Create Superb Personalised T-Shirts at Fantastic Prices and Get Essential Tips for Making Customised T-Shirts Online

Personalsied T-shirts-Customised T-shirts

The hints and tips on this page will walk you through the entire process of designing personalised T-shirts and hoodies with the good people over at Spreadshirt. The tips point out a few things that might not be obvious and will help you if you get stuck when designing your shirts.

Why did I choose Spreadshirt for my personalised T-shirts?

I've found Spreadshirt's online T-shirt designer to be the most versatile and easiest to use for personalised T-shirts and custom hoodies because of the huge range of available designs and the feature-rich design tool.

Unlike some of the other T-shirt creators I tried, Spreadshirt's doesn't cause any 'glitches' during the design process. You also get top quality personalised T-shirts from Spreadshirt at a very modest price compared to what you'd pay elsewhere. Plus, you get them quick!

You'll find many more details about the reasons why I use Spreadshirt's T-shirt design tool more often than any other here.

Watch this short video to see how the folks at Spreadshirt work like fiends to make your personalised T-shirts and hoodies and get them shipped out to you within 48 hours.

Spreadshirt's design tool is so easy and intuitive – you may not need any help using it at all. However, I've provided detailed instructions below to help you if you feel a bit hesitant about making your own T-shirts and hoodies, especially if you've never done it before.

Just click the link to open up the personalised T-shirts design tool (it will open in a new window) and refer to the tips as you go along. Designing your custom garments shouldn't take more than a few minutes from start to finish!

NB: Prices are displayed up-front (another reason why I like Spreadshirt!). If the price isn't displayed in your own currency, choose the correct country first from the drop-down menu at the top of the page. Make sure you do this before you start designing!

Getting Started on Your Personalised T-Shirts and Hoodies

1. Once you've got the T-shirt design tool open, if you're making a slogan T-shirt take a look at the lists of slogan suggestions to help you decide on some pithy text for your customised T-shirt or hoodie (just click on any of the Top 20 lists in the panel on the right of this page).

2. Go back to the T-shirt designer and in the window to the left of the design tool, select the category of T-shirt or hoodie you need from the drop down menu (choose between men, women, or kids & babies).

3. From the second drop down menu, select the product type you'd like – T-shirts, long sleeve shirts, hoodies, etc (as well as personalised T-shirts and hoodies, you can also make cutomised bags, hats, aprons, underwear, and lots more!).

4. Selecting the size and colour. It's worth spending a little time consulting the measurement guide (just below the design tool – just scroll down a bit) to make sure you select the correct size from the drop down menu. Also select a colour now (you can change this at any time during the design process).

Tip: If in doubt about the size, measure one of your existing T-shirts or hoodies for comparison purposes.

5. Help with selecting the style of your T-shirt or hoodie. If you hover your mouse over each icon appearing in the window, an 'i' (information) icon will appear; hover over the 'i' to get more information about each style, including price, details about styling, and all the available colours and sizes for that style of T-shirt or hoodie.

6. Click on one of the T-shirt or hoodie styles in the window to select it. It then appears in centre of the design tool.

How to Create Slogan T-Shirts and Hoodies

1. To add a slogan to your personalised T-shirts and hoodies, click on 'Add Custom Text' (along the top of the design tool). A text field will appear on your shirt/hoodie. To add your slogan, simply overwrite 'Your text goes here' with your chosen text.

2. You can reposition (just click, hold and drag the icon to the top left of the text field) and resize your text (click, hold and drag the icon on the bottom right of the text field) until it appears on your shirt or hoodie exactly where you'd like it.

3. In the 'Text settings' window on the right, click the drop down menu to choose from 28 different typefaces for your slogan. Click on as many as you want until you're happy with the effect.

Your choice of typeface will depend to a large extent on the effect you're trying to achieve with your personalised T-shirts or hoodies, but generally speaking you should choose something that's going to be highly legible and easy to read from a distance. After all, you want people to notice it!

Some of my favourite typefaces for T-shirts are 'Jellybaby', 'Princetown', 'Stencil', 'Kids', 'Stop' and 'Cutter'; all of these have fantastic impact and real clarity.

4. Tip: if the 'Text settings' window on the right disappears at any point, just click anywhere inside the text field on your T-shirt or hoodie and it will reappear.

5. It's always a good idea to change the colour of your slogan – the default colour is black (a bit boring). Choose something which is a good contrast with the colour of your T-shirt or hoodie.

To do this, click on the coloured square on the top right of the 'Text setting' window. Select 'Plot printing' and then either:

'smooth' (aka 'flex', see below under 'Choosing the Finish of your Personalised T-shirts and Hoodies' for what all these terms mean); or
'vlevety' (aka 'flock'); then click on the colour palette and the text on your printed T-shirt/hoodie will change colour.
Alternatively, click on one of the 'special' (aka 'special flex') effects.

Tip: for even more impact, Spreadshirt is the only T-shirt designer that allows you to make each line (or even each letter) of your slogan a different colour – simply highlight each line or letter separately before selecting a colour.

6. Click on the 'T' icon on the far right to change the typesize using the drop down menu. For some typfaces, you can also make the slogan bold or italic by clicking on 'B' or 'I'. At this stage, you can align your text left or right or leave it centred, by clicking the appropriate box.

7. To really add impact to your custom-print T-shirt, or hoodie you can combine your slogan with an image – either a graphic image or a photo – see 'Adding Images to Your Personalised T-shirts and Hoodies' and 'Adding Your Own Photo to Truly Customise Your T-shirt or Hoodie' below.

