AI, ADLG & Event T-Shirts

Introduction

I've seen lots of event t-shirts & polo shirts: both printed and embroidered. I began to wonder just how hard could it be? To find out, I designed, and had printed, something for this year's King in the North at Haxby in October.

The main problem was the artwork. I'm not really gifted with a pencil, so I had to turn to the new AI tools to compensate for my lack of skill.

I can easily get others printed in sizes up to 5XL, so if you'd like one get in touch via this form. Now read on all the gory details.

AI image creation

I used one of the many AI based image creation tools to generate the central portion of the design. I can't remember which one I used, but they all seemed to be similar. I asked for an Arab & a Byzantine warrior, face to face with one another. I also settled on a black & white, line art image although I've since learnt that full colour isn't the problem I thought it would be.

Image size & resolution

The initial AI images were great for websites but far too small for t-shirts.

To print well an image needs to have a resolution of 600 pixels per inch. The original AI images were only 512 pixels square: that's less than one inch when printed!

To deal with this I used the upscaling feature at remaker.ai multiple times to resize the image to 4,096 pixels square, or 6.83 inches. All the while retaining the detail. I tried to make a bigger image but remaker.ai will not process images larger than 4,000 pixels.

Design

All the images were either created, or saved, in PNG format. This is the best lossless bitmap format for printing. The design was done with Paint.Net (a Windows application) which I prefer to GIMP or Photoshop. It's a much simpler application. The basic design steps were:

• Set up 6,000 by 7,2000 pixel blank image for a 10" by 12" canvas.
• Create separate layers for background, image, & text.
• Select a background colour (not required for printing).
• Cut the central circular section from the enlarged AI image.
• Paste into the image layer.
• Add title and subtitle text to the text layer.
• Save as PDN or ORA file to preserve layers.
• Save a copy of the final design as a PNG file (this flattens layers).

In essence the design was built like this:

Initially, I chose a white background with black text. Later I switched to a (wargamers') black background. To do this I inverted both the background colour and the text colour: the work of seconds.

Printing

Most t-shirt printers will accept high resolution PNG files even if they prefer vector formats (mainly because they can be easily resized).

I sent a PNG file with a transparent background. To do this I went back to the PDN (or ORA file), switched off the coloured background, and saved a fresh PNG copy.

The t-shirts were printed using DTF. This means the image isn't printed diredctly onto the fabric using ink, it's printed onto a film, which is then transferred to the t-shirt using adhesive and heat. This meant that the central image is very slightly more rigid than the underlying fabric, but nothing untoward.

As you can see the print turned out well with all the details clearly visible. I was also pleased with the quality of the t-shirt (Gildan 6400 Softstyle). I already own DTF printed t-shirts so I know these will survive quite a few washes.

Closing remarks

As an experiment in design & print, this worked well. I went from concept to printed t-shirt in just under two weeks. Very pleasing, and I may be doing this again.

All that remains is to see if anyone else wants one.