How to make a great t-shirt (version 2.0) (locked)

What graphics software do I need?

You can use any graphics software that supports PNG files. We recommend Adobe Photoshop (which costs a bit of cash) or GIMP (which is free!)

Other popular graphics programs which support the PNG format include Photoshop Elements, Adobe Illustrator, Corel Photo-Paint, Inkscape (another free one), Paint Shop Pro, Pixel image editor, Paint.NET and Xara.

How to use the t-shirt template / How to make a transparent background

1 – Open the t-shirt template. You can either download the RedBubble t-shirt template or create a new document. If using the template, you just need to right click on the link and choose ‘save file as’. If creating a new document, it needs to be 3200 (height) x 2400 (width) pixels in size with a transparent background in RGB format. We recommend using Photoshop or Gimp (which is available as a free download). This is what your settings should look like in both programs if you are creating your own document:

2. Delete the explantory message. If you have used our template, YOU MUST DELETE THE EXPLANATORY IMAGE otherwise it will appear on your print. There are many ways to do this but the easiest is generally ‘Select All’ (usually ctrl-a or apple-a) and then ‘delete’.

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Tips on preparing your artwork.

Once your template document is ready, you can paste, drag or place your artwork into the template or just start to create your design from scratch.

Placing an existing image or an image from another software program

You can often copy and paste images between programs. This will depend on whether the two different software programs are compatible. If you are unable to paste your image this way, you may need to save it and import it into the existing template. It is usually much easier to work this way than to take an existing image and try and apply the properties of the template to the document.

To import an existing image into your template in Gimp, select File > Open as Layers. To do the same in Photoshop, select File > Place.

Transparent Backgrounds

It is very important you work with a transparent background. A transparent background looks like a grey and white checkered box. If you flatten the image or fill the whole background up with black or white it will be printed on your t-shirt.

Tip: If you are saving your document at any stage and you are asked to flatten layers, choose ignore.

How to remove background colour

This is a particularly handy thing to learn about if you are working with photos in your t-shirt design. There are a number of ways you can remove background colour in Gimp, Photoshop and other graphics software programs. This can take a bit of practice so you may need to have some patience. Here’s a couple of tutorials demonstrating tips for removing background colour. If these don’t suit what you’re trying to achieve, get on Google and Youtube and have a hunt around for others. There are lots of different tutorials out there.

1. Removing Backgrounds Quickly in Gimp
2. Removing Backgrounds Quickly in Photoshop

Another option in Photoshop is to use the Select > Colour Range option of you want to remove all trace of one particular colour from an image. There’s a great video tutorial on using that tool here.

Saving your file. Then all you have to do is save it as a PNG file which should appear in your drop down options on the saving dialogue box. If you do not see the PNG file option in your drop down options, check your settings under Image > Mode (in Photoshop and Gimp) to make sure you have the file set to RGB.

How do I do horizontal/landscape oriented images?

If you want to use a landscape image in your design, you need to place the image on the existing template. Please do not change the document setup from portrait to landscape as your file will not upload. The rectangular shape of the template indicates the fabric area on which we can print so any design needs to be placed within that area.

How do I check where my design is positioned?

Upload your tee and tick the ‘hide your work’ option and check you’re happy with placement before posting. You can also take a look at the tee colours to decide which suits before choosing a default colour. Your work will show up in activity monitors as it was first uploaded (including your first choice for default tee colour) so it’s worth tweaking the design until you’re happy.

If you upload a hidden tee then go to the clothing tab under mybubble, you’ll see the tiny pic that looks a bit like this:

Right click and copy the link location (properties > location) and grab the url with .jpg on the end. It’ll look something like this:

http://images-2.redbubble.net/img/clothing/bodycolor:white/cropped/size:xsmall/style:womens/view:main/1763422-4-murder.jpg

If you paste that into another browser window and change xsmall to large in the url, you’ll get a nice big preview showing the detail … you can check you colours by changing that part of the url too – i.e. replacing black with white etc in the url.

Using Gradients and Halftones

The printer we use sprays down a number of layers of ink on the t-shirt. On dark shirts, the printer puts down an area of white first which sits underneath the coloured layers. If there are very fine details in your shirt design, the printer is effectively trying to lay down colour in exactly the same spot as the last layer so when using gradients and halftones in your design it’s worth keeping the following in mind:

1. Black fading to nothing = ok
2. White fading to nothing = tricky
3. Colour fading to nothing = tricky
4. Colour fading to another colour = ok

1. More info on Halftones

If you have any other questions, check out our T-Shirt FAQ first and if they’re not covered there, head over to the Need Help forum where you can pick our brains for even more information. If you have any suggestions for additional information you’d like to see added to this guide, you can leave a note for us in the Feedback forum!