DTF Artwork Requirements — The Complete Checklist

Pre-flight checklist.

The one number that matters.

Aim for roughly 300 DPI at the size you are printing. DPI on its own means nothing — it is only meaningful in relation to a physical dimension. What you actually need is enough pixels across the width of the finished print.

Your monitor shows roughly 100 pixels per inch, so anything on screen looks about three times sharper than it will printed. A logo that looks perfect at 100% zoom can still be soft at twelve inches wide — trust the arithmetic rather than your eyes.

What about 600 DPI?

Unnecessary. Past about 300 DPI at print size you are adding upload time and file size without adding anything you can see on fabric. Fabric has texture; it does not resolve detail the way paper does.

The most common problem we see.

Anything transparent in your file does not print — no ink, no adhesive powder, nothing on the film. That is what gives you a design shaped like your artwork instead of a rectangle.

The trap is that a white background looks identical to a transparent one on a white screen. Every design tool shows white pages. Your file can look perfectly transparent right up until it prints a white box onto a black shirt.

How to check properly

Watch the halo

Automatic background removers usually leave a faint fringe of near-white pixels around the artwork. Against white it is invisible; against black it reads as a glowing outline. If your file went through a one-click background remover, check the edges at high zoom against a dark background before you order.

Soft in the file means soft on the shirt.

Nothing in production sharpens artwork. A feathered edge, a drop shadow fading to transparent, or a design that has been scaled up from something small will print exactly as soft as it appears in the file at full size.

Deliberate soft edges — glows, fades, watercolour effects — are fine and print well. The problem is unintentional softness from upscaling, which looks like a slightly blurry version of the design rather than a stylistic choice.

Thin lines and small text

There is a practical floor. Keep line weights above roughly 1 point at final size, and text above about a quarter inch tall. Below that, thin strokes can break up, and tight counters in letterforms can fill in. If your design has fine detail, print it slightly larger rather than hoping.

Do not build one in.

DTF lays down a white ink layer behind the colour so the design stays opaque on dark garments. That layer is generated in production from your artwork — you do not need to create it, and you should not.

If you add a white shape behind your design in the file, it becomes part of the design. It will print as white ink and you will see it as a white outline or backing plate on the finished garment. Send the artwork alone, on transparency.

RGB is fine.

Send RGB. It is what most files are, and the conversion happens in production. Converting to CMYK yourself first does not improve the result and occasionally makes it worse, because a generic CMYK profile is not the profile our process uses.

What is worth knowing: some screen colours cannot be reproduced by any ink. Bright neon greens, electric blues and fluorescent oranges glow on a backlit monitor in a way pigment on fabric physically cannot. Those will print slightly duller than they look on screen. This is true of every printing process — if colour accuracy is critical, order a single transfer first and check it before committing to a run.

Crop tight, size properly.

Empty canvas around your artwork is area you pay for and film that gets wasted. Crop to the artwork before you upload — not to a comfortable-looking square.

Set the size you want printed rather than relying on the pixel dimensions. A 3000-pixel file could be a 10-inch print at 300 DPI or a 30-inch print at 100 DPI; the dimensions you enter are what we print and what you are charged for. Standard placement sizes →

What happens next.

Nothing bad, and nothing silent. DPI is checked automatically when you upload and anything that would print soft at your chosen size is flagged before it goes anywhere near the printer.

From there you have three options:

Frequently asked questions

What resolution do DTF files need?

Around 300 DPI at the final print size. Multiply your print width in inches by 300 to get the pixels you need — a 12-inch print wants about 3,600 pixels of width.

What file types can I send?

PNG, JPG and PDF. PNG with a transparent background is the safest default. PDF is better when the artwork is genuinely vector.

Do I need to add a white underbase myself?

No. The white layer is generated automatically in production wherever your design needs to be opaque. Do not build a white layer into your file — it will be printed as part of the design and you will see it.

Should I send RGB or CMYK?

RGB is fine and is what most files arrive as. We handle the conversion. Very saturated screen colours — bright neon greens and electric blues in particular — sit outside what any ink can reproduce and will shift slightly. That is true of every printing process, not just DTF.

What is the smallest text that will print legibly?

As a practical floor, aim for text no smaller than about a quarter inch tall, and keep line weights above roughly 1 point at final size. Below that, thin strokes can break up or fill in.

Do I need bleed or crop marks?

No. Send the artwork at the size you want printed with no crop marks, registration marks or bleed. If you have added the cutting service we cut to the artwork itself.

What happens if my file does not meet these requirements?

The DPI check flags it on upload before anything prints. From there you can send a better file, print it smaller, or add our artwork service for a flat $12.00 per file.