How to prepare print-ready artwork for merch

Why artwork is where orders stall

Most delays in custom merch aren't production, they're file back-and-forth: a logo that's too small to print clean, text that disappears at chest size, colors that were never pinned down. All of it is avoidable with a few checks before you submit, and print-ready art is also what makes rush timelines possible.

Formats, best to workable

• Vector (AI, EPS, SVG, vector PDF). The gold standard. Vector art is math, not pixels, so it prints razor sharp at any size and separates cleanly into ink colors for screen printing.
• High-res PNG with transparency. Great for most jobs, especially DTG. Aim for roughly 300 DPI at the final print size: for a 12-inch front print that means about 3600 pixels wide.
• JPG or screenshot. Workable as a starting point, but JPGs have no transparency and screenshots are usually too small. Simple logos can often be redrawn as vector; we'll flag it on the quote.

Transparency and real-world size

Send artwork on a transparent background, not boxed in white, so it can sit directly on the garment color. Then sanity-check the size it will actually print at: a design that looks great filling your screen may hold fine details that vanish at left-chest scale (usually 3-4 inches wide). Thin strokes and text smaller than about a quarter inch are the usual casualties, in print and even more so in embroidery.

Getting color right

Screen printing mixes ink to match Pantone shades and embroidery matches thread colors, so if your brand has Pantone codes, include them with your files. DTG prints color directly from the file. Also decide your garment colors up front: the same logo can need a light and a dark version, and a design with white elements will disappear on a white blank. Method tradeoffs are covered in our screen printing vs DTG and embroidery vs screen printing guides.

Check your file in ten seconds

The free artwork checker runs every rule in this guide against your actual file, right in your browser: resolution at print size, color count, background problems, and embroidery fine-line limits, with a verdict per decoration method. What counts as print-ready depends on where the art is going: see screen printing for spot-color separations, DTG printing for full-color raster art, and embroidery for stitch limits on fine detail.

Test it on a real blank first

The fastest way to catch artwork problems is to see the design on the actual garment. The Design studio takes a PNG, JPG, WebP, or SVG, places it on real product photos, lets you recolor the blank to Pantone shades, and sends the mockup with your quote request, so the size, placement, and contrast questions get answered before production, not after.

Not sure your file is ready? Send it anyway

You don't need perfect files to start. Attach what you have to a quote request with your quantity and deadline, and we'll tell you in writing whether the art is production-ready, what we'd fix, and what it costs, before anything gets printed.