The Basic Process: -Whats with all the differnet printing methods? Screen print, DTG, VALUE DTG ?!? Which should I choose? -How It Works
-Pricing -Minimums -Turn Around -Shipping Details -Art Submission Guidlines -Guarantee ONLINE DESIGNER Questions:-How do I add a print to the back of the shirt?-At check-out I get an error message that says "Sorry, you have not met our minimum quantity for this product." -My graphic uploaded, but it looks blurry... -How can I tell if my graphic will look ok with DTG printing? -My graphic still has white stuff on it even though I clicked "remove white." Will that be part of the print?
-Will my graphic have the [pick a color] box around it? More Questions: -Payment Methods -Can I mix and match styles and sizes in my order? -Do you guys do EMBROIDERY? -Do you print TEAM NAMES AND NUMBERS? -Do you Print on HATS? -Do you offer BLANK CLOTHING? -Can I get a PRINT SAMPLE? -Terms of use / User Agreement Whats with all the differnet printing methods?We know, it seems a bit confusing... The fact of the matter is that we offer 3 primary methods of print, and while all three yeald a product, and in many cases a very similar final product, the methods by which they arrive at that final product, are quite different. As you may have noticed, the costs associates with the various products are quite different as well - which is why we have 3 differnet online design stores. What type of printing will be best for me: Screen Printing or Direct-to-Garment (“DTG”) Printing?The type of printing you choose for your garments will depend on several factors: 1. Number of Shirts: Orders of less than 24 garments must be printed on our direct-to-garment printer. The screen print setup process is too labor intensive to make small screen printing runs feasible. Orders of 24-200 garments can be screen printed or digitally printed depending on the color and level of detail. Orders of over 200 shirts are usually best suited for screen printing, excluding full-color designs such as photographs. - 2. Your Design: Full-color graphics with lots of detail work best with DTG printing. Our DTG printers are able to reproduce highly-detailed images with photo-quality realism. Single color designs or images incorporating large blocks of color are best suited for screen printing. Here are some examples.
 Ideal for Digital Printing (aka Dark Shirt DTG) Ideal for Digital Printing- Notice the white ink, and the fact that the colros are vivid and bright. This is because of the white underbase. It is under the entire design. This is the best method for dark or vivid shirts.
 Value DTG - Best for white and light shirts This second shirt is a white shirt, with the same pint. We will be updating these images very soon to show the same light shirt print on different color shirts.  Ideal for Screen Printing The third image represents a classic screen printed tee. Guaranteed, that if you get one of these from a vendor on the streets of NY, it has been screen printed. However, this sort of graphic definitely can be printed DTG as a Dark Shirt DTG print, for just a few of them (up to 24).
3. Pricing: Screen print pricing is different from DTG print pricing several ways. First, screen print pricing is based on the number of colors included in your design, while digital printing is always full-color. If your design has several colors, DTG printing will likely be the most cost-effective method of printing, especially for smaller runs. Second, screen print prices drop dramatically when the number of total garments increases. Once your screen print design is on our press, economies of scale allow a high volume of shirts to be printed at a low cost. In contrast, digital printing involves less setup time and higher per-print costs. As a result, digital printing is generally more cost-effective for a small number of garments but will not be as cost-effective as screen printing for higher volume printing. Finally, Digital Full-Color Value Printing is available on a limited selection of light colored garments. This is the most cost effective method for printing small runs of full-color garments. Please note that white ink is not included with a Full-Color Value Print. Please see the entire Pricing FAQ below for Screen Printing and DTG price breaks.
4. The “Hand” of Your Garment: The “hand” refers to the feel of the printed image on your garment. For example, white ink screen printed on a dark garment will have a very heavy hand because lots of thick ink (its actually called “plastisol”) is needed to produce a brilliant white image. The same image printed with black ink on a light garment will require less (and thinner ink) to produce the same image, resulting in a softer hand. Digital printing on light garments has the softest hand, screen printing on dark shirts has the heaviest hand, and digital printing on dark colored garments and screen printing on light colored garments have medium hand.
Pricing- InstaShirt's prices are substantially lower than other reputible providers and all-inclusive. There are no hidden charges, and shipping is free on Screen Printed orders shipping within the continental US.
