Ultra.
Have you ever received a product that looks different in-person than it did online? As a creator, you put a lot of work into building your community and want to make sure those who purchase your merch don’t have nothing less than an amazing experience. This guide will help you ensure that the products your customers receive match what they see in your storefront.
There are two different printing processes that you could have for our merch, direct-to-garment (DTG) or sublimation. All Over items as well as accessories, mugs, and home decor use sublimation. This guide will walk you through the best practices for creating these types of items. If you’re looking for information about the other methods that we offer, please check out our Embroidery and DTG guides!
What Is Sublimation & How Does It Work?
Sublimation is a printing method that uses heat and pressure to transfer dye onto different materials. The heating of the ink onto the material causes it to turn into gas, which the material then absorbs. This results in a permanent and vibrant print that won’t fade or crack over time.
For All Over prints, your design is sublimated onto a roll of fabric. Then your garment(s) are cut by hand and stitched together to make the final product.
How to Design for the Best Sublimated Merch
Print File Sizing
A print file size is the actual size that will be printed on the item. Below are the maximum print file sizes that would be printed on an item but can be slightly different depending on the size of the item and the item itself. Each non-wearable item that uses sublimation printing will share the item's sizing (for example, a 26” x 26” pillow).
Shirts & Hoodies
|
Front Print |
Sleeves |
Details |
|
|
Men’s Crew Neck T-Shirt |
28” x 36” |
20” x 12” |
-- |
|
Men’s Tank Top |
27” x 34” |
-- |
-- |
|
Women’s Crew Neck |
26” x 33” |
16.5” x 10” |
-- |
|
Unisex Bomber Jacket |
31” x 36” |
53” x 18” |
|
|
Unisex Hoodie |
37” x 37” |
||
Pants
|
Legs |
Front Waist |
Back Waist |
Inside Pocket |
|
|
Capri Leggings |
47” x 35” |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Leggings |
48” x 41.5” |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Men’s Leggings |
58” x 48” |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Yoga Leggings |
47” x 41” |
20” x 7” |
16” x 6” |
-- |
|
Yoga Shorts |
47” x 18” |
20” x 7” |
20” x 7” |
-- |
|
Biker Shorts |
26” x 20” |
22” x 10” |
||
|
Men’s Joggers |
33” x 50” |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Men’s Recycled Athletic Shorts |
52.81” x 31” |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Unisex Wide-Leg Pants |
68” x 50” |
-- |
||
Other
|
Front |
Back |
Legs |
Inside label |
|
|
One Piece Bathing Suit |
25” x 35” |
25” x 35” |
-- |
-- |
|
Sport’s Bra |
25” x 22” |
25” x 22” |
-- |
-- |
|
Recycled Swim Trunks |
-- |
-- |
51” x 27” |
4” x 11.5” |
|
Skater Dress |
Top: 25” x 23” |
-- |
2” x 1” |
|
You may notice that when you upload an image, you’re unable to resize it to the full printable area. This is because upscaling past the image's native size is restricted to preserve the quality of the image.
Dots Per Inch (DPI)
We see everything in pixels per inch for digital images, while it is dots per inch when printing. Having the correct DPI will create crisper images. However, creating files with extremely high DPIs can cause them to take up too much hard drive/disk space or be too large to upload to Streamlabs. Below are the size restrictions for files with DPIs.
Minimum DPI: 150
Maximum DPI: 300
File Format
When you save a digital image, you have various formats to save it in. You should always save/export the file as a PNG. PNGs support transparency and keep the image's integrity when saved.
Color Space
Color matching is incredibly important. Different printers will only be able to identify certain colors. This means if you design outside the color range, it will try to guess the closest color, which can cause lackluster merch.
Designing: CMYK.
Saving: Convert to sRBG. (If you want to be super specific, sRGB IEC61966-2.1)
Transparency
We highly recommend using images with transparent backgrounds. Let's say you have an image with a black background, and you're printing it on a black item. To print the black onto the black, the printer would first need to print a white under-base, which will change the density of the black ink. This means that the printed black and the black of the garment will differ, causing the print to appear gray.
We do not recommend images with transparency within them. What does this mean? Well, basically, if you can "see through" the image it won't print well.
This is because "transparent ink" doesn't exist, meaning the printer will guess the color. This can cause a lot of headaches for the final product. If you want a faded/feathered effect, you could try one of these two options:
Option 1: Create a solid element if the element has a background. Then add a layer mask and use a soft brush to feather the edges of the element. However, if the background matches the color of the garment, don't use it on that color garment!
Option 2: You can try to use a halftone effect. This means making patterns of dots that create the illusion of a fade.
Other
Some other great rules of thumb for Sublimation printing are:
- Use graphics that can cover the entire product.
- Stay in the safe zone (the dotted lines) so no important graphics or text are missed/sewn into the seams
- Create patterns using the “All Over Pattern” generator
- Don’t use images with white borders