What Size Image Do I Need To Upload To Teespring
Do you want to print a photo on a T-shirt? Maybe a group shot of your family that will exist a gift, or a new company logo that is colorful or photograph-realistic. Maybe it'south a big motion-picture show of your own face (hey, to each their ain). In all of these scenarios, your image should be optimized to become the best results for a impress. This blog post will show you exactly how to do that.
Of course, our Art Section tin do it for you– if you ask. But if y'all're similar me, and prefer to be in control of it yourself, you will need to have Adobe Photoshop or another graphics programme. Otherwise, I recommend using a free program like Photopea, which has all the features of Photoshop and tin can be used through your browser.
It may exist a good idea to familiarize yourself with the basic functions, and the layout of the various tools before getting started. And if whatever of these graphics programs nowadays too much of a learning bend, attempt using Pixlr 10, a simple online photo editor which has nearly of the features that I will exist showing you. Now on to optimizing!
Why optimize your image?
At that place an acronym yous might be familiar with chosen WYSIWYG, pronounced "whizzy-wig" and it stands for What You lot Come across is What Y'all Get. When it comes to printing photographs and other graphic designs onto shirts, it'southward more like WYSINWYG: What You Encounter is Not What you lot get. Even with the all-time artwork possible.
A print will always have a reduction in graphic appearance, item, and color vibrancy from what'south on your screen.
Colors will change
When looking at the colors of a computer image, you lot're looking at an platonic version. Considering of color modes, the epitome can never accurately interpret to a printed image. Any honest impress company should tell you that. That way, yous don't go your hopes also high. Unhappiness comes from unmet expectations– and nosotros desire you to be happy.
If we're screen printing with Plastisol, nosotros tin can print with all of the brightest colors available. The thing is, screen press is non typically recommended for photographic images. And even when you practice, it comes with its ain prepare of challenges and drawbacks– merely worth it for large orders.
This post is focusing mostly on printing photos with digital, straight-to-garment printing, or DTG. Check out my post on screen printing vs DTG for more info on both ornament methods and how they compare to each other.
The instance GIF below shows the disappointing difference in color modes when yous convert. The colors in RGB mode (computer) are much more brilliant and saturated because computer screens are lit from backside. In CMYK mode (printed) the lite source is coming from in forepart of it, and then you can't go those vivid colors– at least not with normal CMYK printing. Learn more about RGB vs. CMYK here.
The good news is there are things nosotros can do to give y'all the all-time possible take a chance of getting the printed image to come shut to what you meet on the computer. For ane affair, our digital printers practice a amend chore than what you see in a higher place, by using ii additional colors: brilliant red and dark-green. So our machines are effectively CMYK+RG: six colors rather than four.
On pinnacle of that, we tin can do things to optimize your epitome for digital printing, some of which I'll be detailing in this postal service. Once more, we're happy to do these things for y'all in the Art Department, but yous accept to inquire when you put in your order.
Simply if yous're someone who likes taking care of things on your own so you can be in charge of the await, or you simply dearest learning new skills, this postal service is for you lot!
How to optimize your image for T-shirt press
The post-obit are my top ten steps to heighten and amend your photo, preparing it for a successful print. These steps will work with any photograph, and if you follow my instructions, I guarantee you'll stop upwardly with something much better and then you started with. Here is the example photo I will be using to go through these tips, from the free stock photograph site Pexels:
1. Start with the highest resolution
The first tip is the about important tip of all, and it's by far the biggest issue nosotros deal with in our Art Department on a daily ground: images submitted with a low resolution. The image below is an actual-size example of a also-small size people submit to us on whatever given day. While it might look okay on the screen, in that location is a major problem: the resolution is very low.
What is image resolution?
Resolution is essentially how many pixels an image has. Typical web resolution is 72 PPI (pixels per inch). The ideal resolution for printing is 200 PPI or more–at full size . That last chip is crucial. Even if you do have something that is 300 PPI, if its only 2 inches wide when it needs to be printed at 12″ wide, the resolution is still also low. Zoom in and take a look.
Compare the epitome quality in this close-upwardly between depression and high resolution and you can see why it's so of import:
A impress will never be as clear and detailed every bit the original image, no matter how much you optimize it, or how well you lot impress it. It'south the nature of the brute. So start out with the highest resolution possible, because it can merely get worse.