Pricebreaks
36, 48, 72, 96, 144, 192, 244, 300, 400, 500, 1k 2k 3k 4k 5k 10k+ 1-10, 24, 36, 48, 96, 144, 244, 500 - Prices are based on the total quantity, the color & brand of the blank item you select, and, for screen-printing, the number of colors in your design.
- Price quotes display and update in real-time as you create your custom order. or you can click the big blue shirt icon to the right and get an instant quote right now.
Minimums- There are no minimum for Digital Printing (that means you can order just one!).
- There is a 24 piece minimum for Screenprinted T-shirts. * Screen printed orders that do not meet the 24 shirt minimum will default to DTG printing and prices.
Turn Around 5-7 Business Days + Shipping- For t-shirts and most other products, standard turn around is 5-7 business days (plus shipping) - NOT GUARANTEED UNLESS YOU CONFIRM IT WITH JOE
- For Guaranteed production time, you must pay the rush charge.
- All delivery times are quoted in "working" days (M-F, holidays excepted)
- Guaranteed Rush Shipment is available for most t-shirts (Please allow up to 7 days for rush orders with individual names and/or numbers when available).
- 3 days guaranteed production -35% (plus expedited shipping fees if applicable - This DOES NOT mean you will get the shirts in 3 days, it means we will SHIP them within 3 days)
- As customer service is one of our primary objectives, we will make every effort to meet your needs without charging the "rush charge". Our work-load and production schedule changes on a daily basis, so you will want to email or call to see what our current production time is. Adding the rush charge to your order guarantees the turn around time specified.
- All screen print orders with standard free shipping will be sent via GROUND Service (FedEx, USPS or truckline).
- Shipping for DTG orders is based on actual shipping costs, which are calculated in the new DTG Designer. We currently offer FedEx and USPS shipping services.
- Rush Delivery is availiable for an additional charge in the NEW DTG designer - Email us if you need fast shipping on a screen print order
- Shipments being sent outside the continental US will be charged an additional shipping cost, and MUST be approved before placing the order.
- We are located in Northern California. Estimated ground shipping times can be veiwed on this map:
Art Submission Guidlines If you are uploading your own art into the Online Designer, we have several hints to assure you get the best looking shirts possible. - When graphics are involved, Size Does Matter. The bigger your graphic is, the cleaner and clearer the print will look on your shirts. For best results, we Strongly recommend setting your image resolution to 300 DPI (or pixels per inch) at the print size you want (or bigger- up to 14 inches wide- as we will print your shirts based on the size and placement you specified in the online designer).
- It is not uncommon for art to appear blurry or almost non-existant in the design window, this is simply a side effect of the rendering process. We will print from the original file you uploaded.
- The online Designer only allows PNG, JPG and GIF file types to be uploaded. All other file types will need to be converted before they can be uploaded. If you need to have a graphic converted, you can email it to us
- Maximum print size is 14"x19" for screen printed designs, and 14"x16" for DTG printing. Youth and jr/girlie sizes max out at 10"x12" for both. Due to the incredibly high cost of producing dark DTG shirts, unless otherwise noted, we will not print larger than 12x14 inches. We Typically recommend keeping prints around 10 inches wide so that they don't "get lost under the armpits" of the smaller shirts. We do however understand the concept of fashion, and will obay its demands when possible.
- If you have the original Illustrator file (eps, or ai) please emial it to us after you place your order, as these files are the best files for printing.
Additional Art info
- Microsoft Word documents are not acceptable for screen printing designs. After all, you wouldn't use a toothbursh to paint your house, would you? If you were able to design a shirt in Word, you should be more than able to redesign it using the online t-shrit designer.
- With screen print art, lines smaller than 1/16 in. may be washed out. Any fades or gradients will be automatically converted into halftones.
- Colors are matched as accurately as possible. Given variation in color of computer monitors, we simply cannot guarantee perfect color accuracy unless you supply us with a Pantone # (PMS).
- All submitted artwork may be modified to fit guidelines.
- Any extensive graphics work may be charged $50/hr (upon authorization).
- When using a digital photo of hand drawn art for screen printing please make draw it as black and white outlines only for single color prints, or solid magic markers for multi color prints.
- When stealing images from the web, JPG'S and GIF'S are the 2 main types of web page image formats. It is not possible for anyone to reproduce these web based images exactly. On a computer monitor these images appear crisp and clean, however, when they are enlarged for printing the end result is lousy looking, bumpy, dotted and pixilated image. Don't do it! If you image is really bad, go to VectorMagic.com.
