T-shirt printing is a technical process that demands professional precision and a knack for art. A lot of newbies in this business make costly mistakes due to lack of knowledge which results in the poor design and bad quality of a print. Here were are going to share some of the serious blunders that beginners make in T-shirt printing business and how they can avoid them:

1. Not Knowing Your Target Audience
Just like any business, a t-shirt printing business calls for the right understanding of your target audience. In other words, you should have insights into the needs of your target buyers. You need to know their tastes in art, the designs they consider taboo and the fabrics they love the most. Besides, you need to know their buying power to create the right prints that fall under their budget.

Do an analysis of your target audience before you set up the printing process and put those designs and custom patches on the t-shirt.

2. Using Low-Quality Materials
The result of a t-shirt print is only as good as the materials you use in its production. From the brand and model of your printer to the type of ink you use in your printing process, everything plays a vital role in the production of your tee print. If you use substandard materials in the printing process, then the quality of print will definitely suffer.

A bad printer cannot produce the right intensity of colors and design. A low-quality ink cannot guarantee the color fastness of the t-shirt, and it might fade out quicker or cause smudge or tinted spots. Epson F3070 ink is a good example of ink that delivers outstanding color in conjunction with the Epson SureColor F3070.

Similarly, poor quality of fabric will cause frayed threads which might affect the quality of a print. So if you want to ensure excellent quality of design, you need to use high-quality materials at every stage of your t-shirt printing process.

3. Choosing the Wrong Colors
Colors breathe life to a design. When you goof in using the right colors in the design, you kill the whole design. However, the color selection in t-shirt printing is a bit tricky since you are dealing with so many different colors for different types of printing.
The underbase is the first thing you need to take into consideration to give the right brightness to the colors in the design. An underbase is white in color which allows the other colors to sit on the fabric.

Besides, you need to be particular about the colors that you will use in your t-shirt design. You need to be sure about the specific shades of a batch so that the colors in every tee looks the same. The availability of the Pantone color system has made it possible for the garment decorators to use the exact tone of color for every piece of clothing in a batch.

So be very careful when applying colors to the fabric and use the colors that easily combine with the fabric of the tee and complement its design including the custom embroidered patches.

4. Not Paying Attention to Design
The artwork is the life of a t-shirt print. If a design lacks the flavor, it will reflect on the final print. Avoid using too many design elements in a print as it will distract the onlookers. Make it simple and yet appealing by using a right blend of colors and imagery.

Besides, it is equally important that you use the images in high resolution so that they don’t pixelate when they are scaled up for printing. Keep the resolution of an image to 300X300 pixels per inch (PPI) so that it doesn’t blur in the printing stage. Use the Google image tool to search images with 300x300 PPI.

5. Using Wrong Fabric
Remember that you get the best results for your t-shirt design and custom embroidered patches only with the right fabric. Different printing methods work best on different types of clothing material. For example, screen printing and direct to garment (DTG) give the best result on 100% cotton t-shirts, while dye sublimation printing is perfect for polyester fabric.

Though all these printing methods can print on blended fabric, they will not produce the same result as they would create on their favorite fabric primarily because of the ink used in the printing process.

Therefore, you should be very particular about your choice of fabric when it comes to printing tees and use the right material for a specific printing method.

6. Not Curing Properly
Curing is a significant part of the printing process and mucking it up can seriously mess up the quality of a print. A poorly-executed curing process can cause cracks in t-shirt print and make the best design look like crap. The curing is dependent on the type of ink that you use for a specific printing method. The curing for a t-shirt with plastisol ink uses the different temperature than a tee that uses a water-based ink.
Apart from setting the right temperature for the different types of ink, you should also need to be knowledgeable with executing the curing process.

7. Using Too Big Design Elements
Often, the printing guys use too big design elements on the t-shirt that keep the onlookers hooked on the design and not on the person wearing the tee. Using an overly big image or text on a t-shirt looks absurd to the eyes and distract the onlookers as well.

Besides, it overshadows the message you want to convey to the viewers. Therefore, you should keep the design elements appropriate for the size of a tee. Don’t make it overly big or gigantic.

8. Applying Too Many Fonts
Just as too many design elements override the message in design, using too many fonts will do the same. The t-shirt designs use a one-liner or slogan that makes a statement. By using too many fonts, you will confuse the onlookers, and they will fail to understands the message you want to convey in a design.

9. Not Doing a Test Print
This can be a big blunder for people who sell the printed t-shirts on a large scale. When you are printing several hundreds of tees every day, it makes sense to do a test print before you do the prints on dozens of t-shirts. With a test print, you will know exactly about the glitches in the printing process, and you will make timely changes in materials and equipment to produce the right quality of prints on every t-shirt. You will save plenty of money and time by doing a test print before making the prints.

10. Copying Artworks of Others
Often, the newbies in t-shirt printing business copy the artwork of others to avoid the grunt work that goes into creating new designs. While this is a more time-saving way to create new t-shirt prints, it can cost serious damage to the integrity of your business and can cause you financial damages due to copyright infringement. So be honest and create your original designs to retain your individuality and save yourself from the financial loss.

T-shirt printing is a big business. However, this business can be tricky for the upstarts who don’t know the technicalities of this business. By avoiding these mistakes, they can save them from the loss of money and time at the early stage of their business.