Setting Up Your Design Files

We want to make sure your Artist Shop designs look as amazing on your products as it does on your computer. Here's a guide for everything you need to know to make that happen.

Designing for On-Demand Printing

Let’s start with the basics for creating an optimal file for on-demand printing! Below are the recommended Primary file specs to add a design to your Artist Shop and we have a more detailed guide for DTG design here:

Recommended File Size

4200 x 4800 pixels (minimum 2000 x 2000px)
300 ppi
Transparent .PNG

setup

The file is automatically resized to best fit across all products. Non-transparent .PNG or .JPG are accepted, but may not be optimized for every product. After initial upload, you may upload additional files to customize design by product. See product templates below.

Templates

Downloadable Apparel, Wall Art, and other Artist Shop Products for Photoshop and Illustrator

Plug in your art and you're ready to upload!

You can also find hi-res blank shots of all the Artist Shop products in the Artist Shop Gallery. Right-click on any product image to save a 1000 X 1000 file of the blank product. Add your design to see how it looks on the product and play with placement and background colors to create the perfect product for your Shop.

Output on Products

Here’s a visual of how that file translates onto the actual t-shirt:

*Something important to note: there is a default 1-2 inch offset from the neck already in place in our printers! This means, if your design is justified to be flush to the top of the 14×16 document, the design will start 2-inches down. If you align your document to be 1-inch down from the top of the document, it will print ~3inches down.*

14x16

Seen above is a Men’s medium and a Women’s medium. Women’s small and medium tees cannot physically fit on the larger printing palette without distorting and skewing the design. For this reason, we have them on a smaller palette which downsizes the design about 30%. However, with the exception of triblend tees, Women’s large and up will receive the larger palette and sizes.

Check out Tips for Optimizing Your File for On-Demand Printing to help to maximize vibrancy by optimizing colors in your design and create a design file that makes your printed design simply awesome.

What is On-Demand Printing?

On-demand printing is a method where a digital printer is used to print a design directly onto a garment or canvas using inkjet technology with direct-to-garment (DTG) or sublimation printing. Picture a futuristic inkjet printer the size of your bathroom that costs more than a house! It's like a giant inkjet printer, but using blank garments instead of paper- that’s essentially how on-demand printing works.

Why On-Demand Printing?

Since on-demand printing uses a digital printer, it has less color limitations than screen printing, which allows for more versatility since you are not required to match colors by inks and Pantones. Because of this, the print stays pretty close to true color. Additionally, with on-demand, customization is super simple. Since you are able to print an image directly on a garment, on-demand does not require any up-front investment, inventory commitments, or set-up requirements. on-demand printing helps us invest more in artists and less in inventory, providing more opportunities for artists to be creative and take design risks while giving them more canvases to explore.