Sending artwork for custom T-shirt printing? Learn which file format to use, what 300 DPI really means, how transparency works, and how to avoid blurry prints, white boxes and colour surprises.
A good printer cannot recover detail that is missing from the artwork. If a logo is tiny, a screenshot is blurry or a background has accidentally been left in the file, those problems can become much more obvious when the design is printed at 25 or 30 cm wide on a T-shirt.
The safest starting point for most custom garment orders is simple: send the original vector artwork where available, or a high-resolution transparent PNG prepared at the final print size. For raster artwork, 300 DPI at the intended size is a strong target.
Custom T-shirt artwork preparation
This guide explains what that actually means, why changing a file from 72 DPI to 300 DPI does not magically improve it, and what UK customers should check before uploading artwork for DTG, DTF or other garment-decoration methods.
Before sending a design, check these points:
Those checks solve many of the artwork problems that delay custom-clothing orders.
There is no single file format that is best for every production system. Current UK artwork guides commonly accept combinations of PNG, PDF, AI, EPS and SVG, but the exact preferred format depends on the printer and decoration method.
For customers, the most useful distinction is between vector and raster artwork.
Vector artwork describes shapes mathematically rather than storing the image as a fixed grid of pixels. Common vector formats include AI, EPS and SVG, while a PDF can contain vector artwork too.
Vectors are particularly useful for:
A properly built vector logo can normally be enlarged without becoming pixelated. That makes it an excellent master format for a business that may use the same identity on a small chest logo, a large back print, signage and packaging.
Raster artwork is made from pixels. PNG, JPEG and many Photoshop files are raster-based.
Raster images are ideal for photographs, painted artwork, textured illustrations and other designs where pixel-based detail is part of the image. The trade-off is that they have a finite amount of information. Enlarge them too far and the individual pixels become visible.
For garment printing, a transparent high-resolution PNG is a widely requested raster format because PNG can preserve transparency without JPEG-style lossy compression.
Yes. A well-prepared PNG can be excellent for custom T-shirt printing, particularly for full-colour artwork and designs that need a transparent background.
The important words are well prepared.
Changing a poor JPEG into a PNG does not restore lost detail. Saving a screenshot as PNG does not turn it into professional artwork. The file still needs enough pixels for the size at which it will be printed.
UK DTF artwork specifications commonly ask for PNG files at around 300 DPI at final size, with transparent backgrounds where the garment should show through. Some suppliers also accept vector formats and press-ready PDFs.
DPI is often used as shorthand for image resolution in print workflows. The crucial part is not the number by itself; it is the resolution at the final print size.
Imagine a raster logo that contains enough detail to print sharply at 10 cm wide. If you stretch that same file to 30 cm wide, the available pixel information is spread across three times the width. The artwork becomes effectively lower resolution even if a software information box still contains a 300 DPI label.
This is why UK print artwork guides repeatedly specify 300 DPI at actual print size.
For example, at approximately 300 pixels per inch:
The exact requirement can vary with artwork style, print method and viewing distance, but the principle does not: physical size and pixel dimensions have to be considered together.
You can change the DPI metadata or ask software to generate extra pixels, but that does not recreate genuine detail that was never captured.
This is one of the most common artwork misunderstandings.
If you download a tiny logo from a website and simply type “300” into an image-size box, the software may interpolate new pixels. The file becomes larger, but the edges may remain soft because the original information is still missing.
AI upscaling and specialist reconstruction tools can sometimes improve usable artwork, but they are not a substitute for obtaining the original logo or design file when one exists.
For a business logo, ask the person who designed it for the vector master. For an illustration, return to the original high-resolution export rather than using a social-media copy.
Screenshots are made for screens, not for large-format reproduction. Messaging and social platforms can also resize or compress images.
A logo can look perfectly acceptable at 5 cm wide on a phone and become visibly jagged when printed across the back of a hoodie.
Common risky sources include:
If that is all you have, send the best available source and tell the printer. Do not hide the problem by placing the small image on a huge blank canvas.
Transparency tells the production workflow which parts of the image contain no artwork.
