Pattern and Design Selection/Gallery Attributes

[PlannerYap]

I'm putting together my first ANY cart website and man is it overwhelming! My biggest challenge so far has been deciding how to appropriately display product choices (attributes of attributes) that are all image driven. This must be stupid easy because I can't find a thread but, I can't find a thread and I'm at a dead end.

Here's a for example - you're buying a t-shirt and you have 72 design options and 15 fabric options to add to it so it's customized. All of the titles are in the drop down boxes but how do you see what the cow, the pig, the barn images look like and the stripe fabric or zigzag fabric? Am I missing something? What's the best way to do this? I would be happy with a gallery of titled images or a pop up, whatever.

The working site is www.lilsugarpie.com/zencart. It's not live and it certainly isn't ready. Under each product you can see the options for personalization and you'll see what it is I need to show.

Please help! Thanks in advance!

[Ajeh]

Set up the Category for T-Shirts ...

Set up each of the 75 Designs as the Product so you can better display, advertise etc.

Set up the 15 Fabrics as Attributes ...

Now you have only 15 attributes per product vs 90 attributes and a much nicer layout and more customization per design available to you ...

[PlannerYap]

I don't have problems listing the attribute names I want to know how will they see what the fabric looks like. I can offer "Red Bandana" but I want them to see it too. How do I SHOW the options, not just the attributes?

[Ajeh]

You may not have a problem with the 75 attributes, but make sure your server is setup to handle that many without running like a dog ...

Options on the image of the fabric could be:

Either add an Attribute Image to each attribute ...

Or, create a single image with all the samples ...

Or, create 75 additional images for the product ...

[CelticKatt]

Ajeh, could you please explain how to "create a single image with all the samples"? I would like a single example image for a dropdown menu that has about 5 different fonts to choose from and I don't know how to accomplish that. Also, for the example image, I'd like it to be a smaller version of the actual example and have it be a popup with the larger image. I know that takes a mod but I'm not sure which one would be best for my need.

Thanks!