OK so you’ve had some great ideas for custom t-shirts floating around in your head for a while and now you want to turn them into reality. Digital printing is one of the fastest ans cheapest way to go. Many companies have been using digital printing to custom large volume fabric for promotions or marketing. What are your first steps to take and how can you get your finished product on your back or on the market as quickly and expediently as possible? To make the customization easier there is some consideration that you have to take before you design your own fabric. Here are some;
Possible Design Adjustments
If you are lucky, your designs and the color schemes in them will coordinate beautifully on a finished fabric but more often then not you will have to make some type of adjustments. This all has to do with the types of ink that are used and just how your t-shirt is going to be printed out.
Light Colors on Dark Fabric
For instance, light colors on a dark fabric present their own particular problems that have to do with coverage. That is that a light color on a dark fabric is not going to be as vibrant as you might have in mind. That is unless you have your custom fabric silk-screened with a thick rubbery type of colorant.
Silk Screening
If you are determined to go with light colors over dark fabric, then you are to have to go with silk screening, which means higher expense and a minimum order requirement. Also, with silk screening the more colors that you use in your design scheme, the more it is going to cost you because each color requires a separate frame to be made and a separate pass with the ink.
Steps on How To Design Your Fabric
One of the first things for custom fabric printing that you need to do is to choose a fabric that you want to use for your design. You can choose to use either a light colored or a dark colored fabric for your little project. Be sure to use the right kind of transfer paper for your chosen fabric as well. And most important of all, make sure that you use a blank fabric for this one. No point in designing a shirt that already has prints on it.
After you have selected a fabric that you want to use, the next step is to choose a photograph. You can choose one from the Internet or one that you might be keeping in your personal collection. You can also draw your own designs if you have the artistic talent in you to do so. Be sure to scan your selected photos on your computer so you can further edit them using a graphics program such as Photoshop.
Once you have your program opened, you can put in additional touches to your photo if you wish. You also crop, realign, and rotate the image if you think it will add more depth to it. Afterward, you can choose to add a border to your design. This will make it look more organized and you can add some text to give it some more personal touches as well.
Be sure to use text that is appropriate with the design that you are to use. If it is a picture or doodle of your face, you can write something to describe yourself. Remember that since it is your design, you can choose to go ham and write some pretty obnoxious stuff about yourself, but all in the spirit of good humor of course.
After you are done editing your design, do not forget to save it to your flash drive as a JPEG file (USB) so you can present it to the printing shop afterward. Always try to go to a printing shop that offers affordable service. However, you should also make sure that their service is top notch as well so that you can get the most out of your money.
As you can see, to design your own fabric really isn’t that hard as long your imagination is active. There are literally no limits to the kinds of designs that you can come up with. The only one that can limit them is you.
