One of our most frequently asked questions is if our transfers are made of Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV).
So, are they? The short answer is no, as FM Expressions’ screen printed heat transfers are made with screen-printed plastisol ink, not heat transfer vinyl. To understand what this means let’s go over the difference between the two materials: plastisol ink and heated transfer vinyl.

Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV):
HTV is a flexible vinyl used to decorate apparel. With HTV, your design is cut from a sheet of backed vinyl and the negative of the design needs to be removed by a process called weeding. With weeding, all the little nooks and crannies in your art need to be manually removed from the backing. This process can be… tedious. Generally, it’s necessary to use a vinyl cutter machine like a Cricut to cut out your design from HTV and even then, you would have to do the weeding yourself.

(Image from: https://www.cutcutcraft.com/weeding-vinyl-how-to-weed-vinyl-words/)

Plastisol Ink Transfers:
Our transfers are made of screen-printed plastisol ink. This means that for your image to be created an emulsion is placed on a screen to mask out everything but your artwork. Ink is then pushed through the screen so that only the ink of your image goes through the screen onto the transfer paper. The ink is then cured so its dry to touch and then the sheets are cut and shipped.

With screen printed transfers there is no weeding and a softer hand feel much closer to traditional screen printing directly on garments. This process will save you time and money by skipping the weeding and cutting machines.

Applying our heat transfers and DTF transfers is super simple. Follow the steps and instructions below to achieve perfect results on your next project!

1) No Teflon Sheets, Covers or Pillows. Ever. (except DTF or Silicone)
Never use teflon sheets, covers or pillows with any of our plastisol formulas. They dissipate the heat too much, resulting in a poorly applied transfer.

2) Calibrate Your Heat Press.
You will need to use a quality Infrared (IR) Temperature Gun (Contactless) to ensure your heat press is heating evenly and accurately. You should do this each and every time you start a new pressing cycle.

3) Pressure, Pressure, Pressure.
Plastisol transfers will give you a quality and long-lasting decoration solution, but you HAVE to ensure you are using adequate and even pressure. This will ensure the formula properly adheres to your garment. Not using enough pressure can result in poorly applied plastisol transfers.

4) Water resistant, waterproof, and fireproof garments.
We recommend testing a sample on your item before production. Water resistant, waterproof and fireproof garments may not accept a heat transfer application.

For Detailed Pressing Instructions, please visit the formula overview page that matches your ordered formula:

• Direct-to-Film (DTF) Transfers
• Athletic Formula
• Vintage Formula
• Fashion Formula
• Performance Formula
• Nonwoven Formula
• Silicone Formula
• Foil Formula
• Puff Formula

Keep Them In a Dry Location
Keeping the transfers from high humidity will prevent them from peeling off of the paper before you're ready to press them.

Room Temperature Is Best
Don't subject your transfers to any extreme temperatures (except when pressing, of course.)

No Direct Sunlight
In addition to possibly fading the colors of the transfers sitting in direct sunlight for years, it also heats the transfers, causing them to stick together.

Sealed Containers Are Ideal
Keeping the transfers free of dirt/debris/dust will ensure you get a clean pressing after storage.

Lay Them Flat
Paper can curl over time, so make sure you store these transfers on a flat surface, not on end or at an angle.

Don't Stack Anything On Top Of Them
Putting A LOT of transfers on top of one another can cause the transfers to stick together toward the bottom of the pile, which results in ruined transfers. Storing them in stacks of 50-100 or less is a great way to reduce the possibility of that happening.

Shelf Life
We do recommend using transfers within 3 years of purchase, provided you follow all of the above instructions. Keep in mind, with the numerous variables in storage, we only guarantee the transfers for 30 days. Please visit our Warranty page for full details.

Caring for your heat transfer decorated garment is super simple and, if applied and cared for properly, will last the life of the garment. We recommend waiting at least 24 hours after pressing a garment to perform a wash / dry cycle.

Inside Out Is Best
Washing the garment inside out is the best way to prevent premature wear and tear.

Have Zippers Or Buttons On Your Garment?
If you have zippers or buttons on the garment you decorated, it is best to wash it right-side out. This is to prevent the buttons/zippers from destroying your garment which would normally be washed inside out.

