Five Important Steps to Know Before Printing a T-Shirt Design

By Christina Smith

Did someone say design a t-shirt? Designers would jump at the opportunity to create a well-designed shirt. Who wouldn't want to use their creative talents to design something that others would want to wear? However, before you get too far ahead of yourself, below are a few important factors to consider before sending your final piece to the vendor.

1. How many colors are in your design? T-shirt vendors prefer flat PMS colors. The more colors, the more expensive the printing will cost. Most shirt vendors print up to a total of 8 flat PMS colors.
2. Talk to your vendor. Know exactly how he/she wants the files. From a production standpoint, your vendor will thank you for your extra hard work and organization.
3. Specify specific PMS colors for your vendor. This will insure your design will be printed exactly the way you see each color presented in the Pantone book.
4. Is your design on the front and back of the t-shirt? If so, be prepared to pay more! Printing on both sides of the shirt always raises costs.
5. A design that is created with CMYK process colors will always be more expensive than flat PMS colors. The vendor will need to break down your CMYK colors into specific spot colors using a special Photoshop plug-in. The plug-in analyzes the colors, creates channels and splits the channels into 8 full-tone spot plates. Not only does this take more time, it's also much more expensive. The only time this process is cost effective is when you are printing a large run of shirts for big companies or sports teams.

Also important to note, CMYK inks are normally used on white shirts. Because CMYK inks are generally translucent, darker shirts absorb the ink more than lighter colored shirts. You may ask, "Well, why can't the vendor lay a white solid base, before the process inks are printed?" Unfortunately, this does not work either. Most inks used for printing designs on fabric are made of plastisol. If a white base coat is laid down before the design, the process colors will appear muted. However, it's always best to talk to your vendor first and get the information needed before you send your files to print. All vendors are different!

Hope this helps in your process of designing and printing custom-made t-shirts!