Preparing artwork for a t-shirt design is a slightly different process to the one used for paper based or canvas products. Instead of working with a flat, static surface your canvas is a brightly coloured, contantly moving, cotton chameleon. To get the most out of your t-shirt designs it’s worthwhile considering how your image will sit on a body and how your design will print on a coloured cotton background. There are a number of tips, tricks and techniques you can use to enhance your designs for a cotton canvas. Here are just a few.
1) Colour your linework
If you’re designing an image using vector programs or hand drawn illustrations, a design can often be enhanced by changing the colour of your linework. Different coloured linework will stand out on different t-shirt colours so it’s just a matter or experimenting until you find something you like. The following tutorials show you how to create a t-shirt design from an illustration plus some great tips on enhancing your designs using different colour palettes:
- Colouring Tips for T-shirt Designs
- Go Media’s Rapid-Fire Illustration Technique
- Create a balanced T-shirt graphic (by j3concepts)
2) Removing backgrounds
One of the most valuable tricks you can learn when it comes to t-shirt design is how to remove backgrounds. This is particularly useful if you want to adapt your photos or existing artwork. Big, flat slabs of black or other background colours don’t tend to print too well and in many cases, designs can be enhanced with a more fluid outline instead of a rectangular shape. The following tutorials cover different methods for removing backgrounds:
- Removing Backgrounds Quickly in Photoshop
- Removing Backgrounds Quickly in the Gimp
- How To Remove Backgrounds in Gimp
- Removing a background in Paint .NET (video)
3) Frame your image
If you need a little more practice removing backgrounds, but you’re not happy with a rectangular design or a big slab of background colour, there are other ways you can create a more fluid outline or shape for your design. ‘Framing’ doesn’t need to be interpreted in the literal sense. You can break up the blockiness of a design in a number of ways, including using a distressed or vintage effect on the edges of an image, breaking the image up into sections, using collage techniques or creating a border or frame. Here are just a few examples:
4) Use the shirt colour as part of the design
Have a think about ways you can incorporate the coloured background of the t-shirt into your design. The file you upload contains a transparent background so the negative spaces in your design will show the t-shirt colour. Here are some creative examples:
If you’re interested in exploring the world of t-shirt design a little further, there are loads of tutorials available online but these aren’t a bad place to start. If you have any hints tips, tutorials or links of your own, we’d love to hear about them in the comments below.
Elucidate
this is a brilliant guide.
nadine henley
brilliantly helpful – thanks so much, nat!
robpixaday
::stands on top of the monitor and applauds wildly::
NAT!!!!
I haven’t finished reading this and haven’t visited the links yet but I KNOW it’s going to be a huge help!! It’s already told me things and given me ideas!!!!!
MANYMANYMANY thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whoooooooooooooooooooooooppppppppppppppppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!
MoonSpiral
I needed this soooooo bad…..I am a total ditz when it comes to Photoshop and didn’t know how to remove the backgrounds on my art for tees, thankyou!!!!!!!!!!!
community:
If the tutorials above don’t answer your questions, I’d recommend searching online for more. It may take a little practice but it’s well worth working it out. It opens up a whole world of possibilities! :)
lightsmith
My best seller with 25 sales and 5059 views …..
community:
Thanks for the tip lightsmith. I’ve met a few and they’re not too scary but I will heed your warning ;)
jemimalovesbigted
awesome!!!
Silvia Ganora
Thank you! I’m not happy with my tees designs… this will help!
Cat2be
Thank you! This has really motivated me to start doing some t-shirts.
Colleen Milburn
Fabulous info here, Nat – thanks :))
redladyart
Too bad RB’s T-shirt template is so limited that designs like those in the 50 Incredible & Inspirational T-shirt designs you referenced aren’t possible. That would be awesome! I find myself having to rethink my original t-shirt design ideas because of the square box limitations. I want to be able to design anywhere on the t-shirt, not just the front middle section.
community:
If you’re passionate about being able to print anywhere on the t-shirt the best place to voice your support for more options is over in the ideas and suggestions forum. But just between you and me, there are a few more options in the pipelines as we speak.
nishagandhi
thats cool!! thanks!!
redladyart
Thanks for the suggestion and the tip! Great news! :)) I’m excited!
Marjolein Katsma
I’m rather disappointed this is all geared towards line art, and not photo T-shirts. I tried to do a design with some really brilliant red and yellow in it and it comes out all drab-looking. When I browse T-shirts with the keyword ‘red’ and they all have the same problem (including line-art T-shirts), sometimes blindingly obvious. I can only conclude that either something is wrong with how the designs are rendered or *Red*Bubble truly cannot print red on a T-shirt.
In conclusion: some guidelines on color would be appreciated, especially for photo T-shirts: how do you design to get vibrant color on them?
I do know it’s possible to print real red on textile: I have a mouse pad right beside me, based on a photo of mine, and it has real, vibrant reds in it.
community:
I’d have to disagree that the info above is all geared towards line art. A lot of the tutorials above are useful for artists who produce photo based produce t-shirt designs. I made sure I included information that was useful to artists designing in a range of different styles and mediums!
