Change template moves an existing design onto a different template — new background, frames, and logos — without re-adding your photos or re-typing your text. The template you pick can be any size, shape, or orientation; only the page count has to match.
This is now a single action. If you remember two separate commands — one for moving a design to a different template, one for pulling in template updates — they've been folded together. Everything below is done from the one Change template dialog.
What Change template does (and doesn't) change
Your photos carry over — the actual images are always kept, and so are your image adjustments. Whether your hand placement survives depends on the size and shape of the template you pick (see What happens to your layout below).
Your dynamic text and QR codes keep only their value and adopt the new template's design. A matched text layer keeps the words you typed but takes the new slot's font, size, color, position, and geometry; a matched QR code keeps its encoded value but takes the new slot's styling. (If a text or QR layer was empty, the new template's placeholder value shows instead.) That's the point — your content reads the same, restyled to the template it now belongs to.
The static decoration is replaced entirely by the new template:
- Background graphics and shapes
- Frames, overlays, and border graphics
- Logos and static graphics
- Fixed (non-dynamic) text such as taglines or labels
The design also adopts the new template's canvas size and DPI, and its layer order (front-to-back) follows the new template, not the original.
If the new template has a photo slot that your original design never filled, that slot comes in empty — you don't inherit the new template's sample image, so there's nothing to clear out afterward.
Entry points
You can start from two places:
- Studio grid — right-click a design card (or open its three-dot menu) and choose Change template…
- Studio editor header — while editing a design, click the Change template button in the header bar
How to change a design's template
[Screenshot coming: The Change template dialog with the folder filter, search field, template list showing each template's size and DPI, the layout notice, the Reset layout to the template checkbox, and the Save as a new copy / Replace this design options]
- Open the Change template dialog using one of the entry points above.
- Use the Search templates… field to find the look you want. Every template in your account with a matching page count is listed, whatever its size or orientation.
- To narrow the list, use the All folders filter above the search field. Pick a folder to show only templates in that folder and its subfolders; leave it on All folders to search everything.
- Click a template to select it. Each row shows a thumbnail plus the template's size, orientation, and DPI — for example 13 × 19 in portrait · 300 DPI — so you can confirm you have the right one.
- Read the notice that appears under the list. It tells you exactly what the template you selected will do to your layout, and warns you if the design's print DPI is about to change.
- Choose what to do with the original design:
- Save as a new copy — "Keeps this design untouched and creates a new one with the chosen template." This is the default for a single design and is the safer choice.
- Replace this design — "Rewrites this design in place — this can't be undone."
- Click Save as copy (or Replace design if you chose in-place). Studio opens the resulting design and reports "Copied onto the new template" or "Template changed".
The design's thumbnail regenerates automatically once the change finishes, so the Studio grid updates to show the new look without a page refresh.
If the template list is empty, only the page count is at fault: the dialog says "No matching templates — Only the page count has to match this design — but no template here does." A one-page design can only move to a one-page template, and a two-page design only to a two-page template.
What happens to your layout
Templified compares your design's canvas to the template you picked and tells you which of three things will happen, right in the dialog:
- Same size — "Same size — your photos and text stay exactly where you put them." Nothing moves; your placement survives intact.
- Same shape, different size — "Same shape, different size — everything scales across and your adjustments are kept." Moving an 8 × 10 design onto a 16 × 20 template multiplies every coordinate by the same factor, so crops, face-target boxes, and max content lines all come along.
- Different shape — "Photos move into the slots this template defines — placement you did by hand is replaced." Your design's coordinates describe a canvas that no longer exists, so each photo drops into the slot the new template authored for it and takes that slot's frame, fit mode, and face-placement tuning. Crops you cut for the old frame are cleared, because a crop only makes sense for the shape it was cut for.
In every case the photos themselves are kept — only the framing is at stake.
Watch the DPI
Because the design adopts the new template's canvas, it also adopts that template's DPI, and DPI alone decides how large the finished render comes out. Two templates can read as the same number of inches and still print at very different sizes.
When the template you selected would change that, the dialog adds an amber line under the layout notice — for example "Prints at 300 DPI instead of 72 — larger output than this design makes today." (or "smaller output" when the new template's DPI is lower). Read it before you commit, especially on an in-place change you can't undo.
Pull in template updates (Reset layout to the template)
If the template a design was built from has been edited since — the designer moved a photo slot, say — you can pull that new layout into the design by changing it onto that same template and ticking Reset layout to the template. Its helper text explains when to use it: "Use when the template's layout changed and you want that layout, not the one saved here."
