What kind of art is good for use in Screen Printing?

There are two industry standard programs used for creating graphics for screen print - Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. Please see below for art submission guidelines.

We can also scan drawings, already printed tees or other flat images you bring in depending on the design and desired print quality.

Adobe Illustrator

• Vector Graphic Images - shapes created using paths instead of pixels
• All fonts should be converted to outlines
• Embed any linked files, but also provide the support file separately
• Illustrator can also create very complex vector images that may end up being separated in Photoshop

Thanks Threadless and artist Rosemary
Traval for this perfect example of vector art
for screen print - TARDamask

Thanks Sharp Shirter for the excellent vector
example - Cycling Fish

Adobe Photoshop

• Raster Images - design elements created using pixels instead of paths
• Best for very complex graphics or photographic images
• Images be created at a minimum of 150 dpi at print size
• Up-sampling web images does not make the graphic use-able for screen print

Thanks Sharp Shirter for letting us use Venn
Jelly as an example!

We can also scan drawings, already printed tees or other flat images you bring in depending on the design and desired print quality. If your art files do not meet these guidelines, never fear!

Chances are we can use whatever files or ideas you do have to bring your screen print design to life. Just ask your customer service rep about costs involved with design creation or art re-drawing.