How to Prep Art for Custom Printing

Ninety percent of "my print looks bad" problems are really artwork problems — and they're easy to avoid. Five minutes of prep gets you a crisp result.

Vector vs. raster

Vector art (AI, EPS, SVG, PDF) is built from math, so it scales to any size with perfectly clean edges — ideal for logos and text. Raster art (JPG, PNG) is made of pixels; blow it up and it goes soft and blocky. If you have a vector logo, always send that.

Resolution: aim for 300 DPI at print size

For raster art, what matters is pixels relative to physical print size. A good target is 300 DPI at the size it'll print — so a 12-inch-wide front print wants roughly a 3,600-pixel-wide image. A tiny logo pulled off a website (a few hundred pixels) will print pixelated. Bigger source files are always safer.

Lose the white box

A JPG of a logo almost always carries a white rectangle behind it — fine on a white shirt, obvious on any other color. Use a transparent PNG (or a vector) so only the art prints. If all you have is a white-background file, our background-removal tool in the designer can clean it up in one click.

A quick checklist

• Vector if possible; otherwise high-resolution raster (300 DPI at print size).
• Transparent background — no white box.
• Convert text to outlines, or tell us the font.
• For screen printing, keep colors to solid, separable shades.

Not sure your file is good enough? The designer shows a print-quality indicator as you size your image, so you'll know before you order.