The checkbox lives in the same notice under the template list, and it's only offered when it would make a difference — that is, when the design's own placement would otherwise survive. On a different-shaped template the layout comes from the template regardless, so the checkbox doesn't appear. In bulk it's always available.
Change many designs at once
You can move a whole selection onto the same template in one pass — handy at the end of a season when you want every player card on a new layout.
- In the Studio grid, multi-select the design cards you want to change.
- Open the selection toolbar's actions menu and choose Change template. The same dialog opens in bulk mode, with a badge showing how many designs you selected.
- Filter and pick a template exactly as you would for a single design. Size and orientation don't have to match; only the page count does.
- Choose Save as new copies (the default — "Keeps the selected designs untouched and creates new ones with the chosen template") or Replace these designs ("Rewrites the selected designs in place — this can't be undone").
- Click Save as copies, or Replace designs for an in-place change. Because replacing many designs can't be undone, you're asked to confirm first — an amber line reads "Replace 12 designs in place? This can't be undone." and the button changes to Yes, replace 12. Click it again to go ahead.
Only the page count can split a selection. If some of the designs you picked have a different page count from the rest, the dialog warns you above the template list — for example, "2 of 12 selected designs have a different page count and will be skipped." — and skips only those. Two-page designs are fully supported: a two-page design moves onto a two-page template, with both pages rebuilt together.
Big replace runs happen in the background
Replacing more than 25 designs in place is handed to Templified's servers instead of being done in your browser. The dialog closes right away and tells you it's under way — "Swapping 40 designs in the background — progress shows in the corner." You can keep working in Studio, switch folders, or navigate away entirely; the run finishes on its own.
While it runs, a small progress card sits at the bottom-center of the screen showing the template you're moving onto and a done/total counter with a progress bar — for example Swapping onto Fall Classic 5×7 and 18/40. The card is yours alone: it only appears for the person who started the run, so a teammate's batch never parks a card over your screen.
The card has an × button ("Hide this progress card"). Hiding it is purely cosmetic — the run keeps going and still reports its result when it's done. When it finishes you get a message like "Template swap finished — 38 designs swapped, 2 skipped", and the Studio grid refreshes to show the new look.
Only in-place replaces run this way. Saving as new copies always runs in your browser.
Smaller runs and copies run in the window
Selections of 25 or fewer designs — and every "Save as new copies" run, whatever its size — are processed in your browser in small batches. The button counts up (Swapping 15/20…) and a progress bar fills under it, and a Stop button replaces Cancel so you can halt after the current batch. Keep the dialog open until it finishes; closing the tab mid-run stops it.
When the batch finishes, a message reports the result: "10 designs swapped to the new template · 2 skipped" (or "copied with the new template" when you saved copies). As with a single design, any orphaned layers are kept on top and summarized in a warning.
Orphan layers
A layer becomes an orphan when the new template has no matching slot for it — for example, a dynamic photo named HeadshotRight that doesn't exist in the new template. Templified never silently drops your content: orphaned layers are kept on top of the canvas so you can decide what to do with them. A warning message tells you how many layers had no place and were kept.
If a kept layer's name happens to match one already in the new template, Templified adds a numeric suffix — Logo becomes Logo (2) — so nothing is dropped or overwritten. Open the design and review the layer panel: you can reposition kept layers, delete them, or leave them — they won't appear in the render if they're empty photo slots.
Matching rules
Dynamic layers are matched to the new template by their field name and type. A dynamic photo named Photo pairs with a photo slot also named Photo; a dynamic text layer named PlayerName pairs with a text slot named PlayerName. When a photo layer's field name doesn't match, Templified still pairs photo slots by their numbered order (Photo 1, Photo 2) so your images land in the right places. Layers that don't find a match become orphans. Consistent naming across templates means fewer orphans and a cleaner result.
Once paired, a photo keeps its pixels and crop, while a text or QR field keeps only its value and takes the matched slot's design — so the same words appear in the new template's font, color, and position.
Tips
- Use "Save as a new copy" first. It's non-destructive — you keep the original and can compare the two side by side before deleting anything.
- Standardize layer names across templates to keep results orphan-free. If all your sports templates use a photo slot named Photo and a text layer named PlayerName, content transfers seamlessly between them.
- Only the page count limits the list. If a template you expect isn't listed, it's because its page count differs from the design's — size, shape, and orientation are never a reason to exclude it.
- Check the DPI line before an in-place replace. It's the one change you can't undo, and DPI decides how big the finished print comes out.
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