The way to draw art for an acrylic stand is to work at the final print size, at 350 dpi and in CMYK, and to leave margin outside the outline for the white layer and the cut path. If you settle these conditions before you start drawing, you will spend far less time redrawing when it is time to submit your files.
When you make your own acrylic stand from an illustration, most of the work is not preparing the artwork. It is rebuilding your data into a form the print shop can read. In practice, that means creating three layers, a design layer, a white layer and a cut path, and submitting them with each one meeting the shop's specifications.
Even a highly polished illustration will be rejected at submission if you do not know how to build these three layers. On the other hand, once you understand the specifications, even art that is close to a rough sketch can become merch. This article focuses on how to build that print data, and walks through choosing a size, thinking about small print runs and checking what the finished piece will look like.
Note: Figmee is currently a service that lets you generate and download figurine-style images and 3D model data (GLB / 3MF) from drawings and illustrations you upload. The sale of physical 3D-printed items is in preparation (Coming Soon).
Get the Big Picture First
Before you start, it helps to know where the time goes.
- Choose a print shop and get its template (30 minutes). Specifications vary from shop to shop, so get them first. If you skip this and start working, you will almost certainly end up redoing everything.
- Decide on the size and composition (30 minutes). Set the finished size and adjust your art to a composition that fits it.
- Build the design layer (1–3 hours). This is the artwork that actually gets printed.
- Build the white layer (30 minutes). This is the underlayer that makes colors show up on a transparent material.
- Draw the cut path (30 minutes). This is the outline the piece is cut along.
- Create the base data (20 minutes). This is the part the main piece slots into so it can stand on its own.
- Check and submit (30 minutes). Review the layer structure and each layer's specifications before you send.
If you are new to this, assume your files will rarely pass on the first try. When you work backward from a deadline, budgeting for one round of resubmission will give you peace of mind.
5 Points to Keep in Mind When Drawing Art for an Acrylic Stand
Of the specifications explained in the sections below, here are the ones you should decide at the drawing stage. The detailed reasons and the sources for the numbers are in each section.
- Set up a canvas at final size and 350 dpi. Start drawing at the finished size plus margin so you never have to enlarge it later (see "Basic Settings").
- Draw the outline as a closed line, and connect thin protrusions and floating accessories to the main body. Hair tips, fingertips and accessories that are separate from the body can snap or come off once the piece is cut out (see "Choosing the Size and Composition").
- Do not place pale colors right at the edge of the outline. Because the white layer is shrunk inward from the design, pale colors right at the edge get no underlayer and tend to look see-through (see "The Role and Specifications of the Three Layers").
- Leave margin at the feet for slotting into the base. The part that touches the base is made flat, so plan a composition that does not put too much detail into the very tips of the feet (see "Choosing the Size and Composition" and "The Base and Double-Sided Printing").
- Vivid RGB colors go dull in CMYK, so fine-tune after seeing the result. Switch to CMYK early and adjust using differences in lightness while looking at the converted colors (see "Getting the Colors You Intend").
Basic Settings: Color Mode and Resolution
These are the two things to decide first. Get them wrong and the fixes will ripple through everything later.
Color mode: CMYK. If you submit in RGB, which is meant for screens, the colors will shift when printed. One print shop's guide asks for files created in CMYK and states that spot colors such as DIC cannot be used (source: Acrylic Goods Seisakusho, "Data Submission Guide", as of July 2026). Switching early in your workflow saves you from having to fine-tune your colors all over again.
Resolution: around 350 dpi at final size. Another print shop's guide also says "please create your file at 350 dpi," and the first guide makes 350–400 dpi at final size mandatory (source: Visipri, "How to Create Print Data for Acrylic Products", as of July 2026). The condition to watch is "at final size." If you place a small image and then scale it up, the nominal resolution stays the same, but the effective resolution drops.
If you are drawing digitally from scratch, the safest approach is to set up a canvas at the finished size plus margin, at 350 dpi, from the very beginning. If you are reusing an existing illustration, first check that it fits the size without being enlarged.
