etsy publishing, video, finance and research are paid features — opening one of those pages sends you back to the dashboard rather than showing a broken screen.

A normal run of 8–10 frames finishes in roughly 2–5 minutes. A full bulk run — up to 50 artworks against every frame — usually takes 15–40 minutes depending on queue load and how heavy the PSDs are. A live progress grid shows each frame as it completes.

Yes. Rendering happens on the server, not in your browser. Close the tab, shut the laptop, come back later — the run carries on and the results wait for you in History.

Probably not. The render server sleeps when nobody is using it and takes about a minute to wake up, so the first job after a quiet spell sits at "queued" longer than the rest. If a job is still queued after 15 minutes, that is worth reporting.

Every run is saved to History with its ZIP, the original artwork, and the frames it used. You can re-download the ZIP at any time, or send the same artwork back through frames you have added since.

One embedded Smart Object acting as the artwork slot. That is the whole requirement. PSDmate reads the slot's own transform — its scale, rotation and warp — so your design lands in the scene the way the template author intended.

PSDmate walked the layer tree and found nothing it could safely treat as the artwork slot. Almost always this is a linked Smart Object rather than an embedded one, or a flattened template with no Smart Object at all.

1. Open the PSD in Projects (or Photoshop) and check the artwork layer really is a Smart Object, not a flattened raster.
2. If it is linked to an external file, convert it: Layer → Smart Objects → Convert to Embedded. Linked Smart Objects cannot be read server-side.
3. Rename the slot layer to one of the names PSDmate recognises — artwork, design, placeholder, input, poster, print, smart object or your design.
4. Re-upload. If it still fails, send us the file and we will look at the layer tree.

Up to 500 MB per file, ten files per upload batch. Uploads go straight to storage through a signed URL rather than through the app, so a large file will not time out on the way. If you drop more than ten in at once, the first ten upload and the rest are skipped with a message.

That template stores its background photograph as a Smart Object too, so there were two candidates and the wrong one won. It is common in flat "frame pack" PSDs. PSDmate now spots a full-canvas placed layer and retargets away from it, but a template with an unusual layer tree can still confuse it.

1. Open the PSD and rename the layer you actually want filled to "artwork".
2. Re-upload the template — the name takes priority over everything else.

A confirmed Smart Object beats a name-only match, and among equals the recognised names win in order: input, magic, artwork, placeholder, design, smart object, your design, poster, print. If several are still tied, PSDmate uses the first and logs a warning. Renaming the one you want to "artwork" settles it for good.

Yes. The Projects page has a Photopea editor embedded in it — a free browser Photoshop clone. Renaming a stubborn Smart Object layer or re-embedding a linked one takes about a minute there, and you never leave PSDmate.

No. A template is uploaded once and becomes a reusable frame. Every design you ever make can be pushed through it. Group frames into a layout and one run produces every size and scene variation of a design at once.

Not on its own — that is the template, not the renderer. Realistic fabric needs a displacement map baked into the PSD so the print follows the folds; ceramics need a cylindrical warp; canvas needs the wrapped edge. PSDmate applies whatever transform the Smart Object carries, so a template built with displacement renders with displacement. When buying templates, that is the thing to check.

Specificity in five places. A prompt that names the subject, the style, the palette, the composition and the background gives the model almost nothing left to guess at. A prompt that names only the subject leaves it guessing at four things, and it will guess differently every time — which is why runs feel inconsistent.

1. Subject — what is in the picture: "a red fox, side profile".
2. Style — how it is drawn: "minimalist line art", "1950s travel poster", "loose watercolour".
3. Palette — the colours you want to sell: "cream, charcoal, muted terracotta".
4. Composition — where things sit: "centred, generous negative space, full-bleed".
5. Exclusions — what must not appear: "no text, no watermark, no border".

Weak: "fox poster". Strong: "A1 poster, minimalist line-art red fox in side profile, cream background, thin charcoal strokes, generous negative space, muted terracotta accent, full-bleed, no text, no watermark, no border." The second one is repeatable — run it ten times and you get ten pieces that belong in the same collection.

Image models cannot spell. They have learned that posters usually carry lettering, so they produce letter-shaped noise unless told not to. Add "no text, no watermark, no border" to the end of every prompt. PSDmate's prompt expander already asks for full-bleed, print-ready artwork with no text — but a prompt of your own that mentions a "poster" or a "sign" will invite lettering straight back in.

