bad t-shirt placement design

Top 4 T-Shirt Printing Mistakes To Avoid | What You Can Do Differently

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01. Complicated Designs

With too many incorporation of designs and content, in contrary to making your t-shirt stand out, it will end up looking messy. 

Remember: 
Busy design = messy looking
Simple design = brings out the right focus and makes it easier for others to process your design

02. Poor File Quality

– Bad image quality
– Low resolution
(Images should be 200 dpi or higher)

03. Bad Contrast 

– Fonts design clash
– Bad colour mix (remember that more colours involved = more cost involved)
– Background and image / text contrast

04. Bad Placement 

You can get the design right, but if your placement is off, it can make your t-shirt really look out of place.

Here’s what you can do differently: 

01. Do The Right Artwork Preparation 

Before getting your t-shirt printed, it is essential that you take some time to conceptualise your design. You can simply draw it out on a piece of paper before proceeding to do any actual design work. Try creating a few variations so that you will not be limiting your options. 

Programs that you can use to design your t-shirt:

  • Adobe Photoshop: for detailed designing works
  • Adobe Illustrator (AI): for more advance level designing works – it creates higher resolution than photoshop

Other than using these programs, there are actually a few websites in Singapore that you can utilise to design your t-shirt online and get it printed. 

Ensure that your image files are of high quality as this will affect the final printing outcome. 

02. Use Complimentary Fonts & Sizes

You can go to dafont.com or fonts.google.com to go about pairing your fonts for your t-shirt design. 

One should avoid choosing font styles that are too similar in nature. Because, if the contrast is too small, it will lead to a conflict in style. For instance, one should combine a serif with a sans serif. 

Serif: has a small line attached to the end of the stroke

San Serif: does not have any extra strokes at the end 

The more contrast your fonts have, the better the result. With that being said, one should not go to the extreme and choose fonts with too much variation and difference. Some fonts just do not have a great pairing combination. 

Another way to achieve a good contrast is by experimenting on the font sizes. 

Usually the header is meant to stand out more than the content that is in the paragraph. Remember the same rule: if there is too little contrast, it will make it harder for the receiver to distinguish the difference in your separation.

03. Use Complimentary Colours 

If you have trouble identifying your colour’s html code (exact colour code), you can consider using this program: https://imagecolorpicker.com/. 

– Simply drop your picture into this website
– And it will identify for you your html colour code 

An example of a shade of blue = #2596be

Next, if you are unsure what kind of colours go with your primary colour that you have chosen. You can also check out this free website: https://coolors.co/f77f00-555b6e-89b0ae-bee3db

  • Click on the figure on the 1st column and paste in your colour code 
  • You can proceed to lock your primary colour by clicking on the lock icon
  • Press ‘spacebar’ on your keyboard and let the system generate 3 other colours to compliment your primary colour! 

If you are not satisfied, simply press ‘spacebar’ again. 

04. Source For A Good Printer

All in all, after you have prepared the ground work and solidify your ideation, the last step is to find a good printer that can turn your visualisation into a reality. In Singapore, there are actually very few t-shirt printing companies that have their own in-house printing team. This means that usually there is a lack of quality control. 

Before you make a decision to go with a particular company, it is important you do your own research and look up the company’s track record, reviews, pricing, and even the after-sales service. 

The result will also depend on the kind of material quality that the company uses as well as the type of printing you would want the company to help you with. There are many types of t-shirt printing, and it is an art that requires skill and workmanship.