How to make your own T-shirt

Need to design a T-shirt for an event or promotion? Use the template in Adobe® Illustrator® CS2 to get a head start. Screen printing on fabric poses different challenges than printing on paper, but if you follow these guidelines, you can save time and money as you bring your apparel design to life.

1. Plan your design.

Before you begin working in Illustrator, think about the limitations of printing on T-shirts. Check with your printing vendor for exact guidelines. You’ll need to consider size, ink colors, and fabric colors. Also consider that the design needs to work on multiple
T-shirt sizes. Generally, left-chest designs are 4” wide by 2.5” tall, and full front or back designs on adult sizes are 14.5” wide by 16” tall.
Unless your artwork contains a photograph, use individual spot colors in your design. Each color will require its own film positive, so the more colors you use, the more expensive it will be. Your vendor may also limit the number of colors you can use. Keep in mind that tints print darker than they appear on screen. Because inks are not opaque, fabric color makes a big difference in how the inks look. On a dark fabric, you may have to print a layer of white first to produce vivid results.

2. Open the template.

In Illustrator CS2, choose File > New From Template. In the New From Template dialog box, which opens to the Templates folder, double-click Extreme Sports, and then select T-Shirt.ait. When you click New, Illustrator opens a template with a sample T-shirt design as well as a thumbnail of the finished T-shirt.
The sample image includes crop marks, with guidelines for a 4.25” x 7.25” area. You can move the guidelines to adjust the design area.
From template to T-shirt
By the experts at Adobe

3. Design the T-shirt.





In screen printing, simple designs work best. Avoid transparency and use vector-based images whenever possible. Unless you are using a photograph, use only spot colors in your design.
The inks used in screen printing are called Plastisol inks. The Plastisol ink library isn’t available in Illustrator, so you’ll substitute Pantone spot colors. Your screen printing provider will select the Plastisol inks that are closest to the Pantone inks you’ve chosen.

4. Convert text to outlines.

When you’ve finished the design, convert the text to outlines in Illustrator. Select all of the text, and then choose Type > Create Outlines.
Converting text to outlines ensures that it prints as vector graphic objects, so you needn’t worry about font substitutions.



5. Proof your design.
Unless you’re using a photograph, verify that your design contains only spot colors. Choose File > Print. Select the Output pane, and choose Separations (Host-Based) from the Mode menu. In the Document Ink Options area, a printer icon appears next to each ink that will print. Make sure that all your spot inks are listed and that a printer icon doesn’t appear next to any of the process colors (marked with a four-color icon).
To print a proof, change the Mode to Composite and print the design to a standard printer. Remember that the colors may look different on paper than they will on fabric.
For more design resources for web, print, digital imaging, and digital video, visit Adobe Studio at http://studio.adobe.com.

6. Save the file for your vendor.

The print vendor for your T-shirt project will probably request the file in a specific format. Many vendors prefer to receive native Illustrator documents, but they may want them in a legacy (older) Illustrator format.
To save the file in a legacy format, choose File > Save
As, select Adobe Illustrator Document as the file format, and click Save. Then you can select the appropriate format.
Alternatively, some vendors prefer Adobe PDF files. Choose File > Save As, choose Adobe PDF as the file format, and click Save. Select a PDF preset or PDF options;
ask your vendor which settings you should use.