How to design a t-shirt that prints well

We look at every file before it goes to a printer and we call rather than guess when something is wrong. That conversation is nearly always about one of four things.

Resolution, at the size it will be printed

150 dpi minimum, measured at final print size. Not at the size the file happens to open at.

This is the one that catches people. A logo that looks perfect on a website is perhaps 500 pixels wide, which is fine at 2 inches across and a blurry mess at 11. Multiply the intended print width in inches by 150 to get the pixels you need: an 11-inch chest print wants about 1,650 pixels across. A 12-inch one wants 1,800.

You cannot add resolution afterwards. Enlarging a small image in Photoshop invents pixels and the printer faithfully reproduces the invention. If all you have is a small file, send it and say what size you want it printed — rebuilding artwork is part of what our design team does at no charge, and it is a far better outcome than printing something soft.

Vector files sidestep the whole problem. An AI, EPS, SVG or PDF built as vector scales to any size, so if your logo exists as a vector, send that one.

Transparent background

PNG with real transparency, not a white rectangle.

A white background in the file prints as white ink. On a white shirt you will not notice. On a black shirt you get your design inside a white box, which is exactly what the file asked for. We catch these, but it slows the order down, and on a rush job those hours matter.

Check by opening the file over a dark background. If you see a checkerboard behind the artwork, the transparency is real. If you see white, it is not.

JPEG cannot hold transparency at all, which is why we ask for PNG.

The print area

14 by 16 inches, which is larger than most people design for. A full-front print at 12 inches wide is a big, confident graphic and fits comfortably.

Build your file in that proportion rather than designing something square and hoping. And remember the print is centred on the garment, so a design with uneven internal spacing will look off-centre even when it is positioned correctly — the eye reads the artwork's visual weight, not its bounding box.

We do not print on sleeves. Keep the whole design within the front or back area.

Edges, especially on dark garments

On a dark shirt the printer lays down white ink in the shape of your design, then prints colours over it. To do that it needs to know where your design stops.

Soft glows, feathered drop shadows and anything that fades to transparent have no clear edge, and the result can be a pale halo where the white underbase extends past the visible colour. Give fades a defined boundary, or let them fade into the garment colour instead of into transparency. The dark garment article goes through this properly.

Also: delete pure black elements from artwork going on a black shirt. Let the fabric be the black. Printing black over white over black cotton gets you a visible patch in the shape of something that was already there.

Smaller things that still matter

Thin lines disappear. Anything under about 1pt at final size is unreliable; thicken it.

Small text below roughly 8pt at print size loses its crispness. Readable, not sharp.

Build in RGB and let us handle the conversion. DTG is not a four-colour process and converting to CMYK yourself usually dulls the colours before we ever see them.

Flatten nothing you might want changed. Send the layered file if you have it.

A short checklist

• 150 dpi or better at the size it will print
• PNG with genuine transparency, or a vector file
• Designed to the 14 by 16 inch area
• No soft fades to transparent on dark garments
• Lines above 1pt, text above 8pt

If any of that is a problem, send the file anyway. Fixing artwork is free here, and it is the part of the job where we save orders. The file formats article covers which format to send when you have a choice.