Tutorials

Best practices for creating great artwork for apparel printing

Artwork used for apparel printing requires a few extra steps. Use this guide to help. 

Resolution is everything

When it comes to apparel printing, resolution is everything. If your artwork isn’t sharp, your printed shirts won’t be either. The absolute minimum for clean, professional results is 300 DPI at the actual print size. Anything lower—especially web-resolution images at 72 DPI—will look soft, pixelated, or blurry once enlarged on a shirt. Whether you’re designing in Canva, Photoshop, or Illustrator, always set your file to 300 DPI before you start. This single step is the difference between a crisp, detailed print and a disappointing one.

We LOVE distressed effects

Distressed effects can be a game-changer for certain designs. By intentionally adding light texture, fading, or “weathered” details, you create a softer, more vintage look that feels comfortable and lived-in right out of the box. Distressing also helps reduce the amount of solid ink coverage, which results in a lighter, softer print on the shirt—especially beneficial for large front graphics. It’s a stylish way to keep designs bold without making the print heavy or plastic-feeling, and it works exceptionally well for school logos, retro themes, and classic athletic designs.

What to use for designing your artwork?

There’s no single “right” tool for creating great T-shirt artwork — it all depends on what you’re making and your comfort level. Photoshop is perfect for photo-based designs, textures, and detailed raster artwork. Illustrator is the industry standard for logos, text-based graphics, and anything that needs to scale cleanly as a vector. If you want something beginner-friendly, Canva offers an easy drag-and-drop approach with templates sized for printing (as long as you export at 300 DPI). And when you need help generating design ideas, slogans, color palettes, layout suggestions, or troubleshooting print issues, ChatGPT is a powerful creative assistant that can guide you through the process. Using the right tool for the job makes your artwork cleaner, sharper, and more print-ready.

Fades, Glows, and Gradients

Effects like fades, glows, and low-opacity elements can look amazing on screen, but it’s important to understand how they translate to apparel printing. When you reduce opacity or create soft transitions, printers simulate those effects using halftones — tiny dots that blend together to create the illusion of transparency or smooth gradients. Halftones can print beautifully when set up correctly, but if the fade is too subtle or the opacity is too low, the detail may disappear on fabric. Keeping fades bold, glows intentional, and opacity above 60–70% helps ensure your design prints cleanly, with smooth transitions that hold up on real garments.

With certain shirts, less = more

When printing on lighter garments — especially high-quality tri-blends — less ink is almost always better, especially on the front of the shirts. These premium shirts are designed to feel soft, lightweight, and comfortable, so heavy full-front prints can create that stiff, “bulletproof vest” feeling that nobody wants. Tri-blends look and feel best when the design on front uses minimal ink coverage, distressed textures, or left-chest placements instead of large solid prints. This approach preserves the shirt’s natural softness, keeps it breathable, and gives customers a garment they’ll actually love wearing. For the best comfort and longest-lasting print, we always recommend keeping tri-blend artwork light and simple.

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