newb, stuck: text, basics

[perfect_Mermaid1549]

Hi all,

Trying to make some designs for Red Bubble merch. Illustrator is NOT easy...... its great but some simple things are so complicated. I have watched a lot of the videos, stuck with some pretty basic stuff....

-I have an illustration file which is 4833 × 3217 in either jpg or png (I have both files). I need to add text to it, I want to make a t-shirt for redbubble.

-I proceed to create a document with the Red Bubble specs for a shirt; according to their site, the bigger the better. A shirt is 3873x4814 pixels. 300dpi, CMYK. 

1. Not sure how the tshirt specs affect the image file size?

2. I cant find how to make transparency background ANYWHERE.

3. When I add a text blurb, i set it at 72 and it looks too small. So I zoom in. So now the image is huge. So I have no idea what are the right proportions to have imported the image.

Thank you.

[Monika Gause]

1. not sure what you mean with this. You need to create a 3873x4814 pixels document. Don't care about the resolution. it doesn't matter. They need the pixels. You export at 72 ppi from Illustrator to get the same number of pixels.

2. JPEG can't be transparent. PNG can. You need Photoshop to edit the image.

3. Make text bigger when you want it bigger.

[perfect_Mermaid1549]

Thanks. But none of that answered my questions.

[Myra Ferguson]

First, you mention that want to combine your text with an image. According to Redbubble's User Agreement (User Agreement | Redbubble ), I believe that art needs needs to have been made by you. I'd recommend checking to make sure you have copyrights to that image.

Next, for the technical part, the site recommends using Photoshop. It's a raster based (think pixels or tiny blocks of color that make up an image) versus Illustrator, which is vector-based (think lines and shapes that can be stretched without affecting the quality of the image). You can use Illustrator for this project, but in the end, you'll be exporting a raster-based image.

By default the background in your workspace in Illustrator is transparent but the artboard will make it look solid. You can change how it looks when you work by going to the menu View > Show Transparency Grid. If you mean how do you make the background of the exported image transparent, you'll need to use a format that supports transparency. Like Monika said, JPEG doesn't support that, but PNG does. Let's get back to exporting after we make sure your document is set up the way you want.

Illustrator can combine raster and vector artwork--which is what it sounds like what you want to do. In this case, create your new document as 3873 x 4814 pixels and under Advanced Options set Raster Effects to High (300 ppi). Place your image by going to the menu File > Place... and navigate to your image. Once the image is loaded if you click, Illustrator will add it at 100% the size of that image, and then you can resize it. When the file to place is loaded, you can also choose to click and drag it out to fit your artboard. The widest it will be without cropping is 3873 which will make your placed image height 2577.993. Add your text wherever you want it on the artboard.

Because you'll be exporting your placed image with your text and your artboard is set to the size you want to export, now you can export it as a PNG. Go to the menu File > Export > Export as... enter the name you want to save. Set file type you want to save to PNG. A PNG Options dialog box will open. Set the resolution to High (300 ppi) and the Background Color to Transparent. Click OK.

[perfect_Mermaid1549]

Thanks Myra. I dont see on RedBubble stuff about preferring raster or Photoshop.

Im still confused about the pixel dimension of my image 4833 × 3217......

.....and the ones asked by Red Bubble for t-shirts, as they ask for images and sizes, they dont seem to address my confusion which is what if the image manipulated in Ai is less than their desired pixels.....

Long & Premium T-Shirts

• 2875x3900 pixels. Check out our Designing for Premium T-Shirts and Large Print Areas blog posts for tips.

Mens Graphic T-Shirts

• 3873x4814 pixels. For more on designing, check out our Advanced Design article.

-....the x3217 part of my image may not print well with Long Premium TShirts which is 2875x3900 ?

- the x3217 part part of my image may not print well withMens Graphic T-Shirts 3873x4814 pixels.

[perfect_Mermaid1549]

I created the new file as you suggested. I just dont have a sense of how big I should make the image once I have placed it inside the Ai doc. I have no sense of the right size for a shirt.

If I make it too big within the doc, the text/font even at 72 looks too small.

[Ballookey Klugeypop]

Make your Illustrator artboard the size you want the final image to be. If that's RedBubble's suggested size of 3873 x 4814 pixels, then start there.

Place your image into the Illustrator document and position it the way you want on the art board.

Add your text. 72 pt text may not be very large. It depends on the font, how much type you need to add, how big you want your image to be in relation to it. You can make the type much larger than 72 points if needed. Just arrange it so it looks right to you. I'm doing a shirt design now where the type is 150 points.

If your example art is any indication, you may get to 4814 pixels high before you reach 3873 pixels wide. That's fine. Your t-shirt graphic just won't be the maximum width. If you look at a lot of t-shirt designs, some are taller, some are shorter. Some are wide, some are square. RedBubble just wants the biggest art possible for your design...up to the maximum they specify.

Transparency only matters if you want to put your design on shirts other than white. If so, you'll have to learn a lot more about Photoshop to extract your drawing into a transparent layer.

[perfect_Mermaid1549]

Thanks all. I guess Im still confused about the design image size vs the Ai file size.

Lets say the designed image size of my reindeer was 1000 x 1000.

Red Bubble asks for a RedBubble's suggested size of 3873 x 4814. This is the file I will submit, designed on Ai with the reindeer image inside it. But making the Ai file 3873 x 4814 does not increase the reindeer quality for printing right??

I guess my bottom line question how do I know when a designed image will be too small for Red Bubble?

thank you

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Doug A Roberts]

Create an AI file that is 3873 x 4814 px. Create your design. Export it to PNG at 72 ppi.

This will create an image that matches their pixel dimension requirements.

If they specify 300 ppi, this implies they want images submitted at a specific physical size. If this is the case, 3873 x 4814 px at 300 ppi is 327.91 x 354.15 mm. Create an AI document this size and export it as a PNG at 300 ppi.

[Monika Gause]

You should do yourself a favour and learn about print production. There are online trainings available that guide you through the process, such as this one: Learning Print Production (it's not for free)

You could try if the printing guide helps you understand this.

pdf.hemlock.com/CS6_PrintGuide.pdf

People actually spend years learning this stuff, so it's just not very suitable to explain in a forum post.

[Doug A Roberts]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Myra+Ferguson  wrote

Set the resolution to High (300 ppi) ...

Just a note that if you do this with that document setup, you'll end up with a PNG that is 16,138 x 20,059 pixels, which might be a touch excessive...

[jdanek]

Can you ask RedBubble for a tshirt template?

[ryan_edwards]

I would spend more time on google or hire a designer... their resolution specs are for your delivered asset to print.

So font can be any size (72 is arbitrary like in ms word size 12 etc)

make sure your artboard is the right dimensions.... when you export a jpeg or png thats where you can specify the dpi etc for the printing file.

Artboards can also show transparency if you want to see that ... you can also just open the export for web legacy window and see the transparency by previewing the png export there.

adobe illustrator is a vector program so you resolution is going to be set on any exports you make.