If you want to embroider a bigger design on the front of the shirt, use the large center placement. Take advantage of the extra space to add more details (but don’t forget that it has less surface area than the DTG front placement).
Pro tip: Check your product’s File guidelines tab to see the maximum placement size for your chosen front design placement.
Left chest design placement
The left chest design placement is an all around win: classic yet versatile, understated yet dressed up—and it’s been popular for decades. This placement doesn’t offer a lot of room for detailed art but works great for logos, symbols, smaller designs, and text.
Using the left chest placement for your logo or branding helps give a regular t-shirt a more polished look.
The minimalist layout also makes this placement easier for shoppers to pair your t-shirt with other clothing. After all, offering t-shirt designs that you can wear with anything increases the chances customers will choose your t-shirts over other brands.
At Printful, the standard size of an embroidered left chest placement is around 4” x 4”. The smaller size and left chest location also make this spot a good choice for work uniforms or branded clothing.
Pro tip: We use different embroidery stitches for different shapes or text thicknesses. Learn more about embroidery at Printful and check out what works best for your design.
To make sure you get your left chest placement design right on the first try, stick to the tips we’ve listed below.
Make sure detail thickness is at least 0.05” (4pt)
You can also use the center chest placement to show off your carefully-crafted text designs.
Pro tip: Take your branding to the next level by adding your logo on an outside label for a more professional look.
A full front placement means even more space for your art. Since the pattern or design takes up a large part of the front of the t-shirt, it’s awesome for bold looks and max visibility.
It’s best to center your design from the middle point of the neck collar.
How big can you go? At Printful, we have various products from different manufacturers. That means every product has its own file guidelines with different max print areas depending on the size of the t-shirt, the design technique used, and the supplier.
For embroidery, the large center placement area is 10” × 16”. For DTG designs, the front placement area is from 10” × 12” to 12” × 16”. Since this offers a good amount of space, it’s the perfect placement to show off bigger designs with detailed colors.
The back of a t-shirt is the most common placement for sports uniforms and large designs because of the available surface area.
The placement comes with other benefits, too. For example, artwork on the front of a shirt is more forward and can be harder to pull off. This is where the beauty of a back design comes in—customers can tone down the vibe by pairing outerwear with it.
Below we discuss the most common back t-shirt placements offered by Printful.
Artisticimage.netWe print outside labels underneath the collar of the t-shirt on the back. You can use this placement to show off your brand logo or unleash your creativity by adding text and other design elements!
At Printful, the max outside label placement area is 3” × 3” for most garments (it costs $2.49 per garment). Unlike inside labels, you can put a design in the entire placement area.
Though this spot is more suitable for logo placement, you can use it for anything that works with your main design. After all, it’s your product!
back outside label placement area
Want to find out if a product you like allows for an outside label? Follow these steps:
If the tag is present, you can add an outside label to that product! That’s all there is to it.
Note: You can’t combine an inside label or back print with an outside label on the same product.
Note: You can’t combine an inside label or back print with an outside label on the same product.
Full back design placement
A full back placement is a suitable spot to show off your branding or designs because it’s a large area and prominent location.
Plus, since t-shirts lay flat against the back, your design is more likely to look the same as your mockup. There are fewer chances your design will crease.
For direct-to-garment printing, the maximum placement size is 10” × 12” to 12” × 16” depending on the product. You can’t exceed the size limit or your design will get cut off. If you want to design something larger, consider a seam-to-seam placement!
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Sleeve placements are a relatively newer (yet equally exciting!) design choice that’s been growing in popularity over the past few years.
Not every print-on-demand provider allows you to design on the sleeve, but it’s an attention-grabbing spot that’ll help your designs stand out. It’s a cool option to use with other design placements or on its own for a more minimalist style.
For example, combining a front center chest design with a related sleeve design placement helps make your product look put together and professional.
You can also use this spot to drop your branding symbols or logo.
