Athenian Contour Lab
product details.
Athenian Contour Lab adds a browser-based contour creation workflow for WooCommerce products, letting users upload artwork, refine paths, and export SVG, PDF, or JSON production files. It helps teams turn tracing, preview, export, credit usage, and order retrieval into a connected product customization flow while keeping data, permissions, and automation aligned with the broader Athenian…
Athenian Contour Lab is a WordPress and WooCommerce contour-generation workflow plugin for artwork-driven commerce, custom print production, sticker/decal preparation, and paid digital export experiences. It gives customers and administrators a browser-based way to upload artwork, trace contour paths, tune path quality, preview animated cut-line overlays, and export production-ready files such as SVG, PDF, and JSON.
The plugin turns contour creation from a disconnected prepress task into a structured storefront and operations workflow. Customers can use a lightweight studio or advanced lab-style interface, export formats can be gated by credits, generated files can be stored in a user-specific contour library, and WooCommerce order items can preserve contour job metadata for post-purchase generation and retrieval.
For production teams, Contour Lab helps make cut-path output repeatable. The admin lab allows operators to test tracing presets and export settings, while frontend studios support self-service artwork workflows for stickers, decals, labels, packaging, signs, DTF/print prep, neon/sign workflows, and other custom-shaped products.
Within the Athenian Platform, Contour Lab fits as the contour and CutContour export layer that can connect to Print Forge, Credit Pack Manager, WooCommerce order workflows, customer media libraries, AI-assisted artwork generation, and broader custom-product production systems.
How Athenian Contour Lab fits the Athenian Platform
Platform role: Athenian Contour Lab is a focused capability in the Fulfillment, Shipping & Production Operations and Storefront, Merchandising & Product Data layer. Its primary scope covers Product Configuration & Add-ons and Production Files & Print Operations while remaining composable with the other modules an implementation actually requires.
Connected scope: Athenian Contour Lab is designed to work inside a WordPress and WooCommerce operating environment where storefront, customer, order, identity, payment, fulfillment, automation, and reporting context can remain connected across relevant modules instead of being trapped in isolated add-ons.
From module to operating platform: Athenian Brands organizes the ecosystem in four connected layers: Platform Kernel and Platform Core foundations; focused capability plugins; implementation and integration services; and operating brands such as PrintGhost.ai, Athenian Marketplace, Athenian Academy, and Athenian Unÿa that apply the same patterns to real business workflows.
Production Artwork Tools
Turn Uploaded Artwork Into Tunable Contour Paths Inside WordPress
Athenian Contour Lab gives customers and operators a browser-based
contour studio for uploading artwork, tracing visible shapes, tuning cut
paths, previewing animated overlays, and preparing files for print,
decal, sticker, label, signage, and custom-shape production workflows.
| Studio Surface | Operational Value |
|---|---|
| Frontend Studio | Provides a compact customer-facing workflow for uploading images, tuning trace options, previewing contours, and exporting files. |
| Advanced Lab | Adds APF-compatible 3D contour tooling, presets, media selection, text tracing, advanced PDF controls, and production-focused path tuning. |
| Admin Lab | Gives operators an internal testing surface for validating tracing presets, contour growth, simplification, PDF output, and production behavior. |
| Trace Controls | Supports controls such as trace quality, grow amount, simplification, hole inclusion, smoothing, merge behavior, and path complexity limits. |
- Registers customer-facing shortcode names such as
'acl_studio','acl_lab', and'athenian_contour_lab'. - Includes contour assets such as
contour-tracer.js,contour-ants.js,acl-studio.js,lab-ui.js, and APF-style 3D contour modules. - Supports optional shortcode attributes such as
product_id,image_id,image_url, andmax_workin the advanced lab flow. - Can participate in larger artwork workflows with media picker tools, font/text tracing, AI image modal entry points, and Print Forge-style product builders.
Paid Production File Exports
Sell or Control Contour Downloads With Credit-Aware Export Rules
Contour Lab can charge configurable credits for SVG, PDF, and JSON
downloads, store generated files as private user-linked records, and
deliver production exports through authenticated tokenized download URLs.
