Okay, you've had some great custom t-shirt ideas in your head for a while and now you want to bring them to life. Digital printing is one of the fastest and cheapest ways. Many companies have been using digital printing to personalize high-volume fabrics for promotional or marketing purposes. What is the first step you are going to take? How can the finished product be shipped or put on the market as quickly and conveniently as possible? To make customization easier, there are a few factors that need to be considered before designing your own fabric. Here are a few;
Possible design tweaks
If you're lucky, your design and the color scheme it contains will blend perfectly with the finished fabric, but most of the time it won't you will have to do some sort of adjustment. It all has to do with the type of ink used and how the shirt is printed.
Light colors on dark fabrics
For example, colors on light and dark fabrics present special hiding power problems. That being said, light colors on dark fabrics won't be as vibrant as you think. That is unless you screen print your custom fabric with a thick, rubber-like stain.
Screen Printing
If you decide to use a light color on a dark fabric, then you'll have to screen print, which means higher fees and minimum order requirements. Also, with screen printing, the more colors you use in a design, the more expensive it will be, as each color will require a separate frame and ink channel to manufacture.
Steps on how to design your fabric
The first thing you need to do for custom fabric printing is to choose the fabric you want to use for your design. You can choose to use light or dark fabrics for your small projects. Be sure to use the correct type of transfer paper for the fabric you choose. Most importantly, be sure to use blank fabric for this. There is no point in designing a t-shirt that already has a print on it.
After choosing the fabric to use, the next step is to choose the photo. You can choose one from the internet or one from your personal collection. If you have artistic talent, you can also draw your own designs. Be sure to scan the photos you choose to your computer so you can further edit them with a graphics program like Photoshop.
Once the program is open, you can make other touch-ups to your photos if you wish. You can also crop, realign, and rotate the image if you think it will add depth to the image. You can then choose to add a border to your design. This will give it a more organized look, and you can also add some text for a more personal touch.
Be sure to use text that is appropriate for the layout you are using. If it's a photo or drawing of your face, you can write something to describe yourself. Remember, since this is your design, you can choose to go crazy and write something really nasty about yourself, but with humor of course.
When you're done editing your design, don't forget to save it as a JPEG (USB) file to your flash drive so you can send it off to the printer later. Always try to go to a printer that offers an affordable service. However, you also need to make sure that your service is top-notch, in order to get the most out of it.
As you can see, designing your own fabric is not difficult as long as your imagination is active. There are virtually no limits to the types of designs you can create. The only one who can limit them is you.
