We share best practices and recommendations for creating art for your DTG apparel products!
Find the printing specifications
Each product in our product catalog has pixel dimensions that can be used to create artwork in Photoshop or your favorite image editing software. Some products also include templates you can download to help you get started.
Let's check out where you can find the print specifications for products in the Product Catalog.
1. Go to the Product Catalog and select a product.
2. Click on the Product Details section.
Creating Design Files
Before you start designing, we strongly recommend checking the product template for the item you’re creating. Templates outline the exact dimensions and required resolution for each product. While 300 DPI is generally the standard, some items may require a different resolution, so it's best to follow the template closely. This will help prevent the order from being rejected by the vendor’s API and falling into a pre-production issue.
The standard print area for most t-shirts and apparel garments is 14” x 16” (4200px x 4800px). There are exceptions (some models have smaller print areas for XS, S, and M, and some models are oversized, so the print area is larger), but most of the time, the above specs will be required when creating a file for an apparel model.
We recommend positioning your art in Photoshop before uploading it to Gooten. The section above contains downloadable templates to help with this.
We also recommend boosting the saturation of your images.
- In Photoshop, you can go to the Image tab, click Adjustments, select Hue Saturation in the settings, and move the saturation slider up about 10 to 20 points.
- Don’t overdo the saturation. You just need to get the colors to pop a little.
You can also improve an image's contrast by using the Tone Curve option. Some people use an S Curve, which darkens shadows and lightens highlights, making a huge difference in a flat image.
- To find this option in Photoshop, go to the Image tab, click Adjustments, and select Curves.
If your design contains black or white components, make sure they are true black or true white. A solid black or white on the monitor may not be true black or white. True black is 0 levels of RGB, and true white is 255 levels of RGB. Any other reading means the apparel printer will try to put a small amount of color where there should be total black or white ink.
Design/Print placement on a finished apparel product
The important thing to keep in mind is that the total distance from the bottom of the neckline to the top of the print should be between 2.25 and 3.25 inches. There is a standard 2-inch offset and 1-inch tolerance, plus an additional blank space that might be part of the submitted design.
Color Matching
The color of the shirt you're printing on affects how the design files will look when printed. If you order a white t-shirt and a light grey t-shirt, the colors will likely look a bit brighter on the white garment. Darker-colored garments will be printed with a white underbase under the artwork, which helps the colors in your design "pop" as much as possible. It's normal for the print results to vary slightly between white, black, and blue shirts due to these variances.
Your design should include solid colors, as designs with lower opacity or partially transparent areas don’t tend to turn out well with DTG printing methods.
Keep in mind that any transparent areas in your design will reveal the shirt's base color. So, on a red shirt, transparent areas in the image will appear red, and the same design on a black shirt would appear black.
DTG printing is best suited for complex multi-color images, images with gradients, and detailed images. It’s not the best option for large, solid blocks of one color. For the latter, you will achieve better results with screen printing rather than DTG printing.