Artwork Guidelines

Good art is essential for a quality, finished product.  Even though you may not be an artist, we have placed a few guidelines below to ensure your finished product will be what you expect.  Need some help?  No problem.  We can not only work with your camera ready art, but we can clean up and trace your bad art and make it work.  We can also create art for you in house or work with one of our independent artists.

FOR SCREEN PRINTING

The best files for screen printing are vector art files.  Vector art is created in a program like Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator and is saved with file extensions like cdr, ai, eps and pdf.  These programs use mathematic equations and geometric primitives (points, lines, and shapes) to create art that is clean, camera ready, and can be scaled infinitely, without any loss of quality or fidelity. When sending vector, art please make sure you do the following:

• Original vector art is saved in one of the following file formats, cdr, ai, eps or pdf
  
• All font converted to outlines or curves or fonts attached to the artwork
  
• All colors saved as spot colors
  
• Colors in the file clearly marked with PMS number for reference or a brief description defaulting to our in house stock colors
  

Not sure if your art is vector?  No worries. Give us a call and send it to us in a JPEG for reference.  We can trace and convert the art in house or have it re-drawn.  (Small fee may or may not apply.  Call us for details)

*A pixel based or photographic image saved as ai, EPS or PDF is not considered a vector file. 

FOR EMBROIDERY

When it comes to embroidery, we not only accept vector art but also raster or pixel based images as well.  These images are usually created in a photo program like Adobe Photoshop but also may be created in Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw too.  The key to good embroidery is not trying to reproduce too small of detail like text, and keeping in mind the fabric you are embellishing helps as well.  Cap and stretchy fabrics require a little more thought in design than a denim or twill garment.  When sending us embroidery art, please make sure of the following:

• File saved as cdr, ai, psd, eps pdf or high quality jpeg
  
• All fonts converted to outlines or curves
  
• File size saved at or close to the actual decorating size
  
• Thread color, PMS color, or recommended color clearly defined with the artwork submitted (verbal colors will be matched the best we can with stock embroidery thread options)
  
• Pixel based artwork submitted at 200 dpi or greater
  

Have questions about art?  Just call us.  We will make the process really easy for you!

FOR DIGITAL PRINTING, SUBLIMATION AND TRANSFERS

For digital printing, we prefer raster or pixel based files.  These are almost always created in programs like Adobe Photoshop or another pixel based graphics program.  Web graphics saved from the internet rarely work well due to the resolution being very small.  When a web graphic is made large, it tends to distort and there is usually nothing we can do with it.  When sending digital printing files, please remember the following:

• Files saved as Photoshop, eps, tiff, gif, jpeg and pdf
  
• Convert fonts to outlines or curves
  
• Files saved at 300 dpi or higher
  
• Original file created and saved at or close to the size expected for decoration
  

*Keep in mind that photos off the internet or scanned documents usually do not reproduce well due to the size and resolution of the photo or graphic.  While we can work with them some, they can not be reproduced larger without further editing.