DesignFix Design Studio
Artwork for DTF printing
DTF is forgiving about colour and unforgiving about edges. It will reproduce gradients and photographic detail that screen printing cannot, then show every soft, compressed or half-transparent pixel around the outside of your design as a visible fringe on the garment.
What this covers
What we work on in dtf design
Genuine transparency
Backgrounds actually removed rather than painted white, and edges that hold up when the film is cut.
Cleaning up existing artwork
Compression damage, halos and stray pixels taken out of a file that has been saved and re-saved too often.
Resolution at print size
Artwork rebuilt or redrawn where the source is too small for the size it's being printed at.
Layout and sizing
Artwork placed at the dimensions you're printing, and arranged sensibly where several designs share a sheet.
Projects that fit here
Examples of the kind of thing people send us. If yours isn’t on the list, describe it anyway.
- A logo with a white box behind it that needs to print with no box
- A design with a pale halo around the edges from a rough background removal
- Artwork supplied at screen resolution that needs rebuilding for a 12-inch print
- A photographic design where the soft edge has to be dealt with deliberately
- Several designs laid out on one sheet at their finished sizes
- A file rejected by a supplier with no explanation of what was wrong
Who this tends to be for
People printing DTF transfers
In-house or through a supplier, where the artwork has to arrive usable.
Print shops taking customer files
Where what the customer sent will visibly fringe or fall apart at size.
Brands moving to DTF from another process
Artwork built for screen printing usually needs different preparation.
Specifications come from your printer, not from us
There is no single DTF specification. Sheet sizes, colour profiles, maximum print dimensions, whether white is generated automatically or has to be supplied, and how much bleed a cutter wants all vary between machines, films and suppliers. Anyone publishing one universal set of numbers is describing their own setup and hoping it matches yours.
So we ask for yours. If your printer or supplier has given you a specification, send it and the artwork is prepared to it. If you do not have one, tell us who is printing and at what size and we will prepare artwork that is sound in the general case — correct resolution for the finished dimensions, real transparency, and clean edges — and flag anything that looks like it needs their confirmation.
What we will not do is guess at a number that only your supplier can give you and let you find out on the press. Where a requirement matters and we do not know it, we will say so and ask.
The work itself is mostly about edges and resolution. Transparency has to be genuine rather than a white background someone tried to knock out; edges have to survive being cut; and detail has to exist at the size being printed rather than at the size the file happens to be.
How it works
From a sentence to a finished design
- Step 1
Tell us what you need
One or two sentences is enough to start. You don't have to know what the work is called or which category it belongs in.
- Step 2
We discuss the project
We ask what we need to know — where it will be used, what size, what it has to work on — and tell you honestly what is and isn't possible.
- Step 3
Share files or references
Send the artwork you already have, a photo, a sketch, or examples of the look you're after. Files go straight into private storage.
- Step 4
You get a custom offer
A written scope and a fixed price for your project specifically. Nothing is charged and nothing is started until you accept it.
- Step 5
Approve and pay
Accepting the offer creates the order and takes you to payment. Decline it or ignore it and nothing happens.
- Step 6
We complete the design
The work runs through the same production and delivery process as every other DesignFix order, with revisions included in the scope.
What to send us
You don't need to know what to ask for
None of this is required, and a single sentence is enough to start. It's simply what tends to be useful, so a first message doesn't turn into three.
Whatever artwork you have
The file itself, however rough — an export, a screenshot, a photo of something printed, or the version a supplier rejected.
A reference or a sketch
Something you like the look of, a rough drawing, or an existing design you want the new work to sit alongside.
Where it's going
The product, the size, and the process if you know it. Print, garment, screen or sign changes what the artwork has to be.
Any specification you were given
A printer's requirements, a supplier's template, or the rejection message you received — that usually says exactly what needs fixing.
Colours and brand material
Existing brand colours, fonts or guidelines, so new work matches what you already have.
What you want changed
A sentence is enough. "Make this printable", "this needs to work on a dark shirt", "I want something like this but ours".
Questions
Common questions
Tell us what you need
Describe the project in a sentence or two. We’ll ask what we need to know, then send a written scope and a fixed price before anything is charged.