Preparing Your Picture File For Custom Hang Tag Printing

Custom hang tags are the perfect finishing touch for your clothing line. Printed with your personal logo and company mission statement, hang tags take your clothing from homemade to ready-to-sell. Beautifully printed hang-tags just make your clothing designs look finished and professional. Hang tags can also tell the story behind your clothes and what inspires your designs.

A professional graphic designer will be able to prepare your hang-tags for printing. But if you are going the do-it-yourself route, there are a few simple computer tweaks to make your hang-tags print correctly.

Having your file properly prepared can save you time and money. When your first print batch of hang tags looks amazing, you save money by not having to pay for a second batch, and you save time by not having to run back and forth to the printer.

The following tips are for files that are prepared in most common picture and graphic editing programs:

  • Convert the color profile to CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black). If your file was saved as RGB (red, green, blue) file, reopen the file as a CMYK file and use Save As to make a new file.
  • Make sure that your black is the right kind. The default black setting is usually bad for printing. Your black setting for CMYK should be set to 100% for black and 0% for the other three colors. If your hang tags are solid black, ask your printer what percentages of each color should be used to insure that your tags print correctly. Most printers recommend using a rich black, which can be 30%-40% of cyan and 70%-60% of black. The default settings usually result in a muddled grey tone rather than a true black. 
  • Download or request the color profile that your printer uses so that you can calibrate your computer monitor properly. These profiles are usually located on the website of the company.
  • Leave room on the sides of your hang tag. 1/8 inch should be the minimum amount of space to be sufficient so that your logo or words are not cut-off. This is known as the bleed area. In addition to the bleed area, you should denote the lines 
  • Make sure your images and graphics are at least 300dpi (dots per inch)

With a little bit of extra tweaking, your hang tags will look wonderful and add a new dimension to your line of clothes. If you'd rather have a professional print shop do it for you, contact M13 Graphics.


Share