ACCEPTABLE FILE TYPES

These top 3 file formats are vector files. Your artwork must be created in a vector editing software (Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw) and saved in one of the above vector formats especially if you are intending to use screenprinting.

The bottom 3 file formats are also accepted but may need to be converted to a vector depending on which process you want to use on your apparel. If you don’t have one of these files listed before you get started with your order, please contact us so we can help lead you in the direction to ensuring that you get print ready art files.  Print ready files will make sure you get the best print possible.

PRINT READY FILES

How do I know if my file is print ready?

Print ready files first and foremost are one of two things.  Vector Files or 300 DPI or higher resolution files.

Vector images, allow a high level of flexibility. These files are built using mathematical formulas rather than individual colored blocks (pixels), vector file types like EPS, AI and PDF (not all PDFs are Vectors) are perfect for creating graphics that require any type of resizing, which makes them perfect for t-shirts. It allows us to scale the artwork to any size to fit any product without damaging the integrity of the design.t

To correctly print an image on either a garment or a screen printed poster, it should be at least 300dpi (but 600 DPI is better), a much higher pixel density than the web will display. Resizing a low resolution image (something that’s 72 – 150 DPI) pulled from the web to fit the area you want to print won’t work because the same finite number of pixels only get bigger and begin to distort, you’re not adding more pixels, the ones you had before just expand.  To explain, let’s say you want to print your logo at 3″ x 3″ on a left chest. If have a 72 DPI .jpg of your logo and it’s 3-inches by 3-inches, it would need to be “stretched” to more than 3 times its size to get it up to 300 DPI. That 72 DPI logo likely looks great on your computer screen, but when it prints on your product at 300dpi it will look pixelated.

CONVERTING TO OUTLINES

How do I convert my font to outlines?

Outlines and Rasterization are terms that you will hear from us when sending files to print if you’re using vector files like .AI, .EPS, .PDF, or .SVG. If we don’t have a font you used in your design and the vector file is not saved in outlines, then when we open the file the text won’t have the same look as it does on your screen.  Saving something with “outlines” means you are locking the text so that it’s no longer a font but instead an accumulation of vector shapes that form your letters. This is important when sending graphics to print to make sure that you get exactly what you’re wanting in your final product.  Saving a file in outlines makes your text no longer editable so we recommend that you keep an AI file as an editable master and then save another file as the locked final artwork which you’ll send to print to us.

In a raster file, you can rasterize the text too, which will turn it into pixels instead of a font.  If you don’t know how to do these things in Illustrator or Photoshop follow the steps below.

In Illustrator, highlight your text, then select:
Type > Create Outlines
In Photoshop, highlight your text layer, then select:
Layer > Rasterize > Type

In Illustrator

In Photoshop

PRINT SIZE

Sized to Print

Sized to print is one of the biggest and most overlooked aspects of file prep.  Every file you provide for printing needs to be sized to the specifics you’d like us to print.  Stretching a raster file to a size larger than it was originally created at will cause severe distortion.  We’ve prepared an image to show you why this is important.

You can see in the close ups of the enlarged file how much blurrier and fuzzier the edges of the colors are.  This will result in muddy prints that just look bad.  Make sure that if you’re providing files that they are designed at the size you want them to be printed at.  Unless it’s a vector format file, we cannot stretch a 3 x 3 file to be a 12 x 12 print

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