Get to the pull-downwardly carte du jour "Image > Image Size" to see what you're working with. Below is what it should look like when yous accept a nice big file with a high resolution. Every bit you can see, whether at 72 PPI and 78″ broad, or 300 PPI and 18″ wide, the number of pixels remains the same. (Uncheck "Resample Image" to keep the number of pixels the same as yous alter size.)
Practice you have a vector file rather than a raster? Or some other image format? For more about the various file types, read my in-depth web log post about submitting the all-time file types for press.
Tin can I take a small image and just increase the document size or the number of pixels?
Yes and no. Meaning yes, you can– but no, it's not going to help much. Photoshop does a thing where it tries to compensate for scaling up a pocket-size image past adding a slight blur to the edges to mask the jagged pixels and artifacts. The zoomed-in paradigm below shows you lot the difference. In the heart, you can come across how there is some smoothing, but the quality is still lousy.
Obviously its no substitute for a high-res photo. So make that call, send that email, do whatsoever you have to practice to get it!
If yous have multiple versions, compare them. If it's your photo, you may want to re-download the largest format from your camera (typically RAW). If it wasn't yours, cheque with the original artist or photographer. If it'southward a stock photo, become back and download the biggest version. For images from the spider web, use Google'southward Advanced Paradigm Search to become the best file.
Once you go the highest-resolution file available, it tin can be sized for printing. But there is 1 pace to do start: cropping.
ii. Crop the prototype
Cropping is essentially chopping off areas of the image that are unneeded. With a well-thought-out crop, you tin can properly center your bailiwick, increase the size of the subject relative to the rest of the photo, and frame the bailiwick in a mode that makes the virtually sense. In Photoshop, you merely striking the "C" button and your crop tool will appear, along with grid lines.
In my example crops in a higher place, there is no correct answer. I'grand going with crop "A" for this image, which leaves visible some of the background elements: the heaven, the mountains, and the lake. Certain crops may be objectively better than others, merely it's more often than not a subjective decision and based on your design, what you want to show and communicate with your epitome.
Here is our paradigm after cropping. We lose some background, merely our subject is closer and taking up more relative space.
Pro tips:
- Leave breathing room effectually the subject. Cropping too closely tin create a slightly claustrophobic issue.
- Proceed the details in mind. In this instance, I felt it was important to leave the man'southward wedding ring in the shot.
- Pay attending to the edges. Leaving partial elements can create unwanted visual distractions. (Do you see them?)
- Centering the subject is not necessarily the best. Use the Rule of Thirds for more interesting compositions.
iii. Resize the image
Now it'south fourth dimension to ready the size for printing. In other words, how big or small the image will appear on the garment. And this should only come up after it'due south been cropped because at present we know where the exact boundaries are.
Read my blog post about the sizing of standard print locations or bank check out my standard print locations infographic for a quick run down. For more than in-depth information, read my mail most layout tips which covers locations, placement, and sizing.
For our instance, I'm going to size it at x″ wide. This is less than the standard 12″ broad full front and much smaller than the maximum width of 14″ wide (a size I find to be way too big). At a modest 10″ wide, this impress volition await slap-up on various sized garments, and exit room for any blazon or other elements we might similar to add together. Hither it is shown on men's and women's:
Below is what that looks like nether Image > Image Size. Whether yous are scaling up or scaling downwards, start with setting the resolution to 300, so set up the prototype width to your desired size, and then make sure yous take Resample Image set to "Bicubic Automated". This will ensure Photoshop works its magic to optimize the quality during the resizing.
You'll notice at the top it volition tell you the difference in "pixel dimensions", which is essentially the file size. In this case, by reducing the size of the image we are saving some space on our desktop and making the file easier to share. If you are upscaling your epitome, this will show an increase in file size.
As I mentioned before, upscaling does not increase the quality of the image file. Photoshop volition smooth out the edges every bit we increase the number of pixels, but again, this is no substitute for starting with a college quality image file.
4. Touch up the image
Touching up the image, also known as photo retouching, typically refers to fixing parts of it that have unwanted visual information. This can be blemishes, cracks, spots, or whatsoever undesirable elements. This can be every bit minor equally removing a scratch, or as major as what they do for mag ads: smoothing faces, hair, body parts, and everything else in the motion picture.