Vector contour paths with production-style magenta cut strokes
Image placement with contour stroke overlays, DPI, page, and fit controls
Structured contour data for automation, debugging, or downstream rendering
| Export Layer | How It Helps |
|---|---|
| Credit Costs | Supports separate server-side costs for SVG, PDF, and JSON, with administrator-free mode and login requirements when enabled. |
| Credit Pack Manager | Prefers Credit Pack Manager helpers/classes when available, with fallback user-meta balances when CPM is not installed. |
| Secure File Library | Stores generated exports as private acl_contour_file records with owner/admin download checks and random download tokens. |
| Server-Side Generation | Generates files beneath the WordPress uploads directory and records metadata such as order ID, item ID, product ID, and source attachment. |
- Stores plugin settings in
acl_settings, including credit enablement, login requirements, allowed formats, per-format costs, checkout behavior, and retention settings. - Uses fallback credit meta such as
acl_credit_balanceand_cpm_credit_balancewhen a dedicated credit ledger is unavailable. - Stores generated files under paths such as
wp-content/uploads/acl/u{user_id}/. - PDF generation references TCPDF availability, so production deployments should confirm the dependency is installed or provided by the runtime.
Paid Production File Exports
Sell or Control Contour Downloads With Credit-Aware Export Rules
Contour Lab can charge configurable credits for SVG, PDF, and JSON
downloads, store generated files as private user-linked records, and
deliver production exports through authenticated tokenized download URLs.
Vector contour paths with production-style magenta cut strokes
Image placement with contour stroke overlays, DPI, page, and fit controls
Structured contour data for automation, debugging, or downstream rendering
| Export Layer | How It Helps |
|---|---|
| Credit Costs | Supports separate server-side costs for SVG, PDF, and JSON, with administrator-free mode and login requirements when enabled. |
| Credit Pack Manager | Prefers Credit Pack Manager helpers/classes when available, with fallback user-meta balances when CPM is not installed. |
| Secure File Library | Stores generated exports as private acl_contour_file records with owner/admin download checks and random download tokens. |
| Server-Side Generation | Generates files beneath the WordPress uploads directory and records metadata such as order ID, item ID, product ID, and source attachment. |
- Stores plugin settings in
acl_settings, including credit enablement, login requirements, allowed formats, per-format costs, checkout behavior, and retention settings. - Uses fallback credit meta such as
acl_credit_balanceand_cpm_credit_balancewhen a dedicated credit ledger is unavailable. - Stores generated files under paths such as
wp-content/uploads/acl/u{user_id}/. - PDF generation references TCPDF availability, so production deployments should confirm the dependency is installed or provided by the runtime.
WooCommerce Production Handoff
Carry Contour Jobs From Artwork Upload to Cart, Order, Generation, and Customer Download
Athenian Contour Lab connects contour jobs to WooCommerce cart and order
data, can generate files after purchase, and exposes a dedicated customer
Contours area in My Account so production exports stay linked to the
transaction that created them.
| Commerce Layer | Operational Purpose |
|---|---|
| Cart Capture | Attaches contour job JSON, source attachment IDs, image URLs, and requested export types to WooCommerce cart items. |
| Order Item Persistence | Copies contour metadata into order item meta at checkout so production teams can generate or review the contour later. |
| Auto Generation | Can generate contour files when orders move to processing or completed status, based on plugin settings. |
| My Account Library | Adds a customer-facing Contours endpoint where authenticated users can retrieve previously generated contour files. |
From upload to output:
Contour Lab converts a repetitive prepress task into a repeatable,
sellable, account-aware workflow where artwork, exports, credits,
orders, and production files remain connected inside WordPress.
- Uses cart item keys such as
acl_job,acl_source_attachment,acl_source_image_url, andacl_export_types. - Persists order item metadata such as
_acl_job,_acl_source_attachment,_acl_source_image_url, and_acl_export_types. - Uses
_acl_generatedon orders to help prevent duplicate auto-generation. - Provides AJAX workflows such as
acl_add_to_cart,acl_use_credits,acl_studio_export,acl_studio_balance,acl_gallery_page, and compatibility actions such asapf_make_cutcontour. - Builds toward retention cleanup scheduling, admin file-library browsing, stronger dependency notices, upload limits, allowed remote-image domains, product-level export defaults, REST/GraphQL handoff, order admin previews, DXF/EPS exports, visual QA flags, proof approval, and deeper Print Forge integration.