Every print area on this page was measured from our supplier’s live product data for the exact blanks we stock, last checked September 16, 2026. Minimum file sizes are calculated from those areas, not copied from general advice. Each product page carries its own figure — the table below is a sample across the range.
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″ | 1,800 × 2,400 px | 3,600 × 4,800 px |
| Hoodie (front) | 14″ × 14″ | 2,100 × 2,100 px | 4,200 × 4,200 px |
| Polo (left chest) | 4″ × 4″ (stitched) | Embroidery — pixels are not the constraint | |
| Trucker cap | 5.9″ × 2″ (stitched) | Embroidery — pixels are not the constraint | |
| Mug (wrap) | 10.24″ × 4.02″ | 1,536 × 603 px | 3,072 × 1,206 px |
| Rocks glass | 10.2″ × 2″ | 1,530 × 300 px | 3,060 × 600 px |
| Kiss-cut stickers | 15″ × 3.75″ | 2,250 × 563 px | 4,500 × 1,125 px |
| Vinyl decals | 8″ × 10″ | 1,200 × 1,500 px | 2,400 × 3,000 px |
| Tote bag | 17″ × 16.5″ | 2,550 × 2,475 px | 4,539 × 4,406 px (267 DPI) |
| Phone case | 2.93″ × 6.1″ | 440 × 915 px | 879 × 1,830 px |
| Spiral notebook | 5.75″ × 8.75″ | 863 × 1,313 px | 1,725 × 2,625 px |
| Jigsaw puzzle | 20″ × 16″ | 3,000 × 2,400 px | 5,000 × 4,000 px (250 DPI) |
| Throw blanket | 83.01″ × 62.51″ | 12,452 × 9,377 px | 12,452 × 9,377 px (150 DPI) |
Each row shows that product’s largest option, so a file that meets the figure works for every size on the page. Smaller sizes need proportionally less: a 3″ kiss-cut sticker needs 450 × 450 px, not the bumper-sticker figure above.
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.
Why some products print below 300 DPI
Three hundred DPI is the right target for a shirt, a mug or a sticker. It is the wrong target for a blanket, and any shop telling you otherwise has not done the arithmetic.
Our throw blanket prints across 83 by 62.5 inches. At 300 DPI that file would be 24,903 by 18,753 pixels, which is 467 megapixels and roughly two gigabytes uncompressed. No browser will composite it and no phone will open it. So above a certain area we cap the working resolution, and the blanket prints at 150 DPI instead.
That is not a compromise you will see. Resolution only has to survive the distance it is viewed from. You read a mug at ten inches and a blanket from across a room, so the blanket can carry a quarter of the detail per inch and look identical. The products where this applies are marked in the table above, and every product page states its own figure.
What this means for you: do not spend an afternoon upscaling a file to 300 DPI for a large item. Send the largest genuine version you have. On a blanket, a tote or a desk mat, a real 150 DPI file beats an interpolated 300 DPI one every time, because upscaling invents pixels rather than finding them.
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, or upload them with your order.
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.