You Design It TV provides comprehensive, high quality tutorials and how to videos that will take viewers on an inside look into how t-shirts are printed, how artwork is created, and more. You Design It TV will also bring users cool features related to the t-shirt industry as well as general interested pieces related to t-shirts.

You Design It TV is regularly updated with all videos from Vimeo, YouTube, Blip TV, and tons more. They also gladly accept contributions from users who feel that they have a video that will be of interest to the t-shirt community. There are quite a few cool videos posted with more to come. Check it out and please leave them comments letting them know where you found them!

My buddy over at EnveeApparel wrote this article and was kind enough to send it to share with my readers. This is a great read for anyone getting into the business!

This article assumes that you (the reader) have already started your company, have designs that you would like to print and have found a printer to work with. It is intended to walk you through the process of your first print and bring up any “did you knows”. Enjoy!

1. Prepare your files for print
2. Select your printing method
3. PRINT!

PREPARE YOUR FILES FOR PRINT

As a clothing company the first thing you should know is that designing for print (4-color process) and designing for t-shirts are two different worlds. Make sure you or your designer make it as easy as possible for your printer to print your shirt without compromising your design. This will not only make it easier for you in the long run but it will give you a better product for your customers because you did not make last minute changes during the process. As a designer and company owner, I am very familiar with how to make my life and my screen printers life a lot easier. Make sure you convert all of your text to outlines, use pantone colors, create your artwork to size (exactly, not bigger or smaller), use vector artwork when possible and expand all stroked lines to at least 0.5 points. What do you need to know before talking with your printer?

• Where the print is going
• How many colors are used
• The Pantone color codes for all colors used
• The type of printing method you are using
• Are you using specialty inks?
• How many units you are printing
• The type of ink you are using

Where the print is goingThe easiest way I have found to indicate where the print will be is to create a line sheet. This will show if you have multiple print locations and if the designs will go over seams (neck, waist etc.). How many colors are usedYour line sheet should also indicate the number of colors used. You can do with by creating a shape and filling it with that color. This will be a helpful visual indicator later on. If you are using multiple colors and halftones please check to make sure your printer can printer halftones and ask how it would be be prepared for them depending on the printing method used. If you do not know what halftones are, that is a topic for another time. The Pantone color codes for all colors usedWhere do you find these you may ask? You or your designer should be using a Pantone swatch book. If you are not, buy one! Most design programs such as Adobe Photoshop come with the Pantone libraries built in. You or your designer can use the color picker tool to sample a color from your design. Once you have done that, double click on the foreground color in your tools pallet. When the menu pops up simply click the color libraries button and use the Pantone Solid Coated library (3-4 digit pantone # followed by a C). This color will be the one you tell your printer to use when printing. If this is confusing to you, you can probably find a more in depth tutorial online or ask your designer. The type of printing method usedThe standard type of T-shirt printing is screen printing, most often used with plastisol ink or water based ink. Simply put, plastisol has a thicker feel on the shirt and water based soaks into the shirt giving it a very soft hand. There is a brief explanation of different printing methods in the section below. Are you using specialty inks or applications?Before, most chosen designs were printed with plastisol inks, some with a chino additive and a few with water based or discharge inks. But now, designers can now use up to 8 colors, specify super glow, puff, high density, suede, UV color change, shimmer, metallic clear, glitter, blister, flock, vinyl, foils, embroider, gradients, simulated process and even belt printing. See the printing method section below for more info.