The primal here is to not overdo it. You want the photo to await natural, without any obvious tinkering or "Photoshopping". In that location are many, many ways to go about this when you have lots of tools at your disposal. For the purposes of this post, I'll show y'all just ane, possibly the nearly powerful of them all when it comes to retouching: the Clone Stamp.
The Clone Stamp allows y'all to take one role of an epitome and put it over another part of the same image (or over some other part of any open document). Yous can besides paint part of one layer over another layer. Information technology's especially useful for duplicating objects or removing a defect in an image. And when you meet it in action, information technology'south like magic.
To use it, click the postage stamp icon in your Photoshop tools panel. Make sure your castor is set to the size and hardness that are appropriate for the area yous are working on– and be prepared to change the brush settings frequently equally yous work. You may demand to go through some trial and error to become the castor settings right.
Once you have them ready, agree down the choice/alt key and your cursor will turn into crosshairs, so when you click, it will set the starting pixel for the surface area of the epitome yous are cloning. This will typically (only not always) be an surface area very close to the part yous are fixing, because the colors, levels, and textures will be the nigh similar.
In our example photograph, I'grand going to remove i undesirable chemical element in the prototype. Do you see it? On the human being's hand, there is some kind of red stamp– a distraction that doesn't need to exist there. We're as well going to remove the leafage that is leftover on the bottom edge of the photo– another visual lark that we're better off without.
When using the Clone Stamp, information technology's a practiced thought to zoom in close to the surface area you are working on. If you tin make information technology expect good shut up, it volition definitely look good zoomed out. Hither'due south the image now that I have stock-still those trouble areas:
For more, check out this in-depth tutorial with tips on using the clone postage stamp. If you lot're new to this tool, my proposition would be to accept some time to practice on a divide prototype that you lot can make a mess of. Endeavor removing various objects or even people from an image and see if you lot can do it seamlessly without whatever noticeable departure. Practice makes perfect.
five. Adjust the levels
Levels describe the range of highlights, mid-tones, and shadows in an epitome. This is a broad category, and there are many means to adjust the levels. I'm going to show y'all but a few. While modern cameras, especially those on smartphones, have built-in features to optimize the levels of a flick y'all take, near photographs tin utilise some basic level adjustments.
When it comes to setting up a photograph for printing, you lot may want to over-correct in some ways. For example, a print will typically terminate upward darker, so information technology'southward important to lighten upwardly the original image significantly. In our example photo, there are some particularly dark areas of shadow that we should be worried about, especially in the faces. Hither'southward how to fix that.
Levels
The most basic adjustment of levels is (unsurprisingly) called Levels. You can become to it past pressing CMD+L or by going to the bill of fare Image > Adjustments > Levels. Doing and then will pull up a map showing you the electric current levels of the image, forth with sliders to make adjustments. At that place'southward also a button called "Auto" to automatically arrange them but can requite mixed results.
For almost photos, merely especially this i which is too dark, what you want to do is use the sliders to crash-land up the overall effulgence, bringing details out of the shadows. Move the far-correct slider towards the left, and also the middle slider to the left, until it looks good. The far-left slider should simply come over a little scrap if at all to leave room. Remember, the print will be darker.
On smartphone apps, this adjustment will typically be called Brightness, or Lightness, or Exposure.
Every bit y'all can run across, the unabridged image is brightened upwardly and details that were in the shadows became visible. This isn't an exact science; it depends on the image and how you want it to look. You might notice the photo gets a slightly washed-out appearance. We'll fix this with color adjustments. And nosotros can make the shadows richer as well. Practise you lot know Rich Blackness?
Curves
Another tool for adjusting tones and boosting contrast, curves is a more powerful version of levels. There is a learning curve (no pun intended) so I'grand just going to give yous the basics. Adobe has a more than in-depth tutorial on curves for beginners.
To open the curves window, use CMD+1000 or go to the menu Epitome > Adjustments > Curves. You'll run into a histogram that represents the tonal ranges of your photo, and the diagonal line going across is the baseline. Make certain you have the button selected that says "Light (0-255)" for your RGB paradigm.