Follow The Care Instructions On Your Garment
The company that made the shirt knows the best temperature settings for washing and drying your garment.

Ensuring your heat press is pressing at the proper temperature is vital to the success and durability of your heat transfer applications.

Check Your Temperature Before Every Pressing Session
Using an Infrared Thermometer (contactless) is the best way to ensure that your heat press is accurately heating to the specified temperature.

Platens Can Lose Energy If Frequently Pressing
As you press and press and press, certain platens simply can not keep up with the required temperature. Essentially, the platen is losing it's heat to the garments/transfers and this can result in issues with your transfers not applying properly if you don't allow the platen to heat back to the proper temperature before your next pressing.

Check For Even Temperature
Ensure your platen is heating EVENLY so that each and every inch of your press is getting the heat required. If you have more than a 2-3F degree difference between the hottest and coldest areas on the platen, it may be time to consider upgrading.

Short Answer? No. Using an iron or the Cricut easy press does not offer sufficient pressure or accurate temperature control needed to apply a heat transfer effectively.

Our heat transfers and DTF transfers products use plastisol.

Plastisol transfers differ from HTV (Heat Transfer Vinyl) in the sense that simply activating the adhesive is not sufficient to complete the application. When it comes to plastisol heat transfers, it is crucial to apply adequate and uniform pressure, along with maintaining precise and consistent temperature levels. This ensures that the transfer is applied correctly, resulting in a high-quality outcome.

Unfortunately, using a regular iron or the Cricut EasyPress does not provide the necessary amount of pressure or precise temperature control that is required to effectively apply a heat transfer. Therefore, it is essential to utilize specialized equipment specifically designed for plastisol transfers to achieve optimal results.

Short Answer? No
Plastisol transfers are much different than HTV in that the adhesive can't just be activated and stuck on top of each other. Plastisol heat transfers need to be pressed directly onto a qualifying garment. They can not be layered on top of each other or pressed sequentially.

Can I Apply Your Transfers at the Same Time as HTV?
You CAN apply our transfers at the same time that you apply the HTV, but you need to apply them at our transfer's settings, not the HTV temp/pressure settings. For instance, if you have numbers in HTV beside one of our transfers, you can press them together at the same time, following our transfer's settings.

Dye migration happens when you apply a heat transfer to a garment that contains polyester dye that has not been fully set within the garment.
Dye migration occurs when you use a heat transfer method on a garment that has polyester dye that hasn't been completely fixed in the fabric. This dye leaches into the transfer and will show up as muddy or cloudy colors, sometimes even showing the exact color or pattern of the shirt through the transfer. Dye migration is almost always a concern when applying a heat transfer to a polyester content garment.

How do I prevent dye migration?
Our Athletic formula has a proprietary dye migration blocker that almost always prevents the dye from showing through to the heat transfer.

I'm not applying to polyester, but I can still see the shirt color through the transfer. What happened?
Dye migration is not to be confused with an opacity issue, which can occur when applying Fashion for Lights (which does not have a white backer) to a darker garment. You also may have the fabric of the shirt come through when using our Vintage transfers, which are designed to be a "hot-split" type transfer that leaves the print feeling well-worn.

What other options do I have?
For a softer feel, we recommend using a premium 100% ringspun cotton garment and our Vintage formula for the best feel without having dye migration issues.

Still have questions? Talk to us!

We're focusing on continuous improvement, and that means sometimes things may change, including the color of your transfer paper. This will NOT affect your transfer.
We use different colored paper to manage registration and printing standards. While maintaining the targeted standard, we may occasionally shift from light blue to a standard white (or slightly off-white) paper style. Likewise, we may occasionally shift from standard white (or off-white) back to light blue. Fret not, this isn't cause for concern.

The color of the transfer paper does NOT affect the final product or quality of pressing. It's cosmetic only and the coloring in the paper will not transfer to the final garment, so don't sweat it!

We'd love to send you a FREE* sample pack that includes samples of many of our heat transfer options. You can test apply each one to get a sense of the look, feel and performance of each option.

Order a Sample Pack.

