With the Spreadshirt Designer you can design and order your own t-shirts and other products from our apparel assortment. There is no minimum order: you're free to order just one, individually printed shirt.
Every personally designed article is an original: Your design will be placed on the t-shirt according to your instructions. Since this action is not automated, it is possible that there could be minor alterations. Also, it's possible that the design will look smaller or larger in reality. This is because the t-shirt example shown is always a fixed size (often "medium", sometimes "small").
See how the final price of your t-shirt is calculated. Read the explanation here.
There are different methods used to print a digital design on a product:
The specific print technique that will work best for you depends on the type of product you choose for printing, the color of that product and the color(s) of your design. When creating a product in the Spreadshirt Designer, the print technique(s) available for the product you select will appear in the Edit Design toolbar. For information about size requirements for digital designs, check out this FAQ.
Here are the methods in more detail:
Digital Direct uses superior textile ink to print directly onto the apparel without using transfers. When using Digital Direct on white apparel, the shirt fabric will be the white or transparent parts of your design. For example, the stars and white stripes of an American Flag would be the t-shirt itself.
With darker t-shirts, we print a layer of white ink under the design then add the colored ink on top of that initial layer. The colored ink is then embedded directly into the white layer for a rich, vibrant effect. Using the above example, an American Flag would first be a white rectangle, with the red and blue elements printed on top of this initial layer of white. Therefore, these prints can feel a bit thicker than those on light-colored t-shirts.
For the best results, we recommend using transparent file formats (.png or.gif).
With the help of a color ink jet printer, the design is first printed on a special type of transfer material. We then press the transfer material onto the t-shirt under high temperature. There is no white color used in this print technique. The color of the t-shirt will show through where the design contains white or transparent areas.
The Digital Transfer Overlay process prints using a special type of material and process before being heat transferred onto the t-shirt. We can remove the background only if your design meets all of the following requirements:
If you are unsure if your design elements meet the requirement of 0.12 inches in size, then you should check the design before placing an order. Open your design in the program you created it in, draw a small circle or square with dimensions of 0.12 in. x 0.12 in. and drag it over the thinnest elements of the design. If the design element is larger than the 0.12 in. shape, then the design should print at this size. If the design element is smaller than the 0.12 in. shape, then the design will not be able to be printed.
CMYK is used for all printing techniques. However, the design is displayed in RGB mode in the Spreadshirt shop (and on any monitor.) You can use your software to compare the design in both palettes, as they may appear differently. We also recommend uploading transparent .png or .gif files.