At Shred we print lots and lots of T-shirts for clients and 90% of the time we have the same issues when the design has been done by someone other than ourselves. Hopefully this post will help you design something that will cut down your costs and produce a T-shirt print that works.

How we print T-shirts

Our T-shirts are screen printed basically it’s a stencil that paint is pushed through onto your T-shirt to create your design. Each colour in your design will require a different screen so this is the first tip to keeping costs down. LIMIT YOUR COLOURS each screen costs around £25 to make so if you have a three colour design your £75 in before you even start printing, keep in mind that a front and back design will again mean more screens. If you can order more than 50 T-shirts then the price will drop significantly.

Get your artwork right

Many designs we receive have been created in Photoshop and sent to us as a flat jpg. This means more work for us as each colour needs to be separated into it’s own layer before it can be printed (more time=more money). Ideally designs should be in vector format this will generally produce a much cleaner print as vectors are always better. If you can design in illustrator and keep each colour on it’s own layer then your on the road to success. If you can’t do this and in-turn want to use Photoshop then keep your different colours on different layers, make sure your artwork is roughly at 100% print size and the resolution 300dpi. Outline all fonts or submit the font file with the artwork and make sure your colour settings are set to CMYK.

Pick the right image

Picking the right design is paramount. Don’t stick in a photo and hope it will all be fine think about the amount of colours in a photo! Try not to use gradients, solid colour is always better. In our experience the best designs are the simplest.

Downloads

Download PSD and ai T-shirt templates. Here!