Their dog, standing on their kitchen table.
You send one photo of their pet. They get a link that opens on any phone, and the animal is there in the room, turning, with your message under it.
- two portraits in about 15 seconds, free
- nothing ships, no address needed
- opens in safari and chrome, nothing to install
- ready a few minutes after you order
01 / the problem
Some people are impossible to buy for.
It is usually one of two situations. Either they own everything already, and the only thing they would want more of is their animal, or the date is tomorrow and nothing you can order today arrives in time.
The mug with the dog on it has been given. So has the calendar, the cushion and the framed print, and all of them are the same gift: their pet, printed flat, on an object. Which is how you end up buying a gift card at half past ten at night.
02 / what arrives
Three things arrive. None of them ships.
the link
A private gift page
A link only they have. Their pet turning at the top, your message under it, your name at the bottom. They pull a ribbon and it opens.
the room
The pet, on a real table
Through the phone camera, standing on their own kitchen table. It stays where they put it, so they can walk around it and photograph it.
the card
A card they print at home
One sheet from any printer, with their pet on the front. Point a phone camera at the paper and the pet stands up out of the card, turning, on top of it.
03 / the reveal
Ten seconds, on someone else’s phone.
This is the whole thing. A sealed parcel, a ribbon they pull with a thumb, the paper tearing, and their pet standing there while they read what you wrote.
Then they turn it with a finger, because everybody does. That is the moment you are buying, and it happens on a phone they are already holding.
a finished dearling. drag it to turn it around
04 / how it works
One photo in, one link out.
- 01
Send one photo
A normal phone snapshot. One pet, in daylight, with as much of them in frame as you can manage. We tell you what we noticed about the photo before any money changes hands.
- 02
Pick a look
About fifteen seconds later you have two styled portraits of that pet, free, and you choose one. This is where you find out whether the likeness is there.
- 03
Order, then we build it
from 12.90 eurThe 3D dearling is built after you order and takes a few minutes. Then you send the link, and nothing has to be posted to anyone.
05 / choose a look
Two ways to see them.
You see both drawn from your own photo before you decide anything, so the choice is made looking at their actual dog rather than at an example of someone else’s.
Real
Exactly how they look.
The closest to the photo. Pick this if being unmistakably them matters most.
Figurine
Like a collectible toy.
Smooth and glossy, standing on a little display base.
06 / proof
Every one of these started as an ordinary snapshot.
The photo is on the front of each card. Tap it and the 3D takes its place, so you are looking at the before and the after in the same frame. None of these were tidied up by hand afterwards: what came out of the pipeline is what is on the page.
Snowy (black cat)
Marmalade
Lilac (siamese)
Tiger (tabby)
Pearl
Shadow (black lab)
07 / occasions
Four reasons people send one.
Birthday
The one you remembered this morning. Nothing is posted, so nothing can be late.
read this one
In memory
A quieter gift page. No confetti, softer wording, nothing that treats it as a celebration.
read this one
Adoption day
The date they actually mark on the calendar, and the one nobody buys for.
read this one
Christmas
For the person whose whole personality is their dog. They already have the calendar.
read this one
08 / the alternatives
What else you were going to send.
This is the shortlist most people are actually working from. Two rows below go against us.
| a dearling | a card | a printed pet portrait | a custom plush | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How fast it arrives | minutes, at any hour | next day, if you post it today | three to ten days, as a file | four to eight weeks |
| Do you need their address | no | yes | no | yes |
| Is it unmistakably their pet | built from their own photo | a stock animal on the front | yes, drawn from a photo | yes, roughly |
| Does it move | it turns, and it stands in the room | no | no | no |
| What it costs | from 12.90 EUR | 3 to 6 EUR | 15 to 70 EUR | from about 150 EUR |
| Can they hold it | no, it lives on a screen | yes | yes, once printed | yes |
| Still there in ten years | only for as long as the link works | in a drawer somewhere | yes, if they frame it | yes |
If what you want is an object they can hold, buy the plush and give yourself six weeks. A dearling is a screen, and a screen is a thing that can stop working. What it does instead is arrive tonight, move, and be unmistakably their animal.
The longer versions: a dearling or a custom plush, and a dearling or an Etsy pet portrait.
09 / price
Pay once. No subscription.
You pay when you order, after the portraits, so you have already seen your pet before you spend anything. Nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel.
Dearling
12.90EUR
- One pet, in the look you pick
- A private gift page they open on any phone
- They stand it in their room through the camera
- A card you print at home and point a camera at
- Ready a few minutes after you order
Dearling Plus
19.90EUR
- One pet, built in both looks
- They choose which one to keep on the page
- A private gift page they open on any phone
- They stand it in their room through the camera
- A card you print at home and point a camera at
10 / what can go wrong
Where this gets it wrong.
The pipeline reads shape out of light, so there are specific photos it struggles with. It is better that you hear this now than after you have paid.
