I posted a piece on how to do t-shirts a while ago. I deleted it when I realised that a lot of my ideas were wrong, but I think that I can offer some useful advice this time.
The template posted here at RB is what I’m using now. If you haven’t worked with it before the simple way to eliminate the white rectangle and red lines is to click on Select – top left – then All, then go to Edit and Cut. That wipes everything off. I have saved the template in that fashion now.
I had a lot of trouble with fonts. Everywhere I looked on the net I found instructions on how fonts could be added to the Gimp menu and I couldn’t make any of them work. My final solution was:
a – make sure every font I wanted was loaded into my Windows font folder;
b – uninstall Gimp and the GTK Runtime Environment which it requires;
c – reload the latest versions of each, available here.
Maybe I just got lucky, but it worked. All fonts now available.
I had created another problem for myself by creating my own template, but this wasn’t an issue until recently when RB changed the production method for the T’s. Effectively I had put all my messages on a white background rather than a clear background.
I found the answer on this page, which gives instructions on how to make any colour transparent in Gimp.
If you’re starting from scratch in Gimp and want to do a text T, it’s very simple (he said, having banged his head long and hard over this problem). Once you have the template open and prepared as I described earlier, click the bold T (for Text) on the control panel. This will open a box which will show options like fonts, colour – click on each to display the full range – size of text, and alignment. Click on the point of the template where you want the words to appear. This will open a small window – as you type, the words will appear here and also on the template. The template display will create a yellow boundary around your words. I find it easiest to start in the top left corner and then move the text to where I want it by clicking on the four-arrow icon. This should turn your yellow boundary to white, and the text will move as you desire.
Hope this helps.
PS: I’ve just used the colour to clear technique to create a negative version of my Amaze T shirt, Amaze T2.
ADDENDUM: I posted this piece, Programs I Use, in the forums some time ago. I’ll link to it here for your further consideration.
Oddpixels, about 1 year ago
This is really really useful! Thank you!!
Gregoryno6, about 1 year ago
It is?
(Swells with pride)
Which part, Oddp?
regina, 11 months ago
well hell i wish i had known this was here this w/e….i should really start opening my eyes more often =P
apparently, oddypixels got it because she never came back. i’m not going to sleep tonight until i make a freakin t-shirt >:(
regina, 11 months ago
are you using linux? i’m using IE7, will that make a difference?
regina, 11 months ago
i didn’t know how to put fonts into my computer but i do now! yay!
i’m gonna post it here in case anybody else wants to know
To add a new font to your computer
Open Fonts in Control Panel.
On the File menu, click Install New Font.
In Drives, click the drive you want.
In Folders, double-click the folder that contains the fonts you want to add.
In List of fonts, click the font you want to add, and then click OK.
To add all of the listed fonts, click Select All, and then click OK.
Notes
To open Fonts, click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Appearance and Themes. Under See Also, click Fonts.
To select more than one font to add, hold down the CTRL key, and then click each of the fonts you want to add.
You can also drag OpenType, TrueType, Type 1, and raster fonts from another location to add them to the Fonts folder. This works only if the font is not already in the Fonts folder.
To add fonts from a network drive without using disk space on your computer, make sure that the Copy fonts to Fonts folder check box, in the Add Fonts dialog box, is clear. This is available only when you install OpenType, TrueType, or raster fonts using the Install New Font option on the File menu.
Gregoryno6, 11 months ago
Hey, thanks! I will have a look at this, having grabbed a couple more new fonts over the weekend.