No. Free FLUX models are built in and need no key at all — they are the default. Adding your own key in Settings unlocks the paid models (fal.ai, Gemini, OpenRouter and others) at their cost with no markup on top. Keys are encrypted at rest and only ever used for jobs you start.

The allowance meters generations, not spend — the server time is ours either way. Free plan 0 AI images, Starter 10, Pro 40, Studio 150 per month. Mockup renders are metered separately, so generating artwork does not eat into your render allowance or the other way round.

PSDmate moves down its chain of free models rather than giving up on the first refusal, and takes a second pass after a short pause if the whole first pass was rate-limited. A busy model costs you a few seconds, not the run. If genuinely every free model is busy you will get a plain-English message telling you to wait a few minutes — not raw provider JSON.

Yes — pick an image-to-image model such as FLUX Kontext or FLUX Dev img2img on the Generate page and attach your reference. Those are paid models, so they need your own fal.ai key in Settings. You can also point the prompt at just one aspect of the reference, for example "focus on the animal, ignore the background".

Yes. Save it as a prompt template on the Generate page with a name like "Vintage Travel Poster", then apply it to any new subject. That is how a collection stays visually consistent across thirty designs instead of drifting.

Bigger than the slot it lands in. Outputs come out at 3000px and up, so artwork smaller than the Smart Object gets upscaled and softens. PNG, JPG and WebP are all accepted. If you are selling printables, run the file through the free DPI checker before you list it.

It is, and the error is lying to you. Photoshop, Firefly and Lightroom attach Content Credentials to exports, and inside that data sits a small SVG preview which the image decoder finds and mistakes for the real file. PSDmate now strips that data and retries automatically, so this should heal itself. If a file still fails, re-export it with Content Credentials turned off, or open and re-save it in Photopea.

One frame rendered. One artwork across eight frames is eight mockups. Allowances are Free 5, Starter 100, Pro 500 and Studio 2500 a month. The count is taken when the job is accepted, so a frame that fails to enqueue is not charged to you.

Bulk is a Pro feature. Pro takes 15 artworks per run, Studio takes 50. On Starter and Free you can still render one artwork against every frame you own — bulk changes how many artworks go in at once, not how many frames come out.

No. Items are rendered independently, so a failure is contained to that frame or that artwork. The failed item shows its error message in the run and can be re-rendered on its own; everything that succeeded is already in your ZIP.

The first job after an idle period waits for the render server to wake, which takes about a minute. After that, jobs queue behind other jobs — a heavy bulk run ahead of you is the usual explanation. Past 15 minutes with no movement, email us the approximate time you started it and we will look at the worker logs.

Yes — Cancel run on the Bulk page. It stops the run and deletes the mockups it generated, but keeps the posters you uploaded, so you can fix the settings and start again without re-uploading anything.

No watermark on any plan, including free. Outputs are full-resolution PNGs at 3000px and up, delivered as a single ZIP per run.

That is one of the better habits available to you. Open the run in History, keep the artwork, pick your new frames, and generate again. Old designs in new scenes are the cheapest new listings you will ever make.

Yes — outputs follow the order of the frames in your layout, and that order carries through to the images attached to an Etsy listing. Drag frames into the order you want buyers to see before you render, rather than reordering images in Etsy afterwards.

Settings → Connected Apps → Connect Etsy Shop. Etsy's own consent screen opens and asks whether you want to let PSDmate create listings for you. Your Etsy password is never seen by us; the token that comes back is encrypted at rest and only used for actions you trigger.

No. Every listing PSDmate creates is a draft. Drafts do not appear to buyers, do not cost a listing fee, and stay put until you activate them in Etsy. If you publish thirty listings and hate all thirty, nothing has happened to your shop.

A vision model reads the actual rendered mockup image — the scene, the colours, the room it is hanging in — and writes a title, a description and all 13 tags from what it can see. That is why the copy describes your image rather than reading like a filled-in template. Review and edit it in the Queue before publishing.

The free listing-copy models were all busy at once, which happens when a big run fires many items at the same moment. Nothing is wrong with your account, your shop or your images.