The Role and Specifications of the Three Layers
| Layer | What it is for | Main specifications |
|---|---|---|
| Design | The artwork that gets printed | CMYK, 350–400 dpi at final size, merged into one layer |
| White layer | The underlayer that makes colors show on transparent material | Solid K100%, offset inward from the design |
| Cut path | The outline the piece is cut along | Created with the pen tool, kept a set distance from the design |
The key to the white layer is shrinking it inward. If you make it the same size as the design, any slight misalignment during printing will let a white edge peek out. The offset value differs between print shops: some tell you to make it 0.1 mm smaller, others 0.15 mm inward (source: the Visipri and Acrylic Goods Seisakusho guides cited above). If your template specifies a value, follow it.
As a rule, the white layer should be solid. Effects such as halftone screens, transparency, drop shadows and blurs cannot be used. Text thinner than 0.2 mm is also considered unsuitable for a white layer. If you want to use thin decorative lettering, you will need to thicken it or rework the design on the assumption that it gets no white layer.
Keep the cut path away from the design. The guide cited above says to keep it at least 2 mm from the design, or at least 4 mm for cut-out (hollowed) areas. This margin shows up in the finished piece as the so-called clear border. A path that is broken or twisted is grounds for resubmission, so zoom in and check the endpoints. The fewer anchor points you use, the smoother the cut edge will be.
Choosing the Size and Composition
An acrylic stand has to stand on its own, so its composition and size are subject to physical constraints.
Avoid extreme aspect ratios. A tall, narrow composition raises the center of gravity and makes the stand tip over easily. If you want to include the full body, tighten up the pose, or spread out hair or a cape to gain width near the base for stability.
Make the contact area flat. The part that slots into the base works best when it is straight. A composition with thin, pointed feet leaves the slot area without enough strength. It is common practice to deliberately make the cut path straight along the area that meets the base.
Avoid thin protrusions. Hair tips, fingertips, the tip of a weapon: these are what snap off after cutting. Instead of making the cut path hug those shapes, route it a little further out to keep more area, or thicken them in the design.
Know how size relates to price. Print shop price lists often change in steps based on area brackets. Sometimes making the piece just a few millimeters smaller drops it into a cheaper bracket, so deciding on the final size with the price list in hand helps you avoid waste.
The Base and Double-Sided Printing
The base is made as a separate part from the main piece. The width of the slot is specified by the print shop to match the acrylic thickness (such as 2 mm or 3 mm), so it is not something you decide yourself. You can also put a design on the base, which gives you room for a character name or logo.
For double-sided printing, you also need a design layer for the back. Whether the back should be mirrored depends on the print shop's instructions, so always read the template's notes. This is a spot where people often make the mistake of printing with the mirroring wrong.
What to do with the back depends on the artwork. If the character is the same on both sides, looking at it from behind shows a mirrored image, which can feel off. Other options include making the back solid white or a single color, or drawing the character's back view.
Thinking About Small Print Runs
It is now possible to make your own acrylic stands in smaller quantities than before. Here are the points to consider when choosing a shop.
Minimum order. Some shops accept orders from a single piece, while others start at 10 or 50. Your options change depending on whether you first want a sample for yourself or want to print a batch for distribution in one go.
How the unit price changes. The more you order, the lower the unit price, but the drop slows down partway. There tends to be a big difference between 1 and 10 pieces, but not much between 50 and 100. Look at the price list and check how the unit price moves around your quantity.
Turnaround time. Standard and express service are priced differently. If you are aiming for an event, set your own deadline not at the submission deadline but at "the date that still works even if I have to resubmit."
Supported file formats. Most shops assume Illustrator paths, but some offer templates for painting software. Choosing one that matches the software you use spares you awkward conversions.
If this is your first time, making just one piece is the safe choice. The difference between the colors on your screen and the printed result, how well the white layer works and how the thickness feels are things you cannot know until you see the real thing. For points tied to your activities, such as using a VTuber character illustration, see How to Make Your Own VTuber Acrylic Stand.
Getting the Colors You Intend
The printed result looking different from what you saw on screen is the most common disappointment with self-made merch. Here are a few reasons why.