SELECT YOUR PRINTING METHOD

The process of screen printing can seem intimidating the first time you approach it with no past experience. Make sure the screen printer you have chosen is very friendly as your printer can prove to be an invaluable asset in your first venture and moving forward. When I did my first print my screen printer taught me how to keep the small detail during print, choose my inks correctly based on the shirt and when inks would work best for the look I was going for. After you become familiar with your screen printer and how they work, the process of printing can become seamless. There are many printing methods with their pros and cons. I will inform you of the methods but ultimately it is your choice. Printing method typesThere is a brief explanation of different printing methods used below. All pros and cons were gathered by a collective effort at T-Shirt Forums. Screening Printing – Creating screens pressed up against cloth to place paint onto shirts one color per screen. Pros: cost effective, high quality, professional, durability. Cons: each color requires a separate screen, messy, need to print many shirts at once with the same design to be feasible. Heat Press/INKJET/LASER Transfers – Print transparent inks using a computer onto a special piece of paper. Use heat to adhere the ink and paper onto the cloth. Pros: easy to print multi colors and complex designs, does not require different colors to be applied separately, great for small orders, easily customize different shirts. Cons: heavy feel of transfer, the cloth is the brightest part of the design: works well on white shirts, but doesn’t work on dark shirts, cracks, fades away easily. Heat Press/Plastisol Transfers – Where you have plastisol ink printed onto transfer paper so it can easily be added to the garment via a heat press. Vinyl Cutters – Use a machine to cut out designs on special solid color sheets of vinyl. Use heat to adhere cut vinyl to adhere vinyl to paper. Pros: high quality, durability, easily customize different shirts, great for small orders. Cons: have to separate and cut out each color independently, doesn’t work well for designs with complex patterns or designs that show a lot of background of the shirt inside the design. Direct to Garment – Print inks directly onto cloth. Pros: reduces steps, patterns doesn’t have heavy feel like screen printing, great for small orders, easily customize different shirts. Cons: the cloth is the brightest part of the design: works well on white shirts. There is more of a challenge to the DTG operator to get dark prints to come out correctly, but it can be done. Dye Sublimation – Dye sub is great for full color designs on white or light colored garments. It has no feel to the design but is a little trickier to master than inkjet heat transfers. Also, it tends to be a bit more expensive. You can also use this process on non textile products such as mugs, mousepads, tile, puzzles, coasters, key chains, etc. Dye sub is used only on man made fabrics like polyester (with various results on blends and pre-treated fabrics). You cannot print on 100% cotton t-shirts with dye sub. Specialty ink application list I have gathered the below information from Threadless. Super glow – is what it sounds like… glow-in-the-dark ink, on steroids. It is very transparent and looks “water-color-ish”. Super glow is really cool on light color shirts because it has a tonal clear effect that glows. It’s great if you want to play around with the idea of hidden messages or design elements. Keep in mind that it’s not 100% transparent, so elements in super glow will show up slightly even when not glowing. Puff – is a rounded, raised ink that’s best when used with organic shapes and lines. Hard edges and angles are often softened or lost when printed with puff. It can hold some detail, however the finer the detail or smaller the line, the less it “puffs”. Puff isn’t effective for large fill areas due to its heaviness, and the area won’t appear as puffed. High density – ink raised, square stack ink. It’s much better than puff for elements that have hard edges or angles. Similar to puff, areas of fine detail or with elements that come to a point don’t translate well. It’s also not recommended for fill areas, as the center of the fill tends to “sink”. Essentially, high density ink would be used if you don’t want the “rounded, raised” look of puff, but wanted a “squared, raised” look. High density ink also can be printed in “clear”, which produces a darkened, tonal effect on a tee. Pretty neat stuff! Suede – ink isn’t actually suede, but a raised ink with a fuzzy nap reminiscent of suede leather. It’s pretty fun to play with texture and raised design elements as it softens geometric shapes. There needs to be a certain thickness (1/8″ – 1/4″ at least) to any line work so the nap is visible – otherwise it looks like puff. Not good with really large fills or super fine detail. UV Color Change – To begin with, UV Color Change ink doesn’t work on dark tees at all. If you’re still interested in using it… read on! With this ink, colors disappear indoors but appear when exposed to any ultraviolet light. The colors achieved are bright but tend to lack vividness of regular inks due to their translucent nature. Color remains true on light colored tees such as white, cream or silver. The ink will appear on other light shirt colors, but is unpredictable. In other words, the shirt color affects the color of the ink. Shimmer – is basically sparkly, metallic ink. It’s available in silver, bronze, black and gold. We’ve previously experimented with special formulas for a pinkish-red shimmer and a bluish-aqua shimmer, but the results ended up looking like grayed-out, non-sparkly versions of the color. It does not hold super-fine detail well and starts to look flat grey in areas of finer detail. Metallic Clear – This ink is really cool when printed on top of any ink color. It can be printed on its own also and produces a darkened tonal effect with sparkles on some shirt colors. Glitter – ink has a fairly dense concentration of tiny glitter flakes. It’s available in a range of basic “crayon colors”. We don’t recommend it for tiny details. When it’s printed over another ink, or directly onto a tee, the underlying color can slightly show through the glitter. Blister – Think puff with dimples. This is super cool, especially when it’s “stacked up” for some great sculptured texture. You want to have a decent fill area or line thickness to allow ink to texture up. Keep in mind that it does tend to get heavy on a shirt, so large fill areas could end up being uncomfortable to wear. Gradients and gradient blends – tend to print with a banding effect similar to how it appears in an Illustrator file. Even if you transfer the file to Photoshop, gradients create a troublesome issue to overcome, so it’s best to create nice smooth gradients in Photoshop. Gradients can be achieved by using half-tones as well. The lightest halftone that can be printed is about 10%. Sometimes we can accept less than a 10% half-tone, but it really depends on the individual artwork. If need be, we can simulate “process” (CMYK) to achieve very fine gradients or images with high tonal quality such as stylized photography or photo-realistic elements. Embroidery – In addition to the inks and heat applications you can also now spruce up your designs with a good old fashioned needle and thread. Belt printing – was really popular back in the 70’s and has been making a comeback lately. A belt printer uses huge screens that cover the entire front and back of the garment. It’s great for all-over pattern printing, but can be used in many other creative ways. Belt printing works best on designs with a limited color palette that don’t require tight registration. One thing to keep in mind when designing for a belt printed tee is that the colors used in your design should never touch each other because registration is never exact. For this reason, one-color designs are recommended. Also, the same design will vary slightly from shirt to shirt when belt printing is used, due to the shirt size and how it’s placed on the printer. These characteristics give each individual belt printed shirt a unique look.