To begin adjusting, click somewhere along the diagonal line to create a control point. You tin can brand lots of these, but yous shouldn't demand to– information technology gets as well complicated. The virtually basic adjustment is to increase the overall brightness by lifting the centre point upward until you create a overnice rounded hill. This is a expert starting bespeak to get a feel for what your photo volition need.
Once more though, every image is different and should require a dissimilar curve adjustment. Add together a couple more points, one towards the highlights and another towards the shadows and raise or lower them accordingly. Play around until it looks skillful. Yous tin besides click on the petty mitt icon then click somewhere on the image to adjust that particular tone.
Finally, elevate the peak and bottom endpoints inward to isolate adjustments to the principal part of the histogram. This is like to what we did with Levels, and then again don't bring that shadow slider all the fashion in. We want to leave some room there because the print will get darker than the photo looks on screen. Generally, your photo should await a little brighter than normal.
If your epitome is grayish or flat looking– in other words, lacking contrast– your curve should look like a lazy "South". This is a standard bend adjustment for many images. In our example, the photo was mainly too dark (hence the hill curve with the slope). In that location's a lot more y'all can do. For a much more in-depth tutorial, read through this piece about understanding curves.
Contrivance and Burn
These Photoshop tools allow you lot to lighten or darken an prototype in specific areas. The odd names are based on a traditional darkroom technique for regulating exposure on specific areas of a print. In Photoshop, you can specify your brush size and hardness, the exposure (force of the upshot), and whether y'all are applying to the highlights, mid-tones, or shadows.
It's a powerful tool, so keep that exposure setting low until you get the hang of it. I'll typically go on it low anyway, allowing the effect to be applied gradually so it doesn't become out of control. Go along in mind that the effect is continuous while yous press downwards, unlike a paintbrush or some other tools. In other words, be careful how long you apply it to any given expanse.
In our example photo, I used these tools in 2 areas, equally y'all tin can see in the GIF to a higher place.
- I "dodged" the mid-tones in the faces and some of the shadows of the subjects. Lightening upwards these areas was an important footstep in the whole process considering those darker areas were a danger zone for getting even darker when it prints. And the terminal matter you want to lose is the facial features of your subjects.
- I "burned" the shadows of the mountain and trees. To the man eye, lighter things tend to come forward in infinite, and so it was important to make certain the background looked similar it'south in the background. It likewise proves greater dissimilarity with the subjects in the foreground and gives the colors of the mountains and trees a deeper, richer look.
Again, the matter to pay attention to when dodging and burning is making sure you use the effect consistently, otherwise you tin get an uneven slightly cloudy wait. These tools are best used when y'all need very particular areas or details adjusted. Or, as in our case, you need something washed quickly and hands.
The longer (but more accurate) mode is to make selections and then use levels, curves or other adjustment tools on those selections. In this case, it would mean advisedly tracing effectually edges of the subjects to isolate them and select the groundwork. Information technology would have made for a more accurate and fifty-fifty adjustment– though not noticeable to the boilerplate viewer.
Here's a tutorial on how to piece of work "non destructively" with dodge and burn, keeping your original intact if you need to go back.
6. Adjust the colors
Now nosotros get to the colors– adjustments that should be saved until the last steps because information technology tin complicate things down the line if you lot do them first. There are many ways to adapt the colors. I could brand a whole blog post well-nigh this topic alone (and I probably volition). For now, I'll bear upon a few of the main ways to get this pace done without spending as well much fourth dimension.
Hue/Saturation
The low-hanging fruit when it comes to optimizing an image for printing is saturation, which defines the intensity, or purity of the hues. When nosotros adjusted the curves earlier, we lost a little chip of saturation, then nosotros want to get that back and so bump it upwardly. How much, you lot ask? There's going to exist a sweet spot to await for, right between also picayune and too much, naturally.
Information technology'south piece of cake to run across when something is oversaturated, as shown in the example above. The colors commencement looking unnatural and finally, everything turns neon. If you lot become to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation you can play with the slider and get a feel for your particular photo and where the sweet spot is. For printing you want it to be just a bit more saturated than normal.
The problem with Hue/Saturation is that it's a blunt musical instrument, boosting the saturation of all the colors across the board. Y'all tin can choose particular colors to saturate and this tin be helpful only information technology can also produce mixed results with odd contrasts. There is some other tool I would recommend for this job called Vibrance and tin can be institute in the same card.