*(1) Free Sample Pack Applies to 50 United States, U.S. Territories, Mexico, and Canada.
*(2) Other Countries/Territories: While Our Sample Pack Is Free, You May Have Associated Postage Costs.
*(3) Customers May Order One Free Sample Pack per account, additional sample packs are available for a nominal fee.

Saving your artfile in the right method can be confusing! In this video tutorial, we explain how to ensure your file is created at the recommended resolution (300 DPI) and how to save your artwork in our preferred file types!

By the following the instructions in the above video, you will eliminate some of the most commonly seen issues such as:

• Wrong size
• Wrong resolution
• Flattened background

Full Color products print using translucent Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black inks. If applied to any garment color other than white or very light color the full color image will need a solid white under base for the transfer to print opaque and bright on the garment. We automatically add the white under base to your transfer in the Full color Athletic and Fashion for Darks programs but there are some requirements for the art.

For the white under base to exist the artwork needs to have a solid edge and all areas in the art need to be at 100% opacity. Transparent areas in your art could cause a stall on the order. Effects considered transparent include, but are not limited to, glow effects, drop shadows, fades to non-printing areas, etc.

Our team might offer to make some of these corrections; flatten onto white (recommended most of the time), black or a PMS color free of charge. We could also use revised art, or print as is.

If your transfer will be applied to white or very light, we can print your artwork as is, however keep in mind that our adhesive needs to be solid and you may see a halo of the adhesive surrounding your artwork when applied.

Below are some examples of what the "Print as is" option would look like printed and pressed.

Print as is applied to white:

• This is a gradient with the opacity on a scale of 100% to 0% or non printing. As you can see in this sample, there is still a solid layer of adhesive - this is slightly visible, but does not compromise the overall look. A gradient like this works well on white or very light garments.

• This is a distress that is not completely 'knocked out' of the artwork. This creates a very light transparency in the areas where the distress has been applied. This looks great on white or very light garments, but left as is, you will see the lighter shade in the distress as the art is not a clean 'knock out' distress.

• This is a gradient 'glow' - this creates a soft halo effect around the artwork. A gradient like this works well on white of very light garments. This happened often with drop shadows as well. As you can see in this example there is still a solid layer of adhesive slightly visible, but it doesn't compromise the overall look.

Print as is applied to black:

• This is a gradient with the opacity on a scale of 100% to 0% or non printing. A gradient like this without any under base will be less visible as the garment color gets darker. As you can see in this example, there is still a solid layer of adhesive visible These two designs are hardly visible on black. It's a good reminder of why full color must have a white under base to be opaque on any color other than white or very light garments.

• This is a distress that is not completely 'knocked out' of the artwork. This creates a very light transparency in the areas where the distress has been applied. This is very difficult to see when printed as is on a black garment.
  
  

• This is a pink 'glow' effect around a solid white type ( kind of like a neon light effect) This creates a soft halo around the artwork. As you can see in this example the white center of the artwork is visible as this area can fit the solid white backer but the entire glow is barely visible on black without any under base.

Transparencies flattened on white and black:

• This is a gradient with the opacity on a scale of 100% to 0% or non printing To solidify the edge of the artwork we add a white or a black layer underneath the entire design, all the way to the edge of the gradient. The background material will determine how noticeable the adjustment is.

• This is a distress that is not completely 'knocked out' of the artwork. This creates a very light transparency in the areas where the distress has been applied. When flattened onto white the distress areas become a lighter version of the art it was cut from and none of the garment color will show through. When on black it creates a patchy look on the pattern.

• This is a pink 'glow' effect around a solid black and white FM. When flattened on white or black you can see a solid outline around the art when pressed on a contrasting color.
  
  

Dealing with transparent areas is not a one size fits all answer. We heavily recommend reviewing these example images and your art to see which option might work for you when determining how to resolve issues with transparencies in your art.

If artwork is submitted for One Color transfers with gradients and/or shade changes present in the art, our preflight team may offer a halftone corrective service. The left side of the above image would need to print through our Full Color program, while the right side, which has had a halftone correction applied, could print as a One Color transfer.
 
Converting to halftones may not always be the best solution for your art. Although the halftone dot pattern can print beautifully, we generally recommend printing with our Full Color program for more detailed artwork. Complex artwork runs the risk of losing detail when utilizing the halftone dot pattern. Here you can see how a Full Color print looks vs. its One Color halftone equivalent when pressed.

