How to Create a Simple Design Using Adobe Photoshop Print Phase

Adobe Photoshop can be an intimidating graphic design program for those who do not have much experience with creating digital artwork. There are enough features and capabilities within Photoshop that it would take a significant amount of time to fully master. However, once you know where the primary tools are and how they work, you will find creating simple t-shirt designs is easy with Photoshop.

Create a New Canvas (File>New)
1. Make the Image/Canvas Size at least as big as the print size, if not larger
2. Set the resolution to 300 DPI or higher
3. Choose a Color Mode
  1. CMYK Color Mode = Screen Printing
  2. RGB Color Mode = Digital Printing

Change the canvas and image size (within the Image Tool Settings)

1. Canvas Size = Changes the size of the canvas only, will not affect the artwork
2. Image Size = Changes the size of the artwork within the canvas as well as the canvas size
  1. Try to avoid changing the image size in the middle of creating a design, as it will remove any part(s) of the design that fall outside the resulting canvas size.

With a blank canvas of the appropriate size, you are now ready to start manipulating your design. As mentioned above, there are a lot of options when it comes to editing with Photoshop, so we will walk you through the most important tools for product decorators.