Best T-Shirt Design Websites: Where To Find Them?

Designing T-shirts can be a fun and creative process, but it's important to find the right website to help bring your vision to life. There are many websites that offer T-shirt design services, each with its own unique features, capabilities, and pricing plans. Some popular options include Printful, Custom Ink, Underground Printing, VistaPrint, UberPrints, and Printify. These websites offer various tools, such as design templates, clip art, and font options, to help you create your perfect T-shirt design. They also provide different printing methods like screen printing, digital printing, and embroidery, ensuring that your design is accurately reproduced on the T-shirt. When choosing a website, it's essential to consider factors such as customisation options, bulk order discounts, delivery times, and user reviews to find the best fit for your needs.

Ease of use

When it comes to ease of use, there are several t-shirt design websites that offer user-friendly features. Here are some examples:

Printful:

Printful is known for its intuitive interface, making it super easy to customize your t-shirt design. You can upload your own design or choose from their vast collection of clipart graphics and "Quick Designs." They also offer embroidery for an extra special finish. The website provides a true-to-life mockup opportunity, giving you a glimpse of the final product. The order process is straightforward, with orders typically ready to ship within 2-5 business days.

Printify:

Printify stands out for its simplicity and reliability. They offer a free design tool that allows you to add patterns, images, logos, and texts to your t-shirts. Their Mockup Generator is a valuable feature, enabling you to experiment with different design elements and visualize your creation on the t-shirt. Printify has over 80 print providers to choose from, offering various prices, fulfillment times, shipping costs, and locations. There are no minimum or maximum order requirements, and you can even print on the sleeve or back of the t-shirt.

Custom Ink:

Custom Ink is user-friendly and offers a vast collection of fonts, images, and clip art to help you design t-shirts from scratch. You can also upload your designs and select from various t-shirt styles, necklines, brands, fabrics, and sizes. They provide expert support with a team of custom creation experts available 24/7 to guide you through the design process. Custom Ink offers different customization methods, including direct-to-garment digital printing, screen printing, and embroidery, ensuring you can create the exact look you want.

VistaPrint:

VistaPrint is highly regarded for its ease of use, featuring a simple and intuitive interface. Their design studio allows you to add text and images to your chosen t-shirt style and color, bringing your ideas to life. VistaPrint accepts multiple image and file formats and lets you preview and share your designs before placing an order. They offer a wide range of t-shirt materials, including cotton, silk, rayon, polyester, and spandex, ensuring you can find the perfect fabric for your needs.

UberPrints:

UberPrints offers a convenient and quality experience. Their online design tool is user-friendly, and they provide a wide variety of stunning templates to work with. You can easily add and manipulate text, fine-tune your designs, and choose from a curated collection of colors. They also offer free images or the option to upload your own, ensuring you have plenty of creative freedom. UberPrints is known for its expertise and stands behind every shirt that leaves their facility.

Range of design options

When it comes to designing T-shirts, the range of design options is an important consideration. A good T-shirt design website should offer a wide variety of design options to choose from, including different styles, colours, materials, and brands. Here are some specific examples of websites with impressive design options:

Printful

Printful offers a wide collection of eco-friendly T-shirts, including designer options from well-known brands such as Adidas, Sport-Tek, SOL'S, and Champion. Their design maker includes 300-plus clip art options, and their text tool has over 700 fonts to choose from. Printful also provides more than 3,000 pre-made designs that can be customised to suit your specific needs. You can also upload your own designs or choose from ready-made images from Printful's partners, such as Patternbank, Getty Images, or Vexels, for a small fee.

Printify

Printify offers a free design tool that allows you to add patterns, images, logos, and text to your T-shirts. Their artificial intelligence (AI) image generator is a standout feature, as it brings your ideas to life through text prompts. You can use your designs on various T-shirt neck or sleeve types and choose from different printing methods, such as direct-to-garment (DTG) or sublimation printing, on cotton, polyester, or blended fabrics. Printify also has a Mockup Generator that lets you experiment with different design elements before finalising your T-shirt design.

Custom Ink

Custom Ink is an excellent choice if you're looking for a wide range of design options. Their design lab offers a vast collection of fonts, images, and clip art to help you create unique designs from scratch. You can also upload your own designs and print them on a variety of T-shirt styles, necklines, brands, fabrics, and sizes. Custom Ink boasts more than 50 brands, including popular names like Fruit of the Loom, Gildan, Nike, and Port & Company. They also offer different customisation methods, such as direct-to-garment digital printing, screen printing, and embroidery, to elevate your designs.

VistaPrint

VistaPrint is known for its user-friendly interface and impressive design options. You can easily add text and images to your desired T-shirt style and colour, bringing your ideas to life. Their design studio accepts multiple image and file formats, and it allows you to preview and share your designs before placing an order. VistaPrint offers a comprehensive range of T-shirt materials, including cotton, silk, rayon, polyester, and spandex. You can choose from various printing methods, such as embroidery, heat transfer, screen printing, and direct-to-garment printing, giving you unlimited design possibilities.

