Designing for dark apparel:

How to choose background colors for use with dark colored fabric

Designing for dark fabric is different but not difficult. Unlike our other T-Shirts, which do not print white areas, all colors are printed on our dark apparel. This means dark ink is visible against the dark fabric due to different textures and subtle variations in shade. Before you get started, it's well worth reviewing the tips and tutorials below. This will help ensure your finished product is a professional looking garment your customers will want to buy and love to wear.

Dark Background: At-Risk Dark areas of your design are printed with dark ink. If your image has a dark background, the image will have a dark square printed around it. This is not desirable as the dark ink is lighter in color than the Dark T-Shirt. The same idea applies to other dark garments. A Royal blue background will be printed on the Royal Blue T-Shirt, and the result may not be desireable.
White Background: At-Risk White areas of your design are printed with white ink. It is generally not desirable to place a solid white square behind on image. For best results, optimize your designs and text so that they stand out on dark on their own.
Full Image Area: Safe If you place a non-transparent image onto a dark garment and it covers the entire available image area (i.e. a photo or painting) your design will look fine. To learn more about image sizes for Dark T-Shirts visit our design templates.
Transparent Background: Safe The color of the garment will show through the transparent areas of your design for the most professional look. This is the preferred method. To learn more about creating a transparent background, check out our tutorials.