A great T-shirt design can still print badly if the file arrives blurry, too small or built with the wrong colours. Knowing how to prepare print artwork before you order saves time, avoids costly reprints and helps your logo, message or illustration look sharp on the finished garment.
Whether you need one personalised hoodie, branded workwear for a team or hundreds of event tees, the same principle applies: send artwork that is clear, correctly sized and ready for the print method. You do not need to be a designer to get it right, but a few practical checks make a major difference.
Start with the finished product, not just the design
Before opening a design programme, decide what you are printing and where it will sit. A left-chest logo on a polo shirt needs a very different setup from a full-back design on a hoodie, a sleeve print or a large front graphic on a sports shirt.
Think about the garment colour as part of the design. White lettering may look perfect on a black T-shirt but disappear completely on a white tote bag. Dark garments often need a white underbase beneath coloured artwork, particularly with DTF or DTG printing. This can affect the look of fine details, so do not assume the artwork will behave exactly as it does on a bright computer screen.
Also consider the practical print area. A design cannot run through seams, zips, pockets or the curve of a shoulder without compromises. Adult, kids’ and ladies’ garment sizes have different usable areas too. If the same artwork is going on several garment sizes, choose a layout that remains readable across the full run.
Choose the right file format
Vector files are the preferred choice for logos, text and simple graphic artwork. Formats such as AI, EPS, SVG and print-ready PDF use lines and shapes rather than a fixed grid of pixels. They can be enlarged without losing definition, which makes them ideal for chest logos, bold branding and screen printing artwork.
Raster files, including PNG, JPEG, TIFF and PSD, are made from pixels. They are perfectly suitable for photographs, detailed illustrations and full-colour designs, but only when supplied at sufficient resolution. As a working rule, provide raster artwork at 300 dpi at the final print size. A small image copied from a website may look acceptable on a phone yet become soft, blocky or jagged when enlarged for a T-shirt.
A transparent PNG is often useful for a full-colour design with no background. It lets the garment colour show around the graphic rather than printing a visible white or coloured rectangle. JPEGs do not support transparency, so check that a white background is genuinely intended before sending one.
Avoid screenshots, images lifted from social media, photos of an existing printed garment and files embedded in Word or PowerPoint. They are rarely good enough for clean production. If that is all you have, send it for assessment rather than enlarging it repeatedly yourself. Enlarging pixels does not create missing detail.
Keep fonts and lines print-friendly
If your design contains text, convert fonts to outlines in a vector file or include the font when supplying an editable source file. This prevents the wording changing if the printer does not have the same typeface installed.
Very thin lines, tiny text and closely packed details are risky, especially on textured garments or embroidery. What looks elegant at 400% zoom can fill in or break up on fabric. If a detail is essential, make it slightly thicker and give elements more space. For embroidery, simplify further: thread has physical width, and a complicated illustration may need to become a cleaner stitched version.
Set the artwork to the correct print size
One of the most common artwork problems is a file with no meaningful size information. Tell the printer the dimensions you expect, in millimetres or centimetres, and measure from the farthest edges of the artwork. A 10 cm-wide logo is a common starting point for a left chest, while a large front or back print may be around 25 to 30 cm wide. These are guides, not fixed rules.
A bold club logo may suit a 28 cm back print. A refined trades logo with a phone number may be more effective at chest size, with the contact details on the back. The best size depends on garment style, audience viewing distance and how much information must be read.
Do not stretch artwork to fill a space unless it has been designed for that proportion. Lock the aspect ratio when scaling. If a logo looks too tall or too wide after resizing, it has been distorted.
For a print that must line up with another element, such as a name above a squad number, provide a simple placement note. State whether the measurements are from the neckline, centre line, side seam or bottom edge. Clear instructions reduce back-and-forth and help keep repeat orders consistent.
Colour: screen brightness is not fabric ink
Artwork is usually created in RGB because screens emit light. Conventional print production commonly uses CMYK references, while garment printing workflows may use specialised colour profiles and white ink. The exact route depends on whether the job is screen printed, DTG printed, transferred, sublimated or produced in vinyl.
That is why colours can shift slightly between screen and garment. Electric blues, fluorescent shades and very bright greens are common examples. If colour accuracy matters for a company brand, provide Pantone references where available, along with the original logo file. A named colour such as “blue” leaves too much room for interpretation.
There are trade-offs. Screen printing is excellent for consistent spot colours across larger quantities, but may not suit artwork with lots of photographic shading. DTF handles detailed, full-colour graphics well and works on many garment types, while DTG is a strong option for detailed artwork on suitable cotton garments. Sublimation is designed for polyester and performs best on light or white items. The artwork should be prepared for the method, not forced into the method because it is familiar.
How to prepare print artwork for each method
The same design can require different treatment depending on how it will be applied. For screen printing, separate solid colours cleanly and avoid unnecessary gradients if a crisp spot-colour result is the priority. For vinyl, keep shapes bold and reduce fine internal cut-outs. Every tiny piece must be cut, weeded and applied accurately.
For DTF and DTG, preserve the highest-quality original image, avoid compression and use transparency where the design has no background. Fine gradients and photographic elements are possible, but low-resolution originals will still show their limits.
For embroidery, do not supply a pixel-perfect expectation of a printed photograph. Send the original logo and let it be digitised for stitching. A good embroidered result often means reducing colours, enlarging small lettering and choosing details that remain clear in thread.
If you are ordering business cards, badges or other flat promotional print alongside clothing, ask for the relevant setup separately. Bleed, trim marks and CMYK settings matter more on paper products, whereas garment artwork needs correct transparency, print dimensions and fabric-aware design choices.
Run a final pre-production check
Before approving a proof or submitting the final file, check these points:
- The file is vector artwork or a 300 dpi image at the final print size.
- Backgrounds are transparent unless you deliberately want a printed rectangle.
- Spelling, phone numbers, dates, web addresses and social handles are correct.
- Colours work against the selected garment and any brand colour references are included.
- Fonts are outlined, or the exact font files and editable source file are supplied.
- Print positions, sizes, garment colours and quantities are stated clearly.
Zoom in to inspect edges, then zoom out and view the design at realistic size. The second check is just as useful. A logo might be technically sharp but too small to recognise from a few metres away, or a charity event slogan may be readable only when someone is standing directly in front of it.
Send clear instructions with your artwork
A good file is only half the job. Include the garment type, colour, sizes, quantity, print positions and desired deadline with your artwork. If the order includes multiple designs, name files plainly, such as “Front-logo-black-10cm” and “Back-event-design-28cm”. Avoid filenames like “final_FINAL_new2”.
For urgent jobs, send the best original file you have at the first enquiry. East London Printers can advise on suitability and print method, but early artwork checks give the production team more time to solve issues before a same-day or next-day deadline becomes tight.
Your artwork does not need to be complicated to be effective. A high-resolution file, sensible sizing and a clear brief will usually beat an intricate design that cannot survive the move from screen to fabric. Get those foundations right, and the finished garment has every chance of looking as professional as the people wearing it.