Artwork requirements

Maximum file size is 40 MB. If yours is larger, contact us and we will give you somewhere to send it.

Resolution only means anything alongside a printed size. A 1,200 pixel wide file is 300 DPI at 4 inches wide and 100 DPI at 12 inches wide, and only one of those will look right.

• 300 DPI at final print size is what we would like.
• 150 DPI is our floor. The studio warns you below this, and it will still let you order, because a soft edge on a large simple shape is sometimes acceptable and you are the one who decides.
• Vector files have no resolution. An SVG or a vector PDF is sharp at any size, which is why they are the best thing to send.

The studio shows the effective resolution live as you resize the artwork, so you can see exactly where it drops below 150.

• Printable area is set by the garment position. Every one is published on the product page and drawn to scale.
• Method maximum is set by the process. Embroidery works to 4 by 4 inches regardless of how much room the garment has.
• The smaller of the two applies, and the studio tells you which one it used.
• Safety margin is 6 percent inside the printable area. Anything crossing it risks landing on a seam, a hem or a pocket edge.
• Registration tolerance on press is plus or minus 3 mm. Design so that 3 mm of movement does not break the layout.

Sublimation is the exception, because it prints across a whole panel. There, artwork should extend past the panel edge so that no unprinted strip appears at the seam.

If your file has an opaque background, the whole rectangle prints. A logo saved as a JPEG on a white square becomes a white square on a navy shirt.

Save as PNG or SVG with a genuinely transparent background. The studio detects transparency on upload and tells you which one you have, so this is caught before you order rather than after.

A near-white background is not transparent. Neither is a checkerboard pattern that was flattened on export. Check in an application that shows transparency before you send it.

• Outline your type, or embed the font in the PDF. If we do not have the font, an unoutlined file substitutes something else and you will not like the result.
• Minimum sizes. Screen and transfer methods hold type down to about 6 pt. Embroidery needs 5 mm cap height as an absolute floor, and reads better at 7 mm. On open mesh, nothing under 1 inch tall survives the holes.
• Font licensing is yours to hold. Many free fonts exclude commercial use or use on goods for resale. Check the licence covers what you are doing, because the rights warranty you give us at checkout covers typefaces as well as images.
• If you set type in our studio instead of uploading a file, licensing is our problem and not yours. Both typefaces offered there are licensed for this use.

What we do instead:

• We work to a nominated reference. Give us a Pantone reference and we mix to it. The result is a close approximation of that reference on that fabric, and we describe it that way rather than calling it a match.
• We tell you where a fabric will shift it. Heather grounds, tri-blends and dark garments requiring a white underbase all move a colour, and the amount is different on each. The product page says so before you order.
• We offer a proof piece. If colour is critical, a single unit printed on the real press is the only way to see it before you commit to a batch. Configure a proof piece

Colour variation inside this normal range is not a defect and is not a valid return. Printing that does not match the file you supplied is, and we deal with it under the returns policy.

Automatically, as you configure: effective resolution at the printed size, printed size against both the garment and the method limit, colour count against the method ceiling, and whether the background is transparent.

By a person, before printing: whether the artwork falls into any category on our acceptable artwork rules, whether the file is technically printable, and whether anything about the job looks like it will disappoint you. If it does, we email you before we print, not after.

What we do not check: spelling, grammar, dates and names. We print exactly what you supply. Read it twice.

Not sure about a file? Send it to support@designbyuapparel.shop before you order and we will look at it and tell you what we think.