HomeResourcesGuidesFrom Design to Shirt: The Best Way to Get Your Artwork Printed
From Design to Shirt: The Best Way to Get Your Artwork Printed
Most shirts that come out wrong were not printed badly. They were prepared badly: the wrong file, a colour that shifted, artwork sized for a screen rather than a chest.
This is the path from a design in your head to a shirt you are happy with.
Start with vector if you possibly can
Vector artwork is made of shapes and maths, so it scales to any size without losing an edge. Raster artwork is made of pixels and falls apart when enlarged.
A logo, a wordmark, a badge, anything with flat colour and clean lines should be vector. Photographs are necessarily raster — if the design is a photograph, work at print resolution at the size it will actually appear, not at screen resolution.
A low-resolution file pulled from a website will look exactly as rough on fabric as it does when you zoom in on screen. Printing does not repair it.
Count your colours before you choose a method
The number of colours in a design changes what it costs to produce, sometimes dramatically.
Flat, limited-colour designs are cheap at volume on screen printing and easy in vinyl. Gradients, drop shadows and photographs push you toward digital methods, which price the same for one colour or a thousand.
If you are on a tight budget and volume is high, simplifying to two or three flat colours is the single most effective change you can make.
Screen colour is not fabric colour
Your monitor emits light; a shirt reflects it. A colour that glows on screen can look muddy on fabric, and fabric colour underneath shifts everything printed on top unless there is an opaque base.
The same ink looks different on white, on grey and on navy. If colour accuracy matters, ask for a printed sample on the actual garment colour before the run.
Placement and size
Designs on screen are usually viewed far larger than they will appear on a shirt. Print the artwork on paper at its intended width and hold it against a shirt. It is a cheap reality check and it regularly changes the decision.
- Standard front print
- Centred on the chest, roughly a hand's width below the collar. Most adult designs sit around ten to twelve inches wide.
- Left chest
- Small logo placement, usually three to four inches wide. Reads as uniform or staff rather than merch.
- Full front or oversized
- Fashion placement. Looks deliberate, but needs artwork built for it and a blank cut to carry it.
- Sizing across a spread
- One print size across every size of shirt makes a youth small look swamped. Scaling the artwork across the range costs more and looks better.
Choose the blank last, but do choose it
The blank is the other half of the design. A vintage-look print on a stiff, bright white basic fights itself; the same print on a garment-dyed heavyweight reads exactly as intended.
Work out the print method, then pick a blank that suits both the method and the look you are after.
Always sample once
One shirt, printed exactly as the run will be, on the exact blank and colour. Look at it in daylight. Wash it once.
Everyone who skips this step and regrets it says the same thing afterwards: the design looked fine on screen.
Common questions
What file should I send a printer?
Vector — AI, EPS, SVG or a vector PDF — for anything with flat colour and clean lines. For photographic artwork, a high-resolution raster file at the size it will be printed. Ask your printer what they prefer; most have a spec sheet.
Can I use a design I found online?
Only if you have the right to. Logos, characters and most images are somebody's property, and printers will often refuse work they recognise as infringing.
Why does my design look different on the shirt?
Usually screen-to-fabric colour shift, the garment colour showing through, or artwork that was too low-resolution to hold up at print size.
Do I need a designer?
For a simple text or shape design, no. For anything being sold, a designer who has prepared artwork for garments before will save you more than they cost — mostly by catching problems before the run rather than after.
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More guides
- How to Order Blank T-Shirts in BulkWhat a bulk blank t-shirt order actually involves: size spreads, dye lots, lead times, and the mistakes that cost you a reprint.
- Bulk T-Shirts: Choosing the Right Style for a Volume OrderWhich blank t-shirt style to buy in volume, and why the cheapest line is sometimes right and sometimes the reason a run fails.
- Cheap Blank T-Shirts: What You Actually Pay Per ShirtWhere the low prices on blank t-shirts come from, which savings are real, and the four costs that quietly undo them.
- How to Print Your Own T-Shirts: Five Methods ComparedScreen printing, DTG, DTF, heat transfer vinyl and sublimation — what each costs, what each is good at, and which blank each one needs.
- Company T-Shirts: A Practical Buyer's GuideOrdering branded shirts for a team: sizing everyone fairly, getting brand colours right, and what to do about the people who never reply.