DTG printing has allowed t-shirt manufacturers to make printed t-shirts much more easily. Instead of printing the text and images on some sort of transfer paper, they can print the text and images directly on the garment. (DTG, after all, stands for "direct-to-garment.") With more t-shirt companies offering this service, you might be thinking of ordering some DTG printed t-shirts yourself. How do you ensure they come out looking awesome? Well, you can start by following these tips.

Make sure your image file is of good quality

The quality of the printing can only be as good as the quality of your file. If you send your printer a blurry image or one that's all pixelated, the image on your shirt won't come out very nice. Never send in a copy/pasted or clipped image, as the resolution on such images tends to be lower. Most printers prefer .jpg images, but reach out to the printer for a list of file types they can accept. Based on the specific equipment they have, they can also give you a target resolution you should be aiming for when selecting an image.

Ask to see a preview

If your printing company does not show you a preview of your shirts before you order, ask to see one. This way, you can make sure the image is placed correctly on the shirt. You can also make sure it is properly sized. If you do not like something about how the preview looks, let the printing company know. They can make some adjustments, show you another preview, and repeat these steps until you're happy with how the image looks. It is easy for them to make these adjustments in the software; they don't need to print test shirts in most cases.

Choose a light-colored shirt

The one downfall of DTG printing is that it doesn't do the best job with light inks on dark fabrics. So, when designing your shirt, you'll want to choose a light color for the actual shirt material, and use darker colors in your image and text design. When you check the preview, make sure everything looks legible and clear.

With the tips above, you should get better results when working with a DTG t-shirt printer. Don't hesitate to ask the print shop employees for advice. Most have made a lot of shirts, and they can tell you what has and has not worked for past customers.