PRINT!

Congratulations, you did everything right and your printer hasn’t kicked you out for being a rookie! This means you are going to print the long awaited, highly anticipated tees. Make sure when you order your shirts you have a few extras for each color so that you can run some samples before going to print. This is needed especially when using discharge as a printing method because the color result varies on the shirt color. You don’t want dozens or even hundreds of shirts misprinted. Most printers use one of their own sample shirts before printing but the result can also vary based on manufacturer. When you bring your garments to the printer it would probably be a good idea to have them separated first (if you are local) instead of shipping direct. This will avoid confusion later. I personally separate my garments by sex>design>color>size. Once you have the design ready, and the files and shirts at the printer, you are ready to go! — Robert Hartland – In addition to running his fashion and lifestyle blog, He also owns Envee Apparel – Artistic Men’s and Womens T-Shirts. Please send him an email if you have any questions or just want to say thanks.

This is a tutorial written by my friend Nick over at HeavyPrints.com on Color Separating Complex Gradients. This is both a video and written tutorial so if you have time be sure to check them both out and follow along if you are not used to breaking down art to get it print ready.

*The Video Tutorial follows the written version and is also in the video section of the site.

Step 1: Make a Complicated Gradient

For starters I made a New Document. It’s 6×8 Inches and it’s 300DPI. I filled it with a 3 color gradient, like so:

Screen Cap 1

When setting up your gradient for this method it’s very important that you create Shade Contrast. Gradient maps work from Light to Dark, ignoring the actual color. I have included black twice just to demonstrate that you can isolate the same color multiple times.

It’s not really important that the colors you use in the initial gradient reflect the colors you want in the end. It’s more important that we can isolate a color range from the gradient using the gradient map. If this doesn’t make a ton of sense now, it will soon.

Step 2: Isolate A color

To pull one color out of the the gradient we’re going to run a gradient map. I’m going to start with black, since it is the most straightforward application.

1. Press the “D” Key to return your color swatches to their default settings.
2. Create a gradient map by clicking the Image Menu>Adjustments>Gradient Map. When the Dialog Pops up, click the image of the gradient to bring up the Gradient Edit Dialog.
3. When you are in the Gradient Dialog, click and drag the right color tab to the left until you are comfortable that  the white section of the gradient on the screen is taking up both the White and Yellow sections of the entire image. Essentially, the only color that you want to show up as black in this gradient, is the color black. Like so:

