Frequently Asked Questions

Great Shirts Start With Great Artwork. At GhostGrid Apparel, we want your finished custom T-shirt to look just as good in person as you imagined it. Our shirts are decorated using Direct-to-Film (DTF) printing, which allows us to produce vibrant, detailed, full-color designs on a variety of shirt colors. Whether you're ordering shirts for your business, church, sports team, family reunion, organization, memorial, birthday, event, brand, or just yourself, following these artwork guidelines will help us produce the best possible result. Don't have perfect artwork? Don't worry. We can often help prepare existing artwork, enhance certain images, and assist with basic AI-generated designs.

BEST FILE TYPE: TRANSPARENT PNG

For the best results, we recommend uploading a:

PNG file with a transparent background

A transparent background allows us to print your actual design without an unwanted white box or other background appearing around it.

Whenever possible, your artwork should be:


  • High resolution

  • At or near the intended print size

  • Clean and sharp

  • Free of unwanted backgrounds

  • Free of watermarks

  • Created from artwork you own or have permission to reproduce

300 DPI at the intended print size is recommended whenever possible.

The quality of your finished shirt depends heavily on the quality of the artwork we receive.

A small image may look perfectly fine on your phone but become blurry or pixelated when enlarged to 10, 12, or 14 inches across a T-shirt.

BEST QUALITY ✅

High-resolution original artwork

Transparent PNG

Clean edges

Large image dimensions

Artwork created at or near its intended print size

MAY REQUIRE PREPARATION ⚠️

Slightly blurry artwork

AI-generated artwork

Artwork with a solid background

Older logos

JPEG/JPG files

Images requiring cleanup

Artwork that needs to be enlarged

MAY NOT PRINT WELL ❌

Screenshots

Social-media thumbnails

Extremely small images

Severely pixelated artwork

Heavily compressed images

Photos of another printed shirt

Images containing watermarks

Artwork with missing details

Uploading a small image and requesting a large print does not increase the actual quality of the artwork.

That's okay.

If you already have a completed logo or design, GhostGrid Apparel may be able to remove a simple background and prepare the artwork for DTF printing.

Basic preparation of an existing design is generally something we can handle.

Complex backgrounds, difficult edges, extensive reconstruction, or artwork requiring substantial manual editing may result in an additional artwork preparation charge.

We'll let you know when we believe additional preparation is necessary.

Yes — We Work With AI Artwork!

Created something using ChatGPT or another AI image-generation platform?

Send it to us.

GhostGrid Apparel accepts AI-generated artwork and can often prepare it for DTF printing.

We can also assist customers with basic AI-generated design concepts when appropriate.

However, AI-assisted creation should not be confused with professional graphic-design services. Complex branding, detailed logo development, extensive illustration, vector artwork, or projects requiring multiple revisions may require a professional graphic designer.

GhostGrid Apparel can provide basic design assistance for many custom-shirt orders.

Depending on the project, this may include:


  • Basic AI-assisted design creation

  • Adding simple text

  • Basic layout adjustments

  • Preparing an existing logo

  • Removing simple backgrounds

  • Resizing artwork

  • Basic image enhancement

  • Preparing existing artwork for DTF printing

  • Minor adjustments necessary for production

Basic preparation is intended to help turn existing artwork or a relatively simple idea into something suitable for printing.

Have a Lower-Quality Image?

We may be able to help.

GhostGrid Apparel can sometimes enhance lower-resolution artwork to improve its appearance before printing.

Basic image enhancement may be provided at no additional charge.

However, image enhancement has limitations.

Enhancement cannot recreate details that do not exist in the original image. Extremely blurry, heavily pixelated, tiny, cropped, or damaged artwork may still produce an imperfect print.

When possible, always provide us with the largest and highest-quality original file available.

Our custom T-shirt pricing does not include extensive graphic-design services.

Additional artwork or design charges may apply when a project requires significant work, including substantial logo reconstruction, complex background removal, detailed illustration, extensive AI generation and revisions, major layout changes, recreating missing portions of artwork, or developing a new brand/logo from scratch.

If extensive preparation is necessary, we may contact you before production regarding available options and additional charges.

If additional design work is declined, the artwork may be printed as originally submitted, provided that it can reasonably be produced.

Please Review Your Artwork Carefully.

Unless GhostGrid Apparel has agreed to modify or prepare your artwork, your design will generally be produced as submitted.