Tip: It can be a bit tricky adding both a slogan and an image to the front of hoodies, because you need to avoid placing any of your design over the seams and openings of the front pockets. Just choose images that aren't too big, and be sure to keep your design away from the pockets and you'll be good to go.

8. You can also add another slogan (in exactly the same way) to the back of your shirt or hoodie by clicking on the second shirt/hoodie icon just above the colour palette on the bottom right of the T-shirt designer.

9. If you'd like to customise the sleeves or hood, just click on the third, fourth, fifth or sixth icons above the colour palette. In each case, the back, sleeve or hood views will appear in the design tool ready for you to add your slogan and style it in exactly the same way.

Adding Images to Your Personalised T-Shirts and Hoodies

1. To design personalised T-shirts and hoodies with real "oomph", add an image from Spreadshirt's huge image library. Click on 'Choose a Design' (along the top of the T-shirt design tool), then choose from the 16 categories of images via the drop down menu (categories include Humour, Animals, Music, Art, etc).

If you've already added a slogan, it's perfectly possible to fit your slogan with an image on your T-shirt. Just go back to the 'Text settings' box to reposition or resize your text, as necessary, to fit. A well-chosen image can really enhance your slogan, setting you and your personalised T-shirts apart from everyone else!

For hoodies, if you can't fit in both your slogan and your image (because of not being able to print over the front pockets), you might need to choose a smaller image; alternatively you could add an image to the front and a slogan to the back (or vice versa). Many of the images have slogans included with them already.

2. There are thousands of images to choose from. Tip: narrow down the choice by choosing a subtopic; alternatively, type a word or phrase into the search box to find images specifically relating to the chosen theme of your T-shirt or hoodie e.g. 'cats' or 'guitars'.

3. To find out how much it will cost to add any artwork to your design just hover over it for more details.

4. The front of your T-shirt or hoodie is shown by default. If you'd like to add an image to the back, sleeves or hood instead, click on the relevant icon just above the colour palette on the bottom right of the T-shirt designer. You can put images and slogans on both the front and the back if you like.

5. Scroll through the images appearing in the window, clicking on any image to see it appear on your shirt. Keep clicking on images to design different T-shirts or hoodies until you find one you're happy with.

(To delete an image, click anywhere inside its image field then click the trash icon on the bottom left – you might need to drag another text field or design field out of the way first, by clicking, holding and dragging the top left icon. If the trash icon isn't visible, drag the image outside the T-shirt area and it will appear.)

6. Tip: it's also possible to change the colour of many of the images by placing them on your T-shirt or hoodie then selecting alternative colours from the colour palette on the right. (This isn't possible for all images.)

7. To make the image bigger or smaller, click and hold the bottom right corner and drag in or out, as needed. You'll see a warning if the image is too big, meaning you'll need to reduce the size slightly. Tip: remember not to go over hoodie pockets.

8. Click, hold and drag the top left corner of the image field to change the position of your image, as needed. If you're combining it with a slogan, you can position the image to appear either above or below the text – just click/hold the icon on the top left of the image or text field and drag them to where you'd like them to appear.

9. Tip: to create different effects, you can rotate the image on your T-shirt or hoodie by clicking, holding and dragging the icon on the top right of the image box.

Adding Your Own Photo to Truly Customise Your T-shirt or Hoodie

1. If you prefer to place photographs on your personalised T-shirts and hoodies, click on 'Upload Photo' (along the top of the design tool) to choose any photo directly from your own computer (it should be your own and not a copyright image). GIF, PNG, BMP and JPG images are all fine.

Digital printing (rather than flex or flock, see below) is recommended for designs using photos or those using many colours.

Choosing the 'Finish' of Your Personalised T-Shirts and Hoodies

1. The printing technique you choose will determine the 'finish' of the slogan on your printed T-shirt: choose between:

flex (which gives a completely smooth, highly durable finish and extremely sharp text),
flock (a plush, velvety finish with the design slightly elevated from the tee shirt material; very durable), or
special flex (a smooth, glittery finish, also very durable; any text is emphasized, and contrasts more strongly with the T-shirt material).

Flex, flock and special flex are all long-lasting finishes that won't deteriorate even after many washes.

2. Digital printing is also an option for some items at Spreadshirt, and recommended if you're placing a photo on your shirt, but you should be aware that in this case your design may start to fade after a few washes.

Once you've finished designing your T-shirt or hoodie, add it to the shopping basket and proceed to the checkout, or start another design.

And that's it! See how easy it is to make your own personalised T-shirts and other custom-made gear online?

If you get stuck at any stage, just click on one of the topics in the 'Need help?' section on the bottom right of the design tool to access Spreadshirt's guidance notes, though the whole process is a doddle really and you'll very quickly get the hang of it.

Your customised T-shirt or hoodie will be made and shipped from Spreadshirt within 24–48 hours and normally arrives within a few days. Spreadshirt delivers to the whole of Europe, the USA and Canada.

So, there you have it.

Start creating your personalised T-shirts and hoodies now!

Don't feel inclined to create personalised T-shirts and hoodies? Don't worry, there are loads of fantastic ready-made options at Spreadshirt too. You can choose from the thousands of preprinted designs (with and without slogans) by browsing the Spreadshirt Marketplace. Have fun!

See what Wikipedia has to say about the history of the T-shirt.