1. Wait a few minutes and publish the run again — items already published are skipped, so nothing duplicates.
2. To stop it recurring, turn on "Use my OpenRouter credits" in Settings.
3. Or add a Gemini API key in Settings as a fallback — it takes over whenever the free models are busy.

Etsy limits how many requests any app may make per second, and a large publish or a big listings refresh can touch it. It is transient and it is not a penalty against your shop — wait a moment and retry. If it happens on every attempt, tell us what you were doing at the time.

Yes, and you should. Re-running skips the items that already reached Etsy and picks up only the ones that did not, so a run that got 30 of 50 listings out finishes the remaining 20 without creating duplicates.

Etsy access tokens expire, and a shop owner can also revoke access from Etsy's side. Reconnecting takes seconds: Settings → Connected Apps → Connect Etsy Shop again. Nothing in PSDmate is lost when the connection lapses — only live shop actions pause.

Listings already created live in Etsy and belong to you — they are unaffected. Disconnecting only stops PSDmate reading your sales and creating new drafts. Your mockups, frames and history stay in PSDmate until you delete them.

Yes. Generate a slideshow video from the run's mockups and it is attached to the listing along with the images. Listings with video hold attention longer, which is worth the extra minute on your hero designs at least.

A 1080 × 1080 MP4 at 30fps, around ten seconds, with fade transitions between your mockups. It comes in under 15 MB — comfortably inside Etsy's 100 MB limit — and needs no editing software or skills at your end.

Yes — pick the track, the transition and the slide order on the Video page, and save the combination as a preset so every listing in a collection moves the same way. Presets you save are available on the Generate page too.

Video is a Pro feature, along with bulk runs, finance and the AI listing tools. Starter covers exports, Etsy publishing and niche research.

Free: 5 mockups a month, no AI images, no bulk. Starter ($19/month, £15): 100 mockups, 10 AI images, exports, Etsy publishing, niche research. Pro ($32/month, £25): 500 mockups, 40 AI images, bulk runs up to 15 per run, video, finance, AI listing copy, integrations. Studio ($63/month, £50): 2500 mockups, 150 AI images, bulk up to 50 per run. Paying annually costs ten months rather than twelve.

On paid plans it follows your billing period, not the calendar — so upgrading mid-month resets against your invoice date rather than handing you a second free allowance. On the free plan it resets on the first of the calendar month.

You have used your monthly allowance of that thing — renders and AI images are counted separately. The counter clears at the start of your next period, or you can move up a tier for a bigger allowance. Nothing you have already made is affected.

No, and the difference matters. "Limit reached" means you have used up an allowance you do have. "Upgrade to unlock" means your plan does not include that feature at all — bulk, video, finance and the AI listing tools are Pro and above. The first one fixes itself next month; the second one does not.

That page is not in your plan. The free plan reaches the dashboard home, Generate, Frames, Projects, History and Settings. Rather than showing you a screen full of locked buttons, PSDmate returns you to a page you can use.

Yes — there is a referral scheme in Settings with a link that is yours. Share it and referrals are attributed to you when someone signs up through it. The scheme is reachable on the free plan too.

Cancel any time from your account settings; your plan runs to the end of the period you have paid for. Payments are final and we do not offer refunds except where the law requires it — the Terms set this out in full. If you cannot find the cancel option, email us and we will do it for you.

Only you. Templates, artwork, outputs and runs are scoped to your account at the database level, not just hidden in the interface. Nothing you upload is added to a shared library or shown to other sellers.

Encrypted at rest, and used only for jobs you start. We never see your Etsy password — the connection is OAuth, so Etsy holds the credentials and hands us a revocable token. You can revoke it from Etsy at any time, or disconnect from Connected Apps.

Email PSDmate@proton.me with the subject "Delete my account". Everything is removed within 30 days. Listings already created in your Etsy shop belong to you and stay there.

Yes. Every run in History keeps its ZIP, and the export tools download your outputs in bulk. Do that first — once deletion runs, the stored copies are gone.

Settings has a theme switch, and every page in PSDmate honours it — including this help centre, which follows whatever your device or browser is set to.

Then write to us at PSDmate@proton.me and say what you were doing, what you expected, and what happened instead. We reply within one business day. If a job failed, the approximate time you started it is enough for us to find it in the logs.