When using Direct-to-Garment (DTG) printing, the printing technique depends on the color of the garment:

 A white underbase is printed first, followed by the color layer to ensure more vibrant and true-to-color prints.

 Only the color layer is printed, with no underbase.

Since dark garments have a white underbase, gradients may not print well. The white base might show through, affecting the gradient's look.

If you wish to use an artwork with gradient effects, we recommend to choose a light colored garment.

Due to the thin nature of the ink used in DTG printing, light-colored ink is often difficult to see on light fabric. To improve readability and visibility, it's recommended to add a darker background behind your design (if you wish to use a light colored artwork) or preferable, use artworks with darker colors.

When printing black text on a black or dark garment, the white underbase can sometimes make the design appear more grayish rather than truly black. To help the text stand out, it's a good idea to use a white or light-colored background on dark fabrics. A white underbase is used for prints that aren't white themselves, involving layers of white ink followed by a color layer to make the design's colors vibrant.

It’s important to use a minimum 7 point size but recommend at least a 9 on serif and sans-serif typefaces for reliable legibility when printed.

For both black on white and white on black, we recommend a minimum of 6 pixels in weight or more for a defined, legible line that holds its own when your artwork is scaled between XS-3XL sized apparel. It is possible to go down to 6 pixels in line weight if you wish, but anywhere lower than that and you may find the outcome lacking in visual punch. 

For optimum artwork reproduction, save your artwork as 300dpi before importing it into MyStudio. It is possible though to drop down to 150dpi and still enjoy crisp, legible reproduction. In all cases, we recommend ordering a sample to assess your products before exporting to your e-store.

Please set your artwork to use the RGB colour space before saving them. Our print trials have confirmed that RGB is the optimum setting for our DTG printing process, with the best perceived reproduction of colour. Order a sample of your merchandise to assess artwork quality before taking it live on your store.

Creator Studio accepts the following file formats: gif, jpg, jpeg, png and svg. Please ensure you are using the correct format when importing artwork.

Depending on the type of garment being used, and the collection the apparel belongs to, there are different requirements for the dimensions of your artwork canvas. You can find the required dimensions in pixels when working in your MyStudio creation module. After you have chosen a garment to work with, click the ‘Select artwork’ button to view the maximum canvas size for that blank. Each garment’s maximum canvas size corresponds to the largest possible size your customers can buy, ie. a men's t-shirt in 3XL. Imported artworks will be scaled down automatically for smaller sizes.

When manually scaling down an image in editing software like Photoshop, be mindful to check and remove any semi-transparent pixel borders, to ensure a good outcome during printing. Sampling is always recommended to assess the print outcome prior to taking a product live. In this particular case, we advise sampling in a color way other than white.

Setting up your artwork file

Guidelines and tips to create designs leading to great print outcomes. 

Design Guidelines

We’ve carried out print tests using serif and sans-serif typefaces in multiple sizes. Our conclusions are that it’s important to use a minimum 7 point size but recommend at least a 9 on serif and sans-serif typefaces for reliable legibility when printed. Order a sample of your product to ensure quality before making it live, and it’s a good practice to order smaller and bigger sizes of a product to check your fonts hold when your artwork is scaled.

For both black on white and white on black, we recommend a minimum of 6 pixels in weight or more for a defined, legible line that holds its own when your artwork is scaled between XS-3XL sized apparel. It is possible to go down to 6 pixels in line weight if you wish, but anywhere lower than that and you may find the outcome lacking in visual punch. We always recommend to order a sample to verify your design comes out as desired. 

Fonts & Line Thickness

Just like printing on paper, it’s almost impossible to produce neon colours on garments that pop as they do on a screen. As a result, don’t expect your neon prints to have the same vibrancy as your digital artwork. 

Here’s an example of the neon print outcome on our DTG machines. As always, we recommend ordering a sample to assess the outcome before offering a product to your fans.

Please see a list of recommended HEX codes for printing neon colours, same as used in the picture. 

If you aim to order larger quantities and want an even better execution for your neon artwork, check our custom bulk section, 

where we offer different print techniques that give a stronger pop for neons and super bright accent colours. 

Creator studio

Common issues for artwork files using DTG

Gradient artworks

White on white and black on black

Fonts and Line Thickness

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