UberPrints

UberPrints provides a convenient and quality-focused online design tool. They offer a wide variety of templates that are easy to work with and customise. You can add and manipulate text, choose from 50+ colours, or upload your own images and logos. UberPrints also has an extensive catalogue of apparel styles and colours to choose from, ensuring you can find the perfect option for your design.

Zazzle

Zazzle stands out for its customisation options and huge range of designs. You can pick from hundreds of customisable options for men, women, kids, and even babies. Zazzle allows you to customise existing designs or create your own from scratch. They offer a range of styles, colours, and materials to choose from, ensuring you can find the perfect T-shirt for your needs.

Printing methods

Screen Printing

Screen printing is the most popular and widely-used printing process for t-shirts, especially when printing in bulk. It involves using screens to apply ink to the t-shirts. Ink is applied directly through mesh screens, with one screen per colour. The artwork produced is of very high quality and can last a long time. Screen printing is very cost-effective when used effectively, but it can be messy and requires a lot of space. It is also limited in terms of colour selection and artwork placement.

Heat Transfer Printing

Heat transfer printing involves laying sheets of transfer material on garments and then heat pressing them to apply custom graphics. The desired graphic is first printed on special heat transfer paper using solvent ink, which allows the design to be transferred when pressed with a heat press machine. This method creates almost no mess and needs minimum maintenance. However, it is not as durable as screen printing and may crack or fade with washing.

Dye-Sublimation Printing

Dye-sublimation printing is a variation of heat transfer printing. The desired graphics are digitally printed and then heated to transfer the dye onto the t-shirts. The dye turns into a gas and is absorbed into the fabric. This method produces extremely vivid and colourful designs and is perfect for more complicated designs. It is also one of the cheapest printing methods to start up, costing as little as $500 for the necessary equipment. However, it is very limited in terms of the materials it can print on and only works well on light-coloured t-shirts.

Direct to Garment (DTG) Printing

DTG printing is an inkjet technology that can print very high-quality, full-colour, photographic prints directly onto a t-shirt. It is best suited for designs that are too complex for other printing techniques, such as screen printing. DTG printing machines have a huge colour-mixing potential. They are also compact and don't create much mess. However, DTG printers are very expensive and designed to print only on 100% cotton t-shirts.

CAD Cut Vinyl Printing

CAD cut vinyl printing involves using a machine to cut out designs and letters on pieces of coloured vinyl, which are then applied to the t-shirt with a heat press. This method is ideal for small orders of 1-3 colours. It can be applied to all kinds of fabrics, but it takes a long time to cut and weed the vinyl.

Cost

The cost of designing a T-shirt varies depending on several factors, including the style, material, brand, design, colour, shipping location, and quantity of the order. Custom T-shirts can range in price from $10 to $50, with an average cost of $20.

Some websites, like Custom Ink, offer no minimum order quantities, allowing customers to order as few as one shirt. Custom Ink's prices start at $8.80 per shirt for a standard order, with the price decreasing for larger orders. They offer two main printing methods: screen printing and direct-to-garment (or digital) printing.

Other websites, like Allied Shirts, offer budget-friendly options, with prices starting at $20.39 for a T-shirt, with additional charges for customisation. They also offer free shipping on all full-price orders.

Printful is another popular website for T-shirt design, offering a wide range of eco-friendly T-shirts from brands like Adidas, Sport-Tek, SOL'S, and Champion. Printful's design maker includes 300+ clip art options and a text tool with over 700 fonts. They also provide more than 3,000 pre-made designs that can be customised to suit your needs. Printful does not require a setup fee, but they offer a membership for $24.99 per month that includes perks such as 30% discounts and company branding on T-shirts.

Underground Printing is another option for T-shirt design, offering a vast collection of T-shirt styles and materials. They provide an easy-to-use design studio with hundreds of customisable templates. They also have a team of designer experts who can assist with customisation and shirt selection. Underground Printing offers free shipping to their stores nationwide and can deliver T-shirts in bulk or individually to each owner.

When considering the cost of designing T-shirts, it is important to take into account any additional fees, such as shipping costs, as well as potential discounts for bulk orders or first-time purchases.

Customer support

• Multiple Support Channels: Look for websites that offer various support channels such as email, live chat, and phone support. This ensures that you can reach out through your preferred method and provides flexibility if one channel is unavailable.
• Availability: Check the availability of their customer support. Some websites offer 24/7 support, while others have specific business hours during which they are available. Consider your own schedule and when you are most likely to need assistance.
• Expertise: Opt for websites that have a team of experts who are knowledgeable about the design process and can provide guidance. This can be especially helpful if you're new to designing T-shirts or need advice on complex designs.
• Language Support: If you're located outside the United States, consider whether the website offers support in multiple languages. This ensures that you can communicate effectively and get the help you need.
• Response Time: While not always advertised, it's worth considering the response time of customer support. Some websites may have longer response times, which can impact your project timeline if you're working with a tight schedule.
• User Reviews: Reading reviews from other users can give you insights into their experiences with the website's customer support. Look for mentions of responsiveness, helpfulness, and the overall quality of the support provided.

By considering these factors, you can make an informed decision about the level of customer support you can expect from a T-shirt design website and choose one that aligns with your needs and expectations.

Frequently asked questions