Suppose you have a red logo on a white computer canvas. If the white area is an actual part of the image rather than transparent space, a print system may interpret it as a white rectangle that should also be produced.
On a white T-shirt that mistake may be difficult to notice in a mock-up. On a black hoodie it can become obvious.
A proper transparent PNG displays empty areas as transparency in compatible software. Do not assume that a white-looking background has been removed just because the design was exported as PNG; PNG supports transparency, but it can also contain an opaque white background.
A useful check is to view the exported file against both a light and dark background before uploading it.
JPEG is useful for photographs and web images, but it has two disadvantages for many logo-style garment prints: it cannot store transparency and it uses lossy compression.
Repeatedly saving a JPEG can introduce visible artefacts around text and sharp edges. Those defects can become more noticeable after enlargement.
A high-quality JPEG may still be usable for some photographic prints, but for artwork requiring clean transparent edges, PNG is usually the safer raster choice.
Do not convert JPEG to PNG and expect the compression artefacts to disappear. Start from the highest-quality original available.
If your design is a logo, simple graphic or typography and you have a genuine vector master, send it. Keep a high-resolution transparent PNG export as a convenient backup if the printer accepts it.
If your artwork is photographic, painted or heavily textured, a raster format may be the natural master.
A useful rule is:
Logo or line art: vector first.
Photo or pixel-based illustration: high-resolution raster.
Not sure: send the original editable file plus a clean exported preview and let the printer advise which production file is most appropriate.
This is where generic internet advice can become misleading because different garment-printing workflows and suppliers request different colour modes.
Some UK DTF services explicitly request RGB because their RIP software performs the conversion through a printer-specific colour profile. Others request CMYK for particular transfer workflows. Current UK supplier specifications demonstrate both approaches.
That means the safest advice is not “always RGB” or “always CMYK”. Follow the specification of the printer producing your order.
More importantly, understand that a screen is not a perfect prediction of printed colour. Screens emit light and can display colours that a particular ink set, garment and print process cannot reproduce exactly. Very bright neon-like colours are especially difficult without specialist inks.
If a brand colour is critical, provide a recognised reference such as a Pantone value where appropriate and ask what level of matching the production method can realistically achieve.
Artwork does not exist in isolation from the garment.
A design printed on a white T-shirt can appear different on black, navy or red because dark garments may require a white underbase and the surrounding fabric changes how the eye perceives colour.
The same graphic can also feel visually heavier on a small shirt than on an oversized hoodie.
When sending artwork, tell the printer:
That gives the production team much more useful context than receiving an isolated file called logo-final-final2.png.
There is no universal minimum because the limit depends on the production method, fabric, ink or transfer system and the shape of the artwork.
Current UK DTF specifications illustrate the variation: one supplier recommends minimum DTF strokes around 0.5 mm, another specifies 0.35 mm, while another advises keeping text and linework above its own production thresholds.
The important lesson is that fine detail has a physical limit.
Tiny serif text, distressed textures, hairline outlines and very small gaps may look crisp at 400% zoom on a monitor but fail to reproduce cleanly on fabric.
If small text matters, print the design on paper at the intended physical size and look at it from normal viewing distance. If you struggle to read it on paper, making it a T-shirt print will not improve it.
Transparent backgrounds and semi-transparent artwork are not the same thing.
A transparent background means there is no design in that area. A 30%-opaque shadow or smoke effect is still artwork, but some garment-printing processes handle those partially transparent pixels differently.
DTF suppliers, for example, may advise avoiding or specially preparing semi-transparent effects because the white underbase and adhesive can affect the result.
If your design uses smoke, glow, feathered edges or transparent gradients, flag it before production rather than assuming the effect will translate exactly as it looks on screen.
Canva can be perfectly useful for creating straightforward T-shirt designs, but export settings matter.
If your plan allows transparent-background export, use it when the garment should show around the artwork. Export at the highest useful resolution and avoid starting with tiny imported logos or photographs.
The biggest Canva mistake is not the software itself; it is building a design from low-resolution ingredients. A high-resolution export cannot restore detail in a small image that was already blurry when imported.
