TR Forums

I got a travel coffee mug that lets you unscrew the bottom of the mug and insert your own picture to personalize it. There are pre-made graphics on the company's web site, but I would like to make my own pics from a template. The problem is the shape, since it has to wrap around a conical mug, is of a weird shape. Is there any way to have a graphic editing program assist with contorting a graphic to the shape required?

Most competent graphics programs have skew or "free transform" operations that can do that if you want to just go by trial and error. If you work with the exact shape, you'll have to capture it. A couple of possibilities: use the website to create a test label, and then "print" it to a software printer, ie a PDF or XPS. Then open the resulting file in a vector graphics program like Illustrator that can interpret it. (Or a bitmap program and just use it as a background layer).

Alternatively, print it to a real printer and then scan the result and use it (scaled correctly) as a background layer "guide."

But I'm no guru photoshop monkey, so others may have a more clever (or at least more detailed) solution.