Artwork Requirements
What we need from you…
The Blu Rayne Printing team hopes to answer any questions that you might have concerning artwork that we will screen print or create custom vinyl projects. If you decide to upload or email in the art for your project, using one of the following formats is more cost effective and makes the job go more smoothly, quickly, and accurately.
If you have used a graphics program to create the artwork, the ideal formats in which to save your file are:
- PNG
- JPG or JPEG
- TIFFs
- Bitmaps (BMP)
- Gimp
When you create your file, remember that lines should not be too thin (less than 1 pt.) or they will not print properly.
Image resolution should be at least 500 ppi (pixels per inch). This way, we can enlarge the image without fear of rough lines and text or graininess.
Any font used in the graphic should be either converted to paths or curves or should be included in the email.
Emailed Artwork…
If you send us a drawing or printout, do not color or shade in the drawing (if possible). Otherwise, we will have to spend hours removing colors and shading in a graphic because we had no way of otherwise making the original art printable. Also, when emailing us a soft copy of your artwork, make sure the size is set to "legal-sized" / (8.5″ x 11″) or smaller, otherwise it won’t fit on our scanner bed.
What is Camera-Ready Art?
True camera-ready art is a clear black and white image on white paper at a size that can be enlarged to T-shirt dimensions while maintaining image integrity (i.e.: no pixelization occurs when re-sizing). Lines are thick. There are no grays. Paper is not wrinkled, ripped, or taped together and no smudges, spots, or pencil or pen marks cover the image in any way. Look at your image and determine if it is indeed “camera ready.” If not, either locate a better image or expect an art charge for cleanup or new artwork creation time.
What is good T-shirt art?
If you are going to be creating artwork on your own, keep in mind these guidelines that will improve the visibility, and readability of your shirt.
- Simplify! The more information you try to cram onto a shirt, the less impact it will have. Most of the people that see your shirt are probably just walking by and have little time to read and process the shirt’s message.
- Don’t go crazy with fonts! Though you might have 100 typefaces to work with, don’t be tempted to use all of them within your graphic. Too many fonts confuse the message.
- Use a bold graphic. If you are planning on putting a graphic or illustration on your T-shirt, use one with bold lines and little shading and detail.