When designing for custom T-shirt digital printing it’s important to know what colors will come out the best. Since the digital T-shirt printing technology is relatively new and growing, there are definitely some colors that print much better than others. Here’s a list of our recommendations for the top five printed colors for digital T-shirt printing:

1. Black

2. Forest Green

3. Navy Blue

4. Red

5. Royal Blue

The easy pattern to see for these colors is that they are all dark/darker colors. The digital printing technology is making strides to be just as good as t-shirt screen printing and is getting closer every day. We contact all of our customers before printing to make you aware of any suggestions that we may have to make your custom printed t shirt the best it can be.

Half tones are a very easy and effective way to print gradients and maximize the amount of colors in custom printed t-shirts while keeping the cost down. Let me first begin by showing you a picture of what half tones are. Here is a really good design we printed that used half tones as a cool effect without adding anything to the price:

Now, we’ll zoom up closer to view the half tones:

The name half tone is a bit deceiving because it is rarely 50% of the color as the name would imply. A half tone can actually be any percentage of an original color. Once a color has been reduced to a smaller percentage, it appears to be another color that is lighter than the original. Some good examples would be black to grey or red to pink. This is accomplished by printing varying sizes of dots of the color and allowing the t-shirt color to show through. The combination of less ink being laid down and the t-shirt color showing through make very interesting and effective screen printed tees.

The best part about this process is the fact that it doesn’t cost more to do this. In fact, it actually costs less when compared to using two different colors for the same effect. The only downside is when the print is magnified, it is not as solid and “convincing” as an original spot color.

So if you’re on a budget or want to add a cool value-added effect involving half-tones to your artwork, just let us know.

Printing photographs on t-shirts is one of the hardest jobs a screen printer can take on. Since screen printing is based on spot colors, or singular color inks, images that consist of thousands of colors such as photographs must be accomplished with four color process. Four color process for t-shirt printing is a way to separate the thousands of colors in a photograph into four single spot colors known as CMYK. The C stands for Cyan, the M is for Magenta, the Y is for yellow and the K is for key or black. These four colors run on four different screens and come together to look similar to the original photograph.

But as most customers tell us….just looking similar isn’t going to cut it. One of the best suggestions we can make to get the theme or concept across in the print is to convert that photograph or image as an animation. Here is a great example of a photograph that one of our customers wanted printed on black t shirts.

Here is the real image converted to a more animated image for print consisting of five spot colors.

These shirts came out great and our customer was extremely happy with them. They were very pleased that we made that suggestion and informed them of their alternatives instead of printing an image they wouldn’t have been happy with.

T-shirts with all-over printed designs are some of the most popular shirts out today. They are unique and stylish. Some are so intricate, they look like paintings. The artwork is all over the collar, the sleeves, the sides of the shirts, and even the very bottom of the tee. You can find these shirts at just about every clothing store, but at times they can be quite expensive. Many aspiring fashion designers are creating the all-over print tees because they are in popular demand. Both shoppers and designers are turning to screen printers to get the look they want at an affordable price. Unfortunately, many have been disappointed by their results. Many customers even try to overpay t-shirt printers or offer to do business with them exclusively, and they too are told no.

Customers may scratch their head at this dilemma, but the answer is simple. It’s not that vendors don’t want the business; it’s just that the printers used have boundaries that can’t be broken. The t-shirt boundaries are usually 11×11 inches on the front and back of the shirt. Generally, the screen printers cannot stray from the boundaries. If a t-shirt designs is all over the shirt, the printer may cut the design off.

The true definition of all-over printing is artwork that is printed over the seams. The type of printer that prints over the seams is called a belt screen printers. This printer allows you to create the all-over designs you see in the magazines and stores. There are many advantages to using a belt screen printer machine.

1. Belt screen print machines allow artwork to cross the seams
2. They use discharge inks, which are a higher quality ink that feel as soft as the fabric.
3. Front to back printing. Your artwork can stretch from the front of your shirt to the back.
4. Continuous designs across the collar
5. Oversized prints that won’t be cut off in the printer
6. Awesome designs sure to turn heads!

With benefits like these, why wouldn’t every t-shirt vendor use the belt printer, right? Well, with every good machine come its disadvantages.

1. Belt printing is quite expensive. So if you think you can create an all-over printed tee cheaper than the stores, think again.
2. Belt printers generally have high minimums. The average minimum is 144 pieces.
3. Companies that use the belt printer are few and far between.
4. Belt printer designs may be difficult to create at times.
5. The turnaround from order to delivery is 1-2 weeks longer.

There is hope! It is very possible to create a faux all-over print design with a regular screen printer. The trick is to just make sure your design doesn’t run over the seams! Plenty of people have created their t-shirts like this, and they’ve turned out awesome. See? There are also tons of advantages getting your tee’s screen printed.

1. You can create the illusion of an all-over printed tee.
2. Lower minimums! No minimums!
3. Less expensive to get your shirts printed
4. Screen printers use a spot paint process instead of ink on your shirts, which produces a very high quality image on your shirts

At You Design It, we are here to help you create the design you want without changing your design completely. So, if you want your million dollar design for under a million dollars, we would love for you to give us a call and see how we can make the design work you on screen printed t-shirts.

**Update to All Over Print on T-Shirts - Answered**

We have received some good feedback and even a new vendor who is helping us out even further on this subject by taking a way a lot of the limitations we wrote about. Please read our newest post on the subject called Return to All Over T-Shirt Printing.

We actually print a lot of t shirts and apparel from artwork that isn’t created on our site. This is accomplished by uploading your own artwork to us and we provide you a custom quote. One of the most common errors we see in the artwork sent to us is the intention of having the design printed all over the t shirt. An example of this would be a continuous design starting on the front of the shirt and finishing on the back (crossing over the seams). In our next post, we will show you what we are talking about and how that can be accomplished in a way that is best for the t shirt printers and best for you as the consumer.