Hey it`s Wes from Printful.
Creating designs for your products can take a lot of time
when you're starting off your print-on-demand business.
You need to find free graphic editing software and know how to use it,
so that way you can bring your ideas to life.
To save you all the trouble
we have a special tool available
that'll help you create designs right away.
Our mockup generator is free
and is constantly updated with new clipart and sample graphics.
It's incredibly easy to use and it lets you combine available elements
into a high-quality design for t-shirts and other products.
For this video I've teamed up with one of our designers
to show you just that.
Hi, my name is Sindija.
I'm a Senior Designer here at Printful.
In this video you'll learn how to create fun and unique designs
by combining multiple elements in our Printful Mockup Generator.
We'll be covering a lot of topics related to printing along the way,
so stick around until the end of the video.
If you want to learn more about designing and selling your products online
make sure to subscribe to our channel and follow us on Instagram.
Let's begin.
I'll enter the Mockup Generator from the Printful homepage by clicking here.
I want the colors of my design to pop, so a 100% cotton shirt will be best for this.
I'll choose Bella+Canvas 3001 and leave it in plain white.
Remember that in DTG printing, the type and color of the t-shirt
play a very important role in how your design looks on a finished product.
Printed colors will always look a bit duller or darker from what they looked like on a screen
simply because the screen is backlit, while the product is not.
I'll start by creating a background layer.
I'll click on “drop your design” and select “sample files”.
Most of the graphics used in our recent product videos can be found here.
They're separated into two types:
print file and embroidery.
All the embroidery sample files are already digitized.
If you don't change or add to that design,
you won't get charged the digitization fee
when you use the file in an order.
I'll choose the zebra patterned print file for our design.
I'll start by scaling it up until it takes the shape of a square.
Pay attention to the left side of the screen;
as I'm scaling the file, the DPI changes.
If your graphic is below 150 DPI,
it'll be considered low quality
and will come out blurry.
This is something you should always avoid.
When you're working in the Mockup Generator,
I suggest always keeping the safety grid on.
You can switch it off here for a better preview of your design.
Next I'll add some text by clicking here.
I'll change the color and select a different typeface
We have a wide range of typefaces available
that you can incorporate in your design
and they are suitable for embroidery as well.
I'm going to scale the text layer up by dragging it here in the preview window.
I can also zoom in to have better control of the graphic.
Alternatively, you can adjust the text size along with the letter spacing and rotation
in these windows located here.
Once all the adjustments are finished, I'll press “see all design layers”
and return to the default layout.
Here I can see all the design elements that I've added so far.
As you can see, the background is very dynamic and overpowers the text.
That's why we'll be adding a background shape layer for the text to stand out.
I'll adjust the background zebra pattern layer and then go to the clipart section,
shapes and symbols,
to select the horizontal rectangle shape.
Now I'll scale it up so that it becomes the same size as the text
and then drag the shape layer under it.
Next, I'll rotate it counterclockwise.
I can do that directly in the preview window
or in the layer section, located here.
I want the shape layer to cross the main background layer diagonally,
without leaving any space near the corners of the safe print area.
To fix that, I'll scale it up and zoom in,
to ensure that it's lined up with the top of the zebra layer.
To make the zoomed in working area even larger, press CTRL+.
Once that's done, I'll adjust the positioning of the text layer.
If you want your layer or design to be perfectly aligned vertically or horizontally,
make sure to use the align buttons located here.
Lastly, I'll add another text layer.
I'll change its color and typeface.
We have a very thick and blocky font at the back,
so a nice thin typeface at the front will provide a good contrast.
Next I need to match its rotation with the rectangle shape layer.
For ideal diagonal alignment between the two elements,
we'll copy the rotation value of the shape layer
and paste in the text layer.
After a few adjustments, we're done with the front design.
I have the option to either order the product or generate files to create mockups.
I'll do just that, but I'm going to chose only the print file and press
“generate files” then
“save to library.”
Now I can save this design to any of my ecommerce stores that are connected with Printful.
It's important to know that after you save your design,
all the layers are merged together into a single file.
So make sure you make all the necessary adjustments
before saving and going through this step.
This feature is especially useful
if you want to print your design on more than one product.
Let's say I want this design to be on a mug.
For this example, I'll choose a magic mug
and place the graphic that we just created.
The selected design will get placed in the very center,
but I want to have on both sides.
The easiest way is to position the design on any of the sides and press on this checkbox.
This will duplicate the image on both sides and save you some extra time.
Go ahead and see what you can achieve using the tools available in our generator.
If you're looking for something more complex,
feel free to reach out to our design team and submit a request.
Thank you Sindija for that demonstration.
We always recommend ordering color swatches
to help you decide which RGB values best compare
to the desired results when printed on a physical product.
In fact, many of our clients have gone through the process of color correcting their own designs
and found the real practical use for our color swatches.
I was getting my samples done and expected my designs
to show up on the shirts like they did on the screen.
Sometimes they do.
But then I realized that color correction is actually one of the most important things
I would recommend doing to anybody dealing with product design.
It's such a big thing.
Printful is really helpful with that.
You can make swatch sample shirts that have different colors with RGB values on them.
So you can go into your designs—this is what I ended up doing with my hypercolor design
—and change your colors to how you want them to show up on a white shirt
or how you want them to show up on a dark shirt.
After that was done, I had more confidence in my product.
With all that said, let's take a look at how our design has come out.
The outcome is the same as the print file.
The bright red that was used for the main typeface
stands out and attracts attention as expected.
You might have noticed that it's among other colors
in the Mockup Generator for the clipart and text graphics.
That color palette consists of the most commonly used colors that are safe to print on any DTG product.
Because our print file was within the acceptable DPI limits,
we can clearly see the sharpness of all the details in the design.
Whenever you plan to add a new product to your store,
order a sample for yourself first.
This way you'll know what your customer receives
and you can make any adjustments if necessary.
Do you want to see a video on creating designs for other types of products?
If so, let us know in the comments below.