Get advice to help you create your t-shirt graphics. Discuss t-shirt design software, special effect techniques, or other topics related to creating a t-shirt design on your computer. If you'd rather hire a graphic designer to do the work for you, please post in our Referrals and Recommendations section here.
Hey guys, what are the best ways to design images for shirts and clean them up? Draw it, ink it, scan it, done? Or what... if it starts by traditional methods (Pen and Ink for example) then which would be then best?
Thanks!
Ive just started creating designs for print. With my lineart designs, I do all my work with my cut software. Since I just received my copy of Draw X3, Ive started using it (well Im trying). As I understand it, if youre working with a picture that is say a photo or highly detailed drawing type, keep the res. high. From the posts Ive read, 300 dpi and up are the way to start. And if Im not mistaken, its best to work larger than you final print size, its easier to reduce the size of you image and keep the quality than it is to enlarge it. If you dont already own an editing program, you can download trail versions of most major one. Theres a few freeware programs a few people have said nice things about aswell. The program GIMP has come up in a recent posts, so maybe with experience in that can drop a post on that. Ive also done the scanning my work thing. If you have a nice scanner, no worries. Scan with a high res. I scan at 600 dpi. I receive a message everytime about the my dpi being higher than needed, but Im guaranteed high detail to work from. Hope that helps a little.
Hey guys, what are the best ways to design images for shirts and clean them up? Draw it, ink it, scan it, done? Or what... if it starts by traditional methods (Pen and Ink for example) then which would be then best?
Thanks!
It depends on what kind of medium you are using, and what method you are most comfortable with. Some graphics programs (CorelDraw X3, Adobe Illustrator) have a power tracing features which can automatically create vector images from your scanned drawings.
I like to sketch something out on paper, scan it and let X3 trace it for me, or manually trace it using my Wacom tablet. Or I just draw straight on the tablet.
sorry to jump on the to the post with a question! i normally use adobe photoshop for creating any designs, because this is what i'm use to and know how to use. Just recently aquired illustrator but dont find it any good for creating images / art from scratch on the computer!
Is this just me or is illustrator generally used for basic designs and tracing images after scanning ?
sorry to jump on the to the post with a question! i normally use adobe photoshop for creating any designs, because this is what i'm use to and know how to use. Just recently aquired illustrator but dont find it any good for creating images / art from scratch on the computer!
Is this just me or is illustrator generally used for basic designs and tracing images after scanning ?
Adobe Illustrator is used by thousands of graphics professionals. It is really one of the best programs out there. It is definitely not just for creating basic designs and tracing images, you can do pretty much anything imaginable with it.
I don't use it myself, but I have heard that it takes a while to learn if you are just starting out. You might try finding some tutorials on the web, I have also seen various instructional DVD's for sale on Ebay.
Is this just me or is illustrator generally used for basic designs and tracing images after scanning ?
yup, its just you...any image that uses only solid colors is better to have in vector wher you can resize it as opposed to raster wher resizing distorts.
hey thanks guys for the help! please feel free to continue to post your thoughts and opinions about the subject on this thread... I hope to soon get a wacom tablet... what would be the most efficient way to use it (or not, by using traditional methods) for t-shirt design matters... thanks again!!
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