A custom T-shirt company recommended 100dpi for images sent to them for reproduction on T-shirts. I know that for high-quality paper printouts, 200-300dpi is recommenced, so is 100 enough for a shirt? I understand that it shouldn’t matter much unless you’re close, but I just wanted to confirm that it won’t look like crap. Thanks.
Here’s what I recommend. Measure the width of your computer screen, then figure out what resolution will equal about 100 pixels per inch. That’s about what the T-shirt would look like. Also, is it a photo, or just text, or what? I think that would make a difference. Besides, if you’re really word about it, just send them a bigger image.
It’ll be a combination of text and images. I wasn’t sure if they would accept more than 100dpi because of the file size.
They usually have information about image quality and size in the help section of these online tshirt stores. I would follow their recommendations, as best resolution is probably related to their particular printing/transfer process and specific to their technology. If it says 100dpi, that might work best.
Slightl educated WAG:
I used to silkscreen t-shirts for fun. You may be dealing with dye-sub (like an inkjet) or transfer, so the issues will be at least a little different.
When silkscreening on fabric, the pigment is going to be absorbed into the fabric and spread. I suspect that the same is true of dye-sub. Transfers are done with heat and pressure and are probably also going to spread. Submitting art at 300 dpi will increase the risk of this happening, and instead of more detail, the image area will be so saturated with pigment that you won’t be able to see anything.
So 100 dpi if that’s what they specify.
If you’re talking specifically about CafePress, I’ve used 300 dpi images with them in the past with no problems. I think 100 dpi would be slightly blocky but tolerable, though.
About CafePress; I’m not selling merchandise, I just want a few shirts for myself, can they help me with that?
You can help yourself. Buy the iron on tranfer sheets that feed directly into the printer and print/iron them on yourself. About $1 per sheet. Look for them at Wal-Mart, etc.
I’ve used similar things in the past (was an iron on patch from a magazine); if I recall correctly their durability was limited. After a few washes the quality seemed to degrade significantly.
Isn`t that pretty much the case with all iron-ons?
The ones I used did fade rather quickly (1 year - 15 washes), but I was able to re-print the shirts I thought were worth it.
Sure. Just open your own “shop,” design your stuff, place an order from yourself, and close it once you’re finished.
As for the quality – I don’t know what technique they use, but it’s more durable than the iron-on transfers I’ve seen in the stores (or maybe they just have better transfers). I’ve got CP shirts from several years back that are still in great condition; aside from a slight fade to the image, there’s no noticable degragation in quality, IMO.