Some colors can be shown in RGB but not in CMYK. Vivid sky blues, near-fluorescent pinks and deep purples look dull once printed. The reliable approach is to redecide your colors after converting to CMYK. If the converted art feels "plainer than I expected," do not raise the saturation; instead, add more lightness contrast between neighboring colors, and the look will come back.
The underlayer on transparent material changes how it looks. Whether there is a white layer, and whether its density is even, changes the impression even with the same data. The paler the color, the more it is affected by the underlayer.
Everyone's monitor settings are different. Your screen is not necessarily accurate. Rather than chasing exact colors, designing around lightness contrast and the balance of areas gives a result that holds up better across different environments.
If you need a precise match, you can also use a color proofing service. It adds cost and days, so consider it when you are distributing many copies or when the character's colors carry important meaning.
Final Check Before Submission
Before sending, go through each of the following items once. A few minutes of work can prevent days of delay.
- Is the color mode set to CMYK?
- Do placed images meet the required resolution at final size (have they been enlarged)?
- Is the white layer solid K100%? Are there any leftover blurs or semi-transparency?
- Has the white layer been shrunk inward by the specified offset?
- Is the cut path closed? Are there any breaks, twists or overlaps?
- Does the distance between the cut path and the design meet the specification?
- Do the layer names match the template's instructions?
- Have fonts been converted to outlines?
- Is the base data included? Is the slot width as specified?
- For double-sided printing, is the back oriented as specified?
This check may feel tedious, but if the print shop catches a problem, you only have to resubmit; if it slips through unnoticed, the printed pieces arrive exactly as they are. The second case hurts far more, so checking for yourself before sending is the faster route in the end.
Preview the Finished Look in Advance
The hard part of this process is that it is difficult to picture the result before submitting. Just looking at flat data does not tell you how the piece will feel once it is standing.
One way is to print it on paper at actual size, cut it out and stand it up. It is primitive, but it works well enough for checking the sense of scale and how well it stands, and it costs nothing.
Another approach is to turn the character into 3D once and explore angles. With Figmee, you can generate figurine-style images and a 3D model from an uploaded illustration and rotate them 360° in your browser to check them. If, while rotating, you find "this angle looks best," you can use a render from that angle as the design for your acrylic stand. In other words, from the same character, you can make merch with a different composition from simply using the standing illustration as is.
How to use 3D data across merch production as a whole is also covered in How to Make a 3D Model for Doujin Goods.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How should I draw art for an acrylic stand? A. Set up a canvas at final size and 350 dpi, draw the outline as a closed line and connect thin protrusions and floating accessories to the main body. Because the white layer shrinks inward, do not put pale colors right at the edge of the outline, and leave margin at the feet for slotting into the base. Vivid RGB colors go dull in CMYK, so fine-tune the colors after seeing the converted result.
Q. Can I make an acrylic stand without Illustrator? A. Yes. Some print shops offer templates for painting software, and some submission methods generate the outline automatically. However, you get less freedom with the cut path, so if you want a complex shape, software that can handle paths is the safer option.
Q. Do I always have to include a white layer? A. You need it if you want colors to show up solidly on a transparent material. Some designs deliberately make use of the see-through effect, but if you want to avoid colors looking unintentionally faint, include one. Specifications differ between print shops, so follow your template's instructions.
Q. Can I make one from a hand-drawn illustration? A. Yes. Scan the drawing or photograph your drawing to bring it in, blow out the background to white and then clean up the outline. Faint, broken lines reduce cutting accuracy, so making the contrast crisp when you bring the image in will make everything after easier.
Q. Do I need to check the rights even if I make just one and do not sell it? A. If it is your own character that you drew yourself, there is no problem. If you use art someone else drew for you or a character from an existing work, it counts as reproduction even if you do not sell it, so you need to check in advance.
Summary
The core of making your own acrylic stand from an illustration is not the artwork but assembling the data. Work in CMYK at 350 dpi at final size, shrink the white layer inward and keep the cut path the specified distance away. Get these three points right and you can make it to submission even on your first try.
And you cannot tell what the real piece will look like from your screen. Make just one first to check, then decide on the quantity. Stick to this order and you will avoid any major failures.