- FTP transfers are avalable upon request, but you should send large photos via YouSendIt or some other commercial FTP service.
- If these art guidelines just made your head spin take a deep breath... Now another... And one more. It's OK. We can't all be professional graphic designers. However, we CAN make great looking shirts with the InstaShirt Online Designer - No experience necessary!
Guarantee - Customer service is our number one priority, and we go to great lengths to ensure that your order is filled accurately and on time, and that you receive products and services of the utmost quality. If you are dissatisfied for any reason, be assured that we will work diligently with you to resolve any problems. Should you receive a product that is defective, we will gladly refund your money. All we ask is that you contact us the day of receipt. Please see “Returns and Refunds” in the InstaShirt.com Terms of Use.
- Screen printing (like any other printing) is not an exact science, we do all we can to match colors and make your art look as good as it possibly can, but since every monitor in the world is a little different, we cannot guarantee exact color matching unless you pay for a pantone match. Matching colors with simulated process is even more difficult, if not impossible.
- Please be advised that all custom printing is subject to the above Art Guidelines.
- RUSH FEES ARE NEVER REFUNDABLE
Screen Print DESIGNER Answers:Error message when trying to check out...- The "shopping-cart" thinks you are tying to order shirts you don't actually want (probably colors you looked at, but did not choose to design on). They are still sitting there, below the shirt(s) you are ordering. To solve the problem, simply delete the unwanted shirts - but be careful you don't delete the wrong one.
My graphic uploaded, but it looks blurry...- You are actually looking at a modified version of your graphic "formated to fit this screen". The design software has taken your graphic and sized it down based on the assumption that you have submitted "full size art". The blurryness is usually the result of low resolution art being uploaded. While this art is usually ok for digital printing, it may not fly with screen printing. We may be able to fix it for you.
How can I tell if my graphic will look ok with DTG printing? - If you can print it out on your home printer and it looks ok, than it will print on DTG. If you print your graphic and it looks choppy, that is how it will look on your printed shirts.
My graphic still has white stuff on it even though I clicked "remove white." Will that be part of the print? - No. The white specs you see are actually "not white" which is why you still see them. Our graphic Dept will make sure none of those end up on your shirts.
Will my graphic have the [pick a color] box around it? - No. As a "general rule" we would never print a box around a design unless it was specifically asked for. We feel that in most cases, printing a background on the shirt is a big No-No. We will only print the colors you have specified in the layers (and paid for). If you have a red graphic on a black background, and you don't want the black to print, simply upload the design as a 1 color design. and switch the color swatch for that layer to red.
Payment Methods Accepted
- Credit Card, Debit Card, or PayPal- We accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express.
- Check or Money Order - You may mail in a check or money order, however this may require additional time to clear. Please call 1-877-742-6459 to complete your order.
Can I mix and match styles and sizes within my order?- Absolutely! Mixing sizes is all part of the deal.
- Changing styles of shirts usually becomes time-consuming and confusing to our ordering and production departments (and should not be done in the designer). We realize this is often necessary, so we allow it, however you can expect longer production times, and a minimum 5% "mixing fee" on the entire order. For questions and further details email us at orders(at)instashirt.com
Do you guys do EMBROIDERY? - Currently, we do not offer this service, but we recommend our friends at CustomInk.com for quality embroidery services.
Do you print TEAM NAMES AND NUMBERS?Yes. This service has just been added to our ONLINE DESIGNER and is now available through our online ordering process. Names are available for $4.25 each, and numbers are available for $3.50 each. In most case we will match the font to the primary font in the design, otherwise we will default to a traditional athletic block style font. Do you Print on HATS?- We hope to be offering DTG printed hats very soon.
Do you offer BLANK CLOTHING?- Yes. You may order any of our catalog items as blanks, or visit check the Extended catalog page. We cannot sell blank American Apparel garments.
Can I get a PRINT SAMPLE?- Yes. We offer Randm Screen-Printed samples (taken at random from whatever we are printing that day. We do not offer samples of DTG printing, because single shirts start as low as $18 each, with the print. If you would like to order a sample of our screen printing, you may do so here.
 If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at
1-877-742-6459 or orders(at)InstaShirt.com.
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