Best Artwork Format for T-Shirt Printing
Ten seconds of file preparation is the difference between a crisp print and a fuzzy one. Here's what we'd send ourselves.
The short answer
PNG, 300 DPI at print size, transparent background. If you have that, you're done — upload it and everything will be excellent.
Format by format
- PNG — the best all-rounder. Lossless, supports transparency, universally exportable. Our first choice.
- SVG — even better for logos and text-based designs, because vectors scale infinitely with zero quality loss. If your designer offers "vector", say yes.
- JPG — fine for photographs, but no transparency, so it prints as a rectangle unless we cut it out. Never save a logo as JPG.
- PDF — usually fine (most contain vectors), and our team extracts what's needed during the artwork check.
Resolution: the 300 DPI rule
Printers want roughly 300 dots per inch at the printed size. A front print around 25cm wide wants an image about 3000 pixels wide. Below ~150 DPI, edges visibly soften — the online designer measures this live and warns you as you scale an image up.
Three mistakes we see weekly
- Screenshots of logos — tiny, compressed, white-boxed. Ask whoever made the logo for the original file instead.
- White backgrounds nobody noticed — obvious the moment it's on a black shirt. Transparent PNGs avoid the problem.
- Enlarging small images — scaling up adds size, not detail. Start from the biggest original you have.
Unsure about your file? Upload it anyway — every order gets a human artwork check before printing, and we'll contact you if something won't print well. See also: how big should a T-shirt print be?