Print areas and techniques below were taken from our supplier’s live product data on September 8, 2026, for the exact blanks we stock — not general advice. Minimum file sizes are calculated from those areas.
Almost every disappointing custom shirt comes down to one thing: the file was too small. It looks fine on a phone screen at two inches wide. Printed at twelve inches across a chest, the same file is soft and pixelated — and because your design is on it, we cannot resell it and you cannot return it. This page tells you exactly what size file each of our products needs.
The numbers, per product
Print quality is measured in DPI — dots per inch. 150 DPI is the floor for garment printing; below it, softness is visible. 300 DPI is what we want. Multiply the print area by those numbers and you get the file size you need:
| Product | Print area | Minimum file | Ideal file |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unisex t-shirt (front) | 12″ × 16″ | 1800 × 2400 px | 3600 × 4800 px |
| Hoodie (front) | 14″ × 14″ | 2100 × 2100 px | 4200 × 4200 px |
| Kiss-cut sticker | 3″ × 3″ | 450 × 450 px | 900 × 900 px |
| Mug (wrap) | 9″ × 3.5″ | 1350 × 525 px | 2700 × 1050 px |
| Trucker cap | 4″ × 1.75″ (stitched) | See embroidery, below — pixels are not the constraint | |
How to check your file in ten seconds. On a Mac, right-click the image and choose Get Info. On Windows, right-click, Properties, Details. You are looking for “Dimensions” in pixels. If the first number is under 1800 and you are ordering a shirt, stop and find a better copy of the file.
A screenshot, a logo pulled off a website, or an image saved from a text message is almost always too small. Enlarging it does not add detail — it just makes the blur bigger.
Illustration, not a photograph of a printed garment.
Two shapes, not one
Worth knowing before you design something you intend to put on several items: our t-shirt print area is 12″ × 16″ and our hoodie print area is 14″ × 14″. One is a tall rectangle, the other is a square. A design built to fill the shirt will not fill the hoodie, and vice versa. If you want one design across both, keep the important part inside a square in the middle.
The mug is the extreme version — a 9″ × 3.5″ strip that wraps around the cup. Portrait photographs crop hard on it. Design for a wide, short band.
Embroidery is a different craft
Our caps are stitched, not printed. The usable area on a trucker cap is 4 inches wide by 1.75 inches tall, and thread cannot do what ink does:
- No photographs. There is no way to stitch a photograph.
- No gradients or soft edges. Every colour is a separate thread with a hard boundary.
- No fine detail. Anything thinner than about a sixteenth of an inch closes up and disappears.
- Few colours. Bold, flat shapes and clear text work. Complicated artwork does not.
If your logo has fine detail or a photographic element, it usually needs a simplified version made specifically for stitching. We do that work — ask us for a quote rather than uploading something that will not sew.
DTG printing
Ink printed straight into the fabric. Full colour, photographs, gradients — all fine. Used on our shirts and hoodies.
Embroidery
Stitched with thread. Bold shapes and clear text only. No photographs, no gradients, no fine detail. Used on caps.
Sublimation
Heat-set into a hard surface. Bright and permanent, but only works on coated items. Used on mugs.
Cut vinyl
Shapes cut from coloured film and applied by hand. Solid colours, crisp edges. Used on signs and vehicles.
File formats
PNG with a transparent background is the best format for most designs. If your artwork sits on a white square, that white square gets printed onto a coloured garment as a visible white box.
JPG is fine for full-colour photographs that fill the whole print area. PDF works. If you have vector files — AI, EPS, SVG — those are ideal and they scale to any size without losing quality; zip them and send them with your quote request, since the design tool cannot read them directly.
Colour
Screens emit light and fabric reflects it, so printed colour never matches a screen exactly. Bright neons and pure saturated blues shift the most. The same file also prints differently on cotton than on a blend, and differently again on a dark garment than a white one.
If exact colour matching matters — brand colours on staff uniforms, for instance — tell us before you order and we will talk through it.
Artwork you do not own
Sports teams, bands, cartoon characters, film logos and most images found through a search engine belong to somebody. We check every order before it prints and we decline anything we believe infringes, with a full refund. It is not a judgement about you — it is what keeps a small shop out of court.
If you commissioned a logo from a designer, make sure you actually own it before putting it on merchandise. Full detail is in our Terms & Conditions.
A person checks every order
Nothing prints automatically here. Every custom order is reviewed by someone in the shop before it goes into production. If your file is too small, will not stitch, or looks like it will disappoint you, we contact you first — we do not print it and hope for the best.
That review is also why asking us a question before you order is genuinely free. Email n6graphics@gmail.com or call (616) 421-9228, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Send us the file and we will tell you honestly whether it will print well.