Screen Cap 2

Step 3: Halftone the isolated color

1. Press “CTRL+A” to select the entire document.
2. Press “CTRL+C” to copy the selection.
3. Press “CTRL+N” to create a new document. It should automatically have the correct settings based on what is on your clipboard.
4. Press “CTRL+V” to paste your selection into the new document.
5. Select the Image Menu>Mode>Gray Scale. Select “OK” when it asks if you want to discard color information.
6. Select the Image Menu>Mode>Bitmap. Select “OK” when it asks if you want to flatten layers.
7. When the Dialog pops up, set output to 300 pixels/inch and Method should be “Halftone Screen”. Press “OK”
8. Frequency and Angle should both be less than 45. Shape should be “Round”. Press “OK”
   

   screen cap 3

9. Select Image Menu>Mode>Grey Scale. Size Ratio should be “1?. Press “OK”
10. Using the Magic Wand Tool with “Anti-Alias” unchecked, select the white area of the Image.
11. Press “SHIFT+CTRL+I” to invert your selection.
12. Press “CTRL+C” to copy the black pixels.
13. Close the current document, you don’t have to save.
14. Press “ALT+CTRL+Z” twice to undo the selection and the gradient map on the Original Document.
15. Press “CTRL+V” to paste the halftone back into the original document.
16. On the Layers Pallet(Window>Layers) hide the visibility of the halftone layer.

Step 4: Isolate another color

Being sure that your original gradient layer is selected as the active layer

1. Image>Adjustments>Gradient Map.
2. Click the Gradient Image to adjust the gradient.
3. Move the Black Color Tab to the right until it both the Black and Yellow areas are now Black.
   

   screen cap 5

4. Using the rectangular selection tool, select everything from the middle of the white area upwards. We’re doing this because we don’t need to halftone the black at the bottom again.

Step 5: Halftone the second color

1. Press “CTRL+C” to copy the selection.
2. Press “CTRL+N” to create a new document. It should automatically have the correct settings based on what is on your clipboard.
3. Press “CTRL+V” to paste your selection into the new document.
4. Select the Image Menu>Mode>Gray Scale. Select “OK” when it asks if you want to discard color information.
5. Select the Image Menu>Mode>Bitmap. Select “OK” when it asks if you want to flatten layers.
6. When the Dialog pops up, set output to 300 pixels/inch and Method should be “Halftone Screen”. Press “OK”
7. Frequency and Angle should both be less than 45. Shape should be “Round”. Press “OK”
   

   screen cap 3

8. Select Image Menu>Mode>Grey Scale. Size Ratio should be “1?. Press “OK”
9. Using the Magic Wand Tool with “Anti-Alias” unchecked, select the white area of the Image.
10. Press “SHIFT+CTRL+I” to invert your selection.
11. Press “CTRL+C” to copy the black pixels.
12. Close the current document, you don’t have to save.
13. Press “ALT+CTRL+Z” twice to undo the selection and the gradient map on the Original Document.
14. Press “CTRL+V” to paste the halftone back into the original document.

You will probably have to move the halftoned section into posititon manually. It should be placed underneath the black halftone layer. Finally, set the color overlay on the yellow halftone layer to be yellow:

screen cap 6

Step 6: Final color and cleanup

1. Make a new layer, below both of the halftone layers.
2. Using the Paint Bucket Tool, fill it with white.
3. With the White Layer selected, SHIFT+CTRL+Click the Black Halftone layer and then the Yellow Halftone layer to select all of the pixels on them.
4. Delete the selection from the White layer.
5. With the Yellow Layer selected, CTRL+Click the Black Halftone layer.
6. Delete the selection from the yellow layer.

It may look partially transparent when you’re zoomed out, but when you zoom in it should look perfectly lined up:

screen cap 7

That’s it for this one. I hope you enjoyed it!

Gradient Color Separation Tutorial from Nick Steimling on Vimeo.

Get the templates HERE

www.GoMedia.us

Here is what should appear on US apparel products:

• # Size. Labels must be a minimum of 13/4 by 23/4 inches (4.5 x 7 cm).

• Lettering. The required information must be no smaller than pica or 12 point type, with all parts of the information in letters of equal size and conspicuousness.

• Country of Origin
  * Imported products must identify the country where they were processed or manufactured.
  * Products made entirely in the U.S. of materials also made in the U.S. must be labeled “Made in U.S.A.” or with an equivalent phrase.
  * Products made in the U.S. of imported materials must be labeled to show the processing or manufacturing that takes place in the United States, as well as the imported component.
  * Products manufactured in part in the U.S. and in part abroad must identify both aspects.

• RN# or Company Name
  An RN# is a unique code for textiles that allows the garment to be “tracked”.
  You can obtain an RN# for free by going HERE. RN#’s are not required but you are required to label your product, this can be done with your RN or your companies name as it appears on business documents.