Also check fonts, effects and spacing after export. If the design is colour-critical or technically complex, keep the editable Canva project and ask the printer to review the exported file before a large order.
Businesses should maintain a small logo asset pack rather than searching for the logo every time uniforms are ordered.
Ideally keep:
This makes repeat workwear and event orders faster and reduces the risk of different staff members sending different versions of the logo.
If your logo contains a tagline, consider whether the tagline remains readable at left-chest size. A simplified mark may work better for small placements while the full logo is used on larger back prints.
DTG and DTF are both digital garment-decoration methods, but artwork preparation can differ according to the printer's workflow.
Detailed full-colour artwork and photographic designs can work well when the source file has sufficient resolution. Transparency is useful when the garment should form the background of the design.
Clean transparent edges, correct finished dimensions and adequate detail thickness are particularly important. Supplier specifications commonly request 300 DPI raster artwork at print size, while colour-mode requirements vary between workflows.
Do not mirror a file unless your printer specifically asks you to. Many DTF production systems handle mirroring automatically.
The correct production file is ultimately the one that matches the printer's own workflow, not a universal template copied from another supplier.
A design should be judged at the size it will actually be produced.
A 1,500-pixel-wide illustration may be more than enough for a small chest graphic and insufficient for a very large back print. This is why customers should decide placement and approximate size before finalising raster artwork.
If you expect to use the same design in several sizes, retain a vector or high-resolution master and export separate production files as needed. Avoid repeatedly resizing and resaving the same small raster file.
This also connects directly to print placement. A 9 cm chest logo and a 30 cm back print are different production assets even when they use the same brand identity.
Check spelling, old taglines and outdated brand colours before approval.
Use transparency where the garment should show through.
Check pixel dimensions at the final physical size.
More pixels generated by software do not equal more original detail.
Review the design at actual size, not only zoomed in on a monitor.
Discuss critical brand colours and understand the limits of the print process.
Keep the source file. Export a production copy rather than destroying the editable artwork.
“Print this on a hoodie” leaves too much ambiguity. State left chest, centre chest, large back or another placement and give an approximate width where possible.
Before placing a custom-clothing order, open the final file and ask:
That ten-point check can prevent a surprising number of avoidable revisions.
For raster artwork, 300 DPI at the final print size is a widely used target across UK garment-printing artwork specifications. Lower effective resolution may still work for some large or simple artwork, but 300 DPI is a safer starting point for detailed designs.
It depends on what is inside the file and what the printer accepts. A transparent high-resolution PNG is excellent for many raster designs. A press-ready PDF can preserve vector artwork and text cleanly. Ask the printer for its preferred production format.
Sometimes, if it is genuinely high resolution and a background is intended. For logos and artwork needing transparency, PNG or vector artwork is usually more suitable.
It may be usable only for a very small print, but screenshots are usually a poor production source. Ask for the original vector or high-resolution logo wherever possible.
Not by itself. If you simply change the number or upscale a small image, the missing original detail is still missing. Effective resolution at the final print size is what matters.
Yes when you want the garment fabric to show around or through the design. If the background is intentionally part of the artwork, keep it.
Follow your printer's specification. Current UK DTF suppliers use different colour-management workflows: some request RGB, while others request CMYK. Do not convert blindly without knowing how the job will be produced.
Yes, provided the exported artwork has enough resolution, the background and effects are prepared correctly, and any imported images are themselves high quality.
Preparing artwork for custom T-shirt printing is less about memorising technical jargon and more about protecting the information in your design.
Use the best original file. Keep vector artwork when possible. For raster designs, aim for around 300 DPI at the actual print size. Remove unwanted backgrounds, inspect small details and tell the printer how large and where the artwork should be produced.
Most importantly, do not try to hide weak artwork by simply making the file bigger. A printer can reproduce a strong source accurately, but it cannot invent logo detail that was never there.
For ElitePrints customers, clean artwork helps orders move from approval to production with fewer delays and gives DTG, DTF and other suitable decoration methods the best possible starting point. If you are ordering custom T-shirts, hoodies or branded clothing, preparing the file correctly before production is one of the simplest ways to improve the finished result.
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