Very dark fur
A black dog in a dim room gives the model almost nothing to read. The silhouette comes out right and the face can go soft.
A pet half out of frame
If the legs or the tail are outside the photo we fill them in, and filling in is guesswork. This is the biggest single cause of a dearling that is not quite them.
A pet that is tiny in the photo
A hundred pixels across in the corner of a garden shot is not enough to work from. Crop in before you upload, or find a closer photo.
Unusual angles
From above, from behind, mid yawn, or curled in a ball. One standing photo taken at their eye level beats all of them.
What we do about it
The two styled portraits are free and they come first, before any payment. That is the point of them: you find out whether the likeness survived your photo while it still costs you nothing.
At the same step we say what we noticed about the photo, including when we could only see part of the animal and had to fill in the rest. And if the 3D comes back wrong, tell us and we build it again.
11 / questions
Everything people ask.
Does it work on their phone?
Yes. Safari on iPhone and Chrome on Android, in the browser they already use. If they can open a link, they can open a dearling.
Do they need an app or an account?
Neither. The gift page, the pet standing in their room and the printed card all run in the browser. That matters more than it sounds, because a gift that asks someone to install something is a gift most people never open.
What photo works best?
One pet, daylight, as much of the body in frame as you can, taken roughly at their eye level. A normal phone snapshot is fine and most of the gallery came from exactly that. Before you pay we tell you what we noticed, including if we could only see part of them.
How long does the whole thing take?
The two portraits come back in about fifteen seconds. The 3D dearling is built after you order and takes a few minutes. Under ten minutes from photo to sent link is normal, which is why people use this for a birthday they remembered at nine at night.
What do they actually receive?
A private link. They open it, pull a ribbon, and their pet is standing there turning with your message underneath. From there they can stand it on a real table through the camera, print a card at home, and send you a thank you back.
What if I close the tab while it is building?
Nothing is lost. The build runs on our machines rather than in your browser, so it carries on without you, and the gift link arrives by email when it is done. Watching the stages tick over is optional, and most people do it anyway.
What is the free portrait, exactly?
When you upload a photo we draw that pet in both looks and show you the result before any payment. It is a flat picture, not the 3D model. It exists so you can judge the likeness while it still costs you nothing.
Why is the 3D only built after I order?
Because building one is the expensive part, and we would rather charge for it plainly than give it away and recover the money somewhere less honest. You see the likeness first in the portraits, then you decide, then we build.
What if it comes out wrong?
Tell us and we build it again. The usual cause is a cropped photo or very dark fur, so the fastest fix is a second photo with the whole animal in daylight.
Can I do this for a pet that died?
Yes. Choose the memorial occasion and the gift page changes: no confetti, quieter wording, nothing that treats it as a celebration. One practical thing, older photos are often small ones, and small photos are harder to build from. Use the largest version you still have.
Do you make people, or only pets?
Dogs and cats. The pipeline is built around four legged animals, and a person comes out wrong in ways nobody wants to receive as a gift, so we do not offer it.
What happens to my photo?
We use it to build the dearling and nothing else. It is not sold, not used to advertise anything, and it does not go in the gallery unless you ask us to put it there. The privacy page sets out what is kept and for how long.
Can they print it?
They can print the card, which is one sheet from any home printer with their pet on the front. Point a phone camera at the printed page and the pet climbs out of it. Nothing is posted by us, so there is no address to collect and no delivery date to worry about.
Does it work without the card?
Yes. The card is an extra. The gift page works on its own, and so does standing the pet on a real table through the camera. Nobody has to own a printer for this to land.
Can I write a message on it?
Yes, and it is the part people keep going back to. The gift page carries the pet name, your name and a short written message under the animal. Write the thing you would have written in the card.
Is there a subscription?
No. One payment, per dearling. Nothing renews, there is nothing to cancel, and there is no account to close afterwards.
It is for tomorrow. Can I still do this?
Yes, and this is the case it is best at. Nothing is posted, so nothing can be late. You can order at eleven at night and send the link before you go to bed.
12 / who made this
A note from the person who built it.
I am one person and I write the pipeline myself. Dearling exists because every gift for a pet person turns out to be the same gift: their animal, printed flat, on an object. I wanted the animal to stand up.
Here is what it cannot do yet, so you hear it from me rather than afterwards. There are no accounts, so nothing is saved for you to come back to later. Both looks stand still: the pet turns on the page, but it does not walk or dance. Very dark fur is still the hardest thing for it. And a dearling lives at a link, which means it is not something you can wrap.
Nothing has launched yet, so there are no reviews on this site and I am not going to write fake ones. The gallery is the proof I actually have: ordinary photos in, nothing touched up afterwards. Judge it on that.
Silvester
built dearling
Send it tonight, for tomorrow.
The portraits take about fifteen seconds and cost nothing. You decide after you have seen your pet.