Printful & Printify file requirements: DPI, pixel size and format

Most rejected or blurry print-on-demand orders come down to the same few file problems: not enough pixels for the print size, a background that was never removed, or the wrong format. Here is what Printful and Printify expect from a t-shirt file, and how to check yours before it costs you a reprint or a bad review.

The short version

• Format: PNG with a transparent background. Both platforms accept JPG, but JPG cannot store transparency, so anything that isn't your design prints as a rectangle.
• Resolution: 300 DPI at the actual print size is the target. Printful asks for at least 150 DPI on most apparel. Printify recommends 300 DPI and accepts lower on some large products.
• Pixel size: Printful's standard tee front is 12 × 16 in, which is 3600 × 4800 px at 300 DPI. Printify's common tee front file is 4500 × 5400 px (15 × 18 in at 300 DPI).
• Colour: sRGB. CMYK files get converted, and colours can shift when that happens.
• File size: Printify caps PNG and JPG uploads at 100 MB. A 4500 × 5400 PNG is usually far below that.

Printful: what the numbers mean

Printful's help center recommends a minimum of 150 DPI for DTG apparel and says 300 DPI is fine and can look sharper, especially with fine lines and small text. Every product page has a File guidelines tab with the exact print area and a downloadable template. Use that template. Print areas vary by product (some DTG products go up to 15 × 18 in), and the template shows the safe zone.

The key point: DPI is only meaningful at a given print size. A 1800 × 2400 px file is 150 DPI at 12 × 16 in. Stretch it across a larger area and it drops below 150. Printful's Design Maker shows a warning when the DPI at your chosen size is too low. Don't ignore it.

Printify: why 4500 × 5400?

Printify works with many print providers, and print areas differ by provider and blank. The requirements for each print area show up in the Product Creator's upload panel, so check them there. For tees, 4500 × 5400 px is the widely used size because it covers the largest common front print area at 300 DPI. Printify scales the design down for smaller garment sizes, so one large file covers the whole size run.

Printify says it will try to enhance low-resolution files automatically. Don't count on that. Upscaling can't recover detail that was never in the file. A 1000 px wide logo pushed to 15 inches still looks soft.

PNG vs JPG for print-on-demand

Use PNG for apparel. Printers treat every non-transparent pixel as ink. A JPG exported from Canva or a phone has a solid background (usually white), and on a black or heather shirt that prints as a visible box. JPG compression also leaves blocky artifacts around sharp edges, and those print too. Save JPG for photos that are meant to fill a rectangle.

A 60-second pre-upload checklist

1. Open the file and check its pixel dimensions, not the DPI number in the metadata. Divide pixel width by the print width in inches. That's your real DPI.
2. Check the background. You should see a checkerboard behind the art in your editor. If you see white, it will print white.
3. Look for soft shadows, glows or feathered edges. DTG can handle some of it. DTF and screen print usually can't.
4. Trim empty margins. Transparent padding around the art pushes it off-centre and makes it print smaller than you expect.
5. Export as sRGB PNG at the exact size from the product template.

Common mistakes we see

"It says 300 DPI, so it's fine." A 1080 × 1080 image tagged 300 DPI is only 3.6 inches wide at 300 DPI. Stretched to 12 inches, it's 90 DPI. The tag means nothing. Pixel count is what matters.

Downloading the mockup instead of the design. Mockup images are small and include the shirt. Always upload the original artwork.

Upscaling in an editor. Resizing 1000 px to 3600 px makes the file bigger without adding detail. If the art is vector (AI, SVG, PDF), export it again at full size instead.

Bottom line

Use a transparent sRGB PNG with enough real pixels for the print area: 3600 × 4800 for a Printful 12 × 16 front, 4500 × 5400 for a Printify tee front. Check the product's own template, because it overrides any general rule, including the ones on this page.