• The product size

• Care Instructions (there is a lot of talk about if this is really needed or not but according to the FTC it is very much required)
  To learn how to write the proper care instructions click HERE

I also have a PDF of the symbols used in care instructions. If you would like to download click HERE

So there you have it, the info you need to make your tags for relabeling your shirts and stepping up to the next level. Trust me the extra cost is worth it and you will feel really great when you get your first batch of shirts with your own labels, it just completes the whole process.

Source: FTC.gov

Fuel for Design is a complete guide on how to start a clothing line packed with many tips like:

* How to Setup a Website and Online Store System
* Professional Blogging Advice for Clothing Line Owners
* The Best and Easiest Way to Ship Your Products
* A Sample T-Shirt Business Cost Breakdown
* Elements Every Good Logo Must Have
* The Pros & Cons of T-Shirt Fulfillment Services
* Hot Tips for SEO Optimization No Designer Should Be Without
* Google Secrets to Ranking in the Top of Search Engines
* Essential Offline Guerilla Marketing Techniques
* Cutting-Edge Online Marketing Tactics

Ok now that is out of the way here is a little tutorial of sorts made for TheArtOfApparel by KillerNapkins to show the basic process of a design being made for t shirt purposes.

• I start with the basic sketch…

• Scan that in and do your line work however you normally would. (That is a whole other tutorial maybe we will do that next)

• Ok now before any shading and real detail get your flat colors down.

• Now for the shading; I like to use a round brush with a crisp edge. You can use the shirt color to get a nice effect without using another ink when its printed.

• When you are finished shading Select All and nudge the layer back and forth in order to select just the shade, then Copy.

• Then open a new canvas at the correct size and just paste the shading there. Then change the image to Grayscale but don’t flatten. Turn the contrast up and the brightness down, in order to make your shading solid black shade instead of the gray.

• Now change the image to the Bitmap setting, then turn the setting to halftone screen, and it’ll take you to some more settings, and in this one I used round and my frequency was at about 25 dots per inch. You don’t want to go too high because the dots would be too small for the screen to print.

• Take this back to your original and it should line up correctly if your selection was still there. You can delete the original shading layer. Now to make the black halftone the color you need just select it all, nudge it back and forth in order to select only the halftone, and fill with the right color.

• And you are done with your shaded halftones!

If you like this and would like something done Killer Napkins is available for hire so don’t hesitate to contact him!
killernapkins@hotmail.com
You can see more of his work here

Follow us on twitter for more articles and resources about the clothing industry!
Twitter.com/TheArtOfApparel

Here are my personal favorites along with the quality…

American Apparel         Most popular among indie clothing brands, I think its a little over rated
Alternative                   Pricey but great styles and quality
Tultex                          Best value for the money
Alstyle                         Good basic shirt to start with
Eternal                         Very high quality, high end type shirts

The ones marked with asterisks are some of the more used ones in the industry.

*Alstyle                         www.alstyle.com
*Alternative                   www.alternativeapparel.com
*American Apparel         www.americanapparel.net
*Anvil                             www.anvilknitwear.com
Apparel Whiz                 www.apparelwhiz.com
Article 1                        www.article1.net
A.S. Tees                       www.astees.com
Authentic Pigment         www.authenticpig.com
Ayers Rock                     www.ayersrock.co.uk
Bare                               www.bareapparel.com
Bay Island                      www.bayislandsportswear.com
Bella                              www.bella.com
Canvas                           www.bella.com/mens-clothing.html
Comfort Colors              www.dyehouse.com
Continental                    www.continentalclothing.com
Cygnus                           www.cygnussportswear.com
District Threads              www.districtthreads.com
Edun-Live                       www.edun-live.com
Eternal                            www.eternalapparel.net
*FruitOfTheLoom             www.fruit.com
*Gildan                            www.Gildan.com
*Hanes                             www.hanes.com
In Your Face                    www.inyourfaceapparel.com
Independent Trade Co.    www.independenttradingco.com
*Jerzees                            www.jerzees.com
Kavio                               www.kavio.com
*Next Level                      www.nextlevelapparel.com
Pacific Sports                   www.epacificsports.com
Pima                                www.pimaapparel.com
Royal                               www.royalapparel.net
Skinni Fit                         www.skinnifit.com
TQM Group                     www.tqmapparelgroup.com
*Tultex                            www.tultex.net

If you notice a brand I have missed please contact me and let me know!

info@makeascenenow.com