Vibrance
Vibrance will boost colors relative to 1 some other, meaning it will leave colors alone that are already saturated. It besides comes with a Saturation slider in the same tool, which is helpful. I observe that bumping the vibrancy adequately high and bumping the saturation merely slightly does a peachy chore. Here's how that looks:
You can encounter the colors have become richer, but nosotros don't get that unnatural look which tin can happen from boosting upward the saturation lonely. In our example photo the peel tones, specially in the faces, now wait a fiddling too ruddy, and there's an easy fashion to solve this, and it comes in the course of a sponge.
Sponge Tool
The sponge tends to exist disregarded in Photoshop, but it'southward a powerful and handy way to saturate or desaturate detail areas of an prototype. It'due south found in the same toolset as dodge and burn, and works in a similar way: you tin can specify your brush size and softness, choose whether y'all are saturating or desaturating, and set your desired strength, or "menses".
For our example image, I wanted to do 3 things with the sponge tool: 1) desaturate the colors in the faces and a few other areas of skin, two) desaturate the mount and copse simply a bit, and 3) saturate the lake more than to make that lovely turquoise colour pop. Hither'south the result after doing those things (keep in mind, at this point the changes are more than subtle):
Pro tip: Colour Rest
Next up, allow's take a await at Color Remainder, another powerful feature that can drastically alter the look for your image. This tool can plough your colors inside-out to the indicate where it looks like pop art, and you take the ability to impact the highlights, mid-tones, and shadows separately. For our purposes, we don't need to go crazy, I only want to cool downwards the shadows.
Again, this might be so subtle it's hard to observe the difference, but I'1000 choosing to move the hue of the shadows merely slightly from the warmer colors of reds and yellows to the libation colors of cyans and blues. This accomplishes two things: information technology makes the photo wait more natural and it gives a better dissimilarity against the warmer colors coming forrad, calculation some depth.
All of these color adjustment tools can be learned through trial and error– you don't need to exist a lensman (simply information technology does help). Just motility those sliders effectually and see what happens. Create multiple layers and so y'all tin play effectually without messing upwards the original, and try different images and see what happens.
You'll commencement to get the feel for what this does and how it tin assist.
Pro tip: Supersede Color
Another powerful tool, feature, Replace Color allows you to select a particular color in the paradigm, set the parameters of the pick (chosen "Fuzziness"), and and so change the hue, saturation, and effulgence of merely that color. What I usually practise is become those iii sliders set to what I want, and then arrange the Fuzziness slider and see what happens in the paradigm.
What I used it for here, shown above, is to adjust the color of only the heaven lonely. You can encounter the parameters of the selection in white, just below the Fizziness slider. As you can see my aligning is also affecting the highlight of the man's T-shirt, which is fine with me, as I wanted in that location to exist a contrast betwixt the sky blue colors and turquoise blue colors in the photograph.
Pro tip: Selective Color
Last but not to the lowest degree (the concluding of what I'm showing you in this mail, anyway) is Selective Color. This ane falls somewhere between Color Balance and Supercede Color as far as it's breadth. It's more specific than Color Balance only less specific than Replace Color. Still with me? Here's how it works.
It essentially gives you CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, blackness) sliders to balance each broad color group, plus highlights, mid-tones, and shadows. You tin use this to radically change the colors of your photograph.
All I want it to do for ours is something of a pro tip: make our blacks richer. You might not notice the difference, but in the impress, yous would. In traditional CMYK printing, there'due south black (G) and then there's Rich Blackness, aka True Black (K +CMY).
Rich Blackness, as you might imagine, is Blackness plus some amount of the other colors added to it. The reason for its beingness is that when regular blackness doesn't take other colors in it, it can come out looking like dark charcoal when printed and have a slight border where it contrasts against the colors. So it'due south an sometime printer's fox to add colors to blackness when doing a separation.
We can attain this fox using Selective colour:
This volition ensure a smooth transition between colour areas into blackness areas and give the whole impress more cohesion.
seven. Sharpen the epitome
Sharpening is a hugely important step y'all can take to optimize your epitome for printing. It'southward more than than just bringing things into focus. Information technology helps define the edges of shapes, improves the visibility of details, and prevents some of the normal blurring that will happen in any kind of printing process. Photoshop has a suite of tools to exercise this nether the card Filter > Sharpen.