Our previews are designed to give as realistic a representation of the printed product as possible. Prints on fabric (especially the darker tees) aren’t going to look as bright as they do on a backlit monitor so the previews are adjusted to take this into consideration. There’s a little more information here. Recent buyer’s booth winner James has some pics of red t-shirt designs here if you’d like to get more of an idea of how they print. The buyer’s booth_ will have a few more …
joan warburton
Thank you. This is extremely helpful!
Paulette Wright
This is a wonderful article! Gets a fav from me!!
LeviMoore
The borders idea is brill.
owlspook
first off thanks bunches for all the great links and info! (big smile) … but I have to agree with Marjolein Katsma … I haven’t yet tried vector art or line art … all my work is patterned graphic art and fractals … I am familiar with the problem of printing a true black on fabric and yes much of my work looks dull on a tee … please please could we have some hints and guidelines on color for tees (big smiile)
Anita Inverarity
Great stuff- very helpful xx
inkedsandra
Thanks i’ll be following these thins up when I have time. Yes colours are a problem even when you design in cmyk colour space
Hannah Fenton-...
cool stuff
Diana-Lee Saville
Thanks Nat…very helpful stuff :))
Marjolein Katsma
_"Our previews are designed to give as realistic a representation of the printed product as possible. Prints on fabric (especially the darker tees) aren’t going to look as bright as they do on a backlit monitor so the previews are adjusted to take this into consideration. There’s a little more information here."
Now I can see that is happening for photo prints – the previews are indeed just a little less saturated. So far so good.
But I had read that FAQ before I started on my T-shirt design, and deliberately increased the saturation because I know that on fabric the colors will come out a little less brilliant. But that is not what I’m seeing here. What I’m seeing is an utterly different red (and same for yellow): have a look at the before and after.
Like I said, I know it’s possible to print real red on fabric even though it’s less brilliant than a photo print – the proof is sitting right under my mouse here. If your T-shirt previews truly give an impression of your printed result then my only conclusion can be that your printers can’t do what other printers can do.
Now you refer to Buyer’s Booth 33 – well, compare the photo top right with your own preview – I see a totally different red there. Which one is right? If the photo is right, you can print red; if your preview is right … well, was the original truly red (and what happened with that photo)?
One final remark: I also uploaded my design (the exact same file) to Zazzle as a test. Now they do something different in their previews – they do reduce the saturation as well (but not nearly by as much as you do), and then show it on the t-shirts with just a little bit of transparency. My red on a blue background then comes out just about as what you are showing – but on a yellow background it looks a lot better, because the yellow shines through. I tend to think that’s more realistic. If the color of the fabric shines through a little, and you don’t underprint with white, then what you are showing for my design would be about the result for a blue background – but then it cannot look this bad on a white or yellow background!
Matt Simner
You’ve done a fantastic job of getting all the real ‘key’ points into a very small space here Nat, along with some great resources too. Straight to the pool room.
robpixaday
Just came back to say that those links are super!
thnx again!
Lorraine Creagh
Great Journal Nat. So much information.
I found some information in the Knowledge Base that could also be handy for T-Shirt Designers. The CMYK Values for the T-shirt colours.
prettybird
Unreal, brilliant xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Fiery-Fire
Well written, some awesome tips here – shall give a good look at all the links :)
One thing which it doesn’t cover – is “Color Conversion”
I have noticed when I upload my original design made in Photoshop in RGB,
as a T’s design png to RB – the colors get ‘dirty’ and muted – Are the T-shirt
outpits CMYK, because it doesn’t say it anywhere on the template to take
that into consideration.
Chris Baker
Fiery-Fire
The link below may be of help in your conversion (although I believe RedBubble convert directly from sRGB to straight CMYK anyway for T’s when you upload your file):
.
http://marksweeney.blogspot.com/2009/01/comic-b...
.
Try converting your RGB file design (a copy of your original!) to CMYK using this method, then back to sRGB again, before uploading your file here)… You may see a richer colour gamut in those perviously ‘desaturated’ areas of your design ;)
.
Hope it helps :)
Pete Janes
Supercool! Favorited for regular tutorial visits!
robpixaday
SO GREAT!! Yes, I’m back…
Just had to lt you know I used one of the tidbits: to let the color of the tee become part of the design.
Made this today!
YAY!!!!!!
fixtape
This is great. thanks!
matthewdunnart
This is super-helpful, thanks for putting it all together (and for including my chimp in the mix) :-)
Linda Bianic
Not sure I ever will do tee’s , but this is fantastic help….. might make me change my mind!
Thank you!!! ♥♥
Andrew Gordon
Nice one Nat :)
Pip Gerard
brilliant Nat! Would love you to link to this from “here” in Tee HQ too?
Pip Gerard
oops… that’s here
mollymum
thanks for the great T—tips :-)
sketchie
I always wonder how good my tee is going to look printed. I know there’s buyers booth but there are so many how do you know if your sold tee is even in there