That means spelling, dates, names, numbers, colors, design elements and other information contained in customer-provided artwork should be reviewed carefully before placing your order.

GhostGrid Apparel is not responsible for customer-submitted spelling errors, incorrect dates, incorrect names, incorrect numbers, or other errors already contained within approved or submitted artwork.

Colors displayed on a phone, tablet, or computer may appear slightly different when printed.

Screen brightness, monitor calibration, garment color, artwork characteristics, and the printing process can all influence how a color appears.

Because of this, an exact screen-to-print color match cannot always be guaranteed.

If an exact brand color is extremely important to your project, please contact us before placing a large order.

Some digital effects that look great on a computer screen require special consideration when printed with DTF.

This can include:


  • Smoke

  • Glows

  • Shadows

  • Fades

  • Semi-transparent objects

  • Transparent gradients

  • Extremely soft edges

These effects may interact differently with the white ink layer used in DTF printing.

If we notice an obvious issue, we may recommend modifying the artwork before production.

Extremely thin lines, tiny text, small dots, and very fine details may not reproduce as expected when printed.

If your artwork contains intricate details, we recommend providing the highest-resolution original file possible.

In some cases, GhostGrid may recommend adjusting the artwork before printing.

We understand that sometimes an idea needs more than basic artwork preparation.

If your project requires professional logo development, detailed illustration, brand identity work, vector artwork, or extensive graphic design, you may want to hire a professional designer before submitting your artwork to GhostGrid.

Two popular options are:

Fiverr

Find Graphic Designers on Fiverr

Fiverr offers freelancers specializing in logo design, illustration, vector tracing, image editing, T-shirt and merchandise design, and other graphic-design services.

Upwork

Find Graphic Designers on Upwork

Upwork is another freelance marketplace where customers can hire designers with experience in areas such as graphic design, logo design, Photoshop, Illustrator, branding and merchandise artwork.

GhostGrid Apparel is not affiliated with Fiverr or Upwork. These resources are provided simply as options for customers who require design services beyond the scope of our standard artwork preparation.

When hiring an outside designer, tell them:

“I need the final artwork prepared for DTF T-shirt printing. Please provide a high-resolution PNG with a transparent background, preferably 300 DPI at the intended print size. Please also provide a vector/source file if available.”

Keep your source files. They may be extremely helpful if you need to resize, recolor, modify, or reproduce your design later.

By submitting artwork to GhostGrid Apparel, you represent that you own the artwork or have permission or appropriate rights to reproduce it.

Please do not submit copyrighted, trademarked, licensed, or otherwise protected artwork that you do not have authorization to reproduce.

This includes artwork downloaded from the internet simply because it appears in an image search.

If you hire a designer, make sure you understand what rights you receive to the finished artwork and whether you are permitted to use it commercially.

Our goal is simple:

We want your shirt to look good.

When reasonably possible, GhostGrid Apparel will identify obvious artwork issues before production.

Depending on the artwork, we may:

PRINT IT

Your artwork appears ready for production.

PREP IT

Minor preparation or enhancement can make it print better.

CONTACT YOU

We identify an issue that may substantially affect print quality or requires additional design work.

PRINT AS SUBMITTED

If extensive preparation is required and additional design services are not purchased, eligible artwork may be printed as originally submitted.

Because artwork quality varies significantly, GhostGrid Apparel cannot guarantee that every low-resolution or improperly prepared file can be corrected.

Before submitting your custom T-shirt order, ask yourself:


  • Is my artwork clear and sharp?

  • Did I upload the original file instead of a screenshot?

  • Is the background transparent if I don't want it printed?

  • Is the image large enough for the size I want printed?

  • Have I checked all spelling, names, numbers and dates?

  • Do I own or have permission to print the artwork?

  • Did I upload the highest-quality version I have?

If you answered YES, you're probably ready to go.

Send Us What You Have.

You don't need to understand DPI, transparency, raster graphics, vector graphics, or professional design software to order a custom shirt from GhostGrid Apparel.

That's our job.

Send us the best version of your artwork that you have. If basic preparation can get it ready for production, we'll handle it. If your project requires more extensive work, we'll explain your options before completing that additional work.

Your Idea. Your Shirt. GhostGrid Quality.

GHOSTGRID APPAREL

Faith • Family • Hustle

Chesterfield, Virginia