Unsharp Mask is my go-to, as it gives you the most control. Smart Sharpen too useful in particular circumstances, which I'll get to in another post. For this one, allow'south wait at easy 4 steps that will get us where we need to be using Unsharp Mask.
Start with a radius of 1 pixel and boost the amount mode upward to the maximum of 500, simply so you can run across what's happening.
Next, increase the radius until you tin see a distinct outline around everything– not also thick or likewise sparse.
And then, decrease the amount to a more reasonable level, until the outlines are more subtle. At this betoken, it's a good idea to turn the checkbox for "Preview" off and on again so yous can see the difference between this and the original.
Finally, bump up the threshold a few pixels, enough to reduce some of the "noise" created in the larger areas. Now click OK.
Sharpening is great, but at that place's definitely a point where y'all tin get also far…
At that place you have information technology. Those seven steps volition go you where you want to be and have an image that is optimized and impress-fix. I'yard giving you three more optional steps, but first, let's have a moment to run into how far we've come up.
Before:
After:
Optional adjustments
Now that we've gone through the main means to prepare your image, the next three are optional ideas to make your image look expert printed on a T-shirt or other garment, and more so in the pattern category rather than optimizing the photograph quality.
8. Remove the background
This is i of the more tedious optimizations, but the results are worth it. Designs that are masked or isolated from whatsoever background simply look amend equally a print. Square or rectangle designs can take a pasted-on look (or ironed-on for those of you who remember those). Removing the background takes some time and patience, so get comfortable and grab a coffee.
There are various means to accomplish this. One is to just use the Eraser tool and go bully. Utilize a softer border castor as you get close to the desired edges. Some other is to utilize the Groundwork Eraser tool. It takes some getting used to and some fiddling with the settings to get right, but it does work like a charm is some areas, especially around trouble areas like hair.
And then there are the selection tools. You tin get erstwhile school and draw along the border with the Lasso tool. Or requite the Magnetic Lasso a whirl, which is designed to stick to edges that information technology detects. If you have a patently flat groundwork you tin easily select that with the Magic Wand and delete it. You lot can also utilize the Masks characteristic to "pigment" the areas you want to remove.
For our example I faded out the bottom edge as well, rather than having information technology cut-off:
9. Add some effects
At present we become to a really fun i. There are dozens of preset filters in Photoshop (and other graphics programs). At that place are probably hundreds you tin get as plug-ins. And when you start combining these things, the number of options go into the hundreds of thousands of million gazillions of possible filters and effects. Good luck deciding!
Photoshop has an entire pull-downwards card dedicated to filters, such as calculation noise, blurring, distorting, liquifying, pixelating, halftoning, tiling, embossing, posterizing, solarizing, yous name it. They also accept a Filter Gallery with lots of options to go crazy with. It's similar Instagram filters on steroids. If you like special effects, you'll be the proverbial kid in the candy store.
Above are a dozen filters I used correct out of the box, petty much at random, only to give y'all some examples. Here are some gratis Photoshop plug-ins and there's plenty more where those came from. Ok, maybe not the aforementioned place, simply other places. The point is, there are a lot. If you can imagine some outcome you want, in that location's probably a filter out at that place to do the job.
My advice is to go along it simple and use the born features. It's like shooting fish in a barrel to get carried away with filters and furnishings, and your photo ends up looking also weird and distorted. But hey, perchance that's what y'all desire.
ten. Add a border
This is i of my favorite things to recommend for photo prints because it'southward easy to do and looks cracking. There are uncomplicated designs where you want an image slapped on a shirt with no border, only most of the time a border volition improve the look and quality of the print, even if it's just a sparse line. And of course, there are many options for borders, which I've written about.
Recap:
- Kickoff with high resolution.
- Crop the image.
- Resize the image.
- Touch up the epitome.
- Adjust the levels.
- Adapt the colors.
- Sharpen the epitome.
- Remove the groundwork.
- Add some effects.
- Add together a edge.
I hope this was informative, helpful and your prints come out swell. When you've optimized your paradigm, upload it here!
Happy designing,
-M
Source: https://www.rushordertees.com/blog/how-to-optimize-images-t-shirt-photo-printing/
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