Text options

Three types collect typed text: Text field (one line), Text area (several lines) and Custom field (one line, checked against a pattern).

All three types are available on every plan, including Free.

All three accept the full set of pricing rules: flat fee, percentage of product price, per character, formula and quantity tiers. Which of those your own plan includes is shown on the Plan page inside the app, which is authoritative.

Per character is the rule these types exist for. It is also the one that needs a maximum length, for the reason below.

Maximum length

Set a maximum length on every text option that carries per-character pricing. Without one, a customer can paste a paragraph into an engraving field and generate a charge neither of you expected.

The limit is enforced in the field itself, so the customer sees it as they type rather than as an error after submitting.

Custom field patterns

A Custom field is a text field that must match a pattern you supply before the customer can add to cart. Use it where a malformed answer costs you an order — a postcode you will ship to, a serial number you must match against a warranty, a reference code.

Give the field help text that says what a valid answer looks like. A pattern that rejects an answer without explaining why is worse than no pattern at all: the customer cannot guess what you want and will leave.

What reaches the order

The customer’s text is recorded verbatim on the cart line and the order. It is what your fulfilment team reads, so:

• Label the field the way you want it to appear on a packing slip.
• Consider whether a text area’s line breaks survive your fulfilment tooling.

Worked example

An Engraving text field with a 20-character maximum and per-character pricing at £0.25:

Customer types	Added
(nothing)	£0.00
Anna	£1.00
Happy Birthday Mum	£4.50

An empty optional field adds nothing — there is no minimum charge unless you add a flat fee as a second rule.