How we print your shirts
Every shirt is printed on-demand - no warehouses, no minimums, no excess inventory. Here's exactly how it works, what files we need, and what the finished product will look like.
Direct-to-Garment (DTG)
DTG is the t-shirt industry's equivalent of an inkjet printer. The shirt is loaded onto a flat pallet, and the printer sprays water-based inks directly onto the fabric one layer at a time. A heat-press then cures the ink so it bonds permanently into the fibers.
Compared to screen printing, DTG can reproduce photographs, gradients, and intricate detail - and there's no setup fee per color or per order. That's what makes it possible for us to print a single shirt for the same per-unit price as a hundred.
No minimums
Order one shirt or a thousand - same per-shirt price.
Soft hand-feel
Ink soaks into the fabric - you feel the shirt, not a thick plastisol patch.
Full color
Unlimited colors at no extra cost. Gradients and photos print fine.
File specs we need
Get these right and your print will look exactly like the mockup. The design upload page also enforces most of this for you.
- Format
- PNG (preferred - supports transparency), JPEG, or SVG. We accept up to 10 MB.
- Resolution
- 150 DPI minimum at print size. 300 DPI is ideal. Most shirts we print at 12″ × 16″, so target at least 1800 × 2400 px.
- Color profile
- sRGB. CMYK files get converted automatically but colors may shift slightly.
- Background
- Use a transparent PNG so the shirt color shows through where your design isn't. Solid white backgrounds will print as a white rectangle.
- Print area
- Most adult shirts: 12″ × 16″ front and back. Smaller for youth/bodysuits. The exact area for your shirt is shown on the design upload page.
Designing for DTG
Pick colors that work on your garment
Dark designs on light shirts and light designs on dark shirts produce the highest contrast. Designs that match the shirt color closely can wash out - high-contrast art always wins.
On dark garments, we lay a white underbase first
Pure black ink on a black shirt would be invisible, so dark-garment prints get a thin white base layer underneath. This means: areas you want to stay shirt-color must be fully transparent, not painted black. Black ink on a black garment also appears slightly gray because of the underbase.
Avoid semi-transparency
Elements with reduced opacity, drop-shadows, or soft glows don't translate cleanly. Either use solid colors or simulate transparency with halftone patterns (small dots at varying densities).
Avoid hard borders at the edge of your print
The shirt can warp slightly when it's pulled off the printing pallet. Designs with a sharp rectangle outline at the edge will show that warp. Soften the edges or leave a margin.
Up-rezing doesn't fix low-res art
Saving a 500 px image at "300 DPI" doesn't add detail - it just stretches the same pixels. If your original art is too low-res, the only fix is to recreate it at the right size.
Limitations & honest disclaimers
DTG is a great fit for group orders, but it's a physical process with real-world quirks. Here's what's normal so you're not surprised when your shirts arrive.
- We don't print white ink on white garments. If your design has white elements and your shirt is white or cream, those areas will just be the shirt color.
- Light inks on bright-colored garments may look tinted. Most evident on red, maroon, and other saturated shirts - the dye and curing process can pull light inks slightly toward the garment color.
- Minor print placement variation is normal. A human loads each shirt onto the pallet - expect up to ~½″ variation between shirts in the same batch.
- Hard lines and symmetric shapes may show slight variations. Small shrinkage per print location is possible across different fabric blends.
- Pretreatment residue washes out. Some shirts arrive with light discoloration or staining around the printed image. It disappears completely after the first wash.
- Smaller youth and women's products may have inside labels positioned slightly lower than typical - a quirk of the printing process.
- We never ship blank shirts. If your order shows up in the warehouse without printing instructions, it stops there. Designs are required.
Embroidery (select products)
A few products in our catalog support embroidery - thread is stitched directly into the fabric. It produces a premium textured look that's ideal for polos, hats, and corporate logos, but it has tighter limits than DTG: smaller print area, fewer simultaneous colors, and no gradients or fine detail. The design upload page will tell you when embroidery is the print technique for the product you've chosen.
Ready to print a group order?
Pick a shirt, upload your design, and share a link with your group.