The size of your art will also effect the detail retained in the halftone. Smaller art retains less detail compared to larger art. Thin detailed lines and/or very small changes in tone may not reproduce well with a halftone correction.

Let us do the heavy lifting! When ordering One Color images, let us halftone your art to make sure it meets our printing requirements. We’ll provide the option to convert your art to halftones if a One Color order has been submitted in grayscale or with gradients. We advise applying your own halftone patterns with caution— if you submit art that already has a halftone pattern, we can't ensure that pattern will meet our printing requirements.

For now, halftone correction is only available for One Color orders and is offered at the discretion of our preflight artists. We are not offering halftone for 2,3 or Full Color printing. If you have any further questions on halftones you can reach out here!

Let’s take some time to talk about color. This is going to be a more in-depth article as far as technical terms go, so you may want to set a few minutes aside to read over it.

We offer full color printing which can produce photographic images with a wide range of colors. While this program can print more detail, there are some more technical terms that are helpful to know to make sure that your transfers meet your expectations.

When ordering full color transfers, we use a CMYK printing process to produce the art. CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key. Key is a term used for black as this is the darkest ink layer. It is pressed last, and is often used to make sure the cyan, magenta, and yellow layers are correct. Each layer of color is screen printed using a semi-transparent ink so that when the layers are viewed together it can make a wide color range.

We heavily recommend making sure your art is submitted in CMYK color mode. You can look up your art program's guidelines online, to see how to set up the art file in CMYK, how to convert to CMYK and how to save as a file format that supports CMYK. Unfortunately, every art program is different so the steps won't be the same across the board. We like to use .pdf files as our file type of choice.  Keep in mind if you like to use .png file that a .png file does not support CMYK and will always be converted to RGB.

A color mode is a term used to explain how your program or device is interpreting the color. The two most common color modes are RGB and CMYK.

RGB color mode is used for digital screens as it is what’s called an additive color mode. This means that you are adding red, green, and blue light together to create the colors you see on the screen. RGB can show a very wide range of visible colors as it’s only relying on light to create them. Usually, art cannot be printed in RGB. If you submit RGB art for print it is either being converted by a program to CMYK or your printer software is attempting to translate the RGB to CMYK.

CMYK color mode is used for printing and is what’s called a subtractive color mode. This means that there is a physical pigment being used, producing the color you see. Because CMYK uses physical inks, and not just light like RGB to show color, the color range is more limited than RGB.

You may have run into an issue when your art is converted to CMYK from RGB where it becomes duller or “muddy” this is because the art program is trying to bring the color range into an amount that can be printed. Now, it’s not always a perfect process and it’s different for every program so we recommend creating your art in CMYK color mode, so you have the control to choose the colors from the start. Selecting colors in CMYK to start with can help avoid that dullness.

Here you can see an image in RGB vs the same RGB image converted to CMYK, and the final converted and printed CMYK image.

You can see some possibly unwanted shifts in tone and how the especially bright colors are dulled. If the art is converted from RGB to CMYK we can't know how much this will effect the art because like stated above, every art program uses different settings when converting.

So what can you do to prevent muddy colors?

- Create art in CMYK.

-Be cautious of files converted from RGB to CMYK as brights and pastels may be effected. Inspect the color values with the eye dropper tool and remove any unnecessary colors in the mix. For instance yellow and cyan would make green so if you want a blue sky you may need to reduce the yellow if there's any present.

Many programs have an option called "selective color" that can really let you get into those details and adjust color values in the art.

-When reviewing color always refer to the CMYK percentage numbers when eye dropped instead of just what you see on the screen.

-Use a Pantone Color Bridge swatch book to help discern how the CMYK values in your digital file will look when printed.

We hope this article was helpful and if you have questions you can always contact us! Unfortunately, we cannot provide art services to color correct RGB to CMYK conversions at this time as the process is very subjective to each image and customer preference. Now you should have a better understanding of CMYK color mode and some of its limitations so your transfers can be the best version of themselves.

You should not mirror (or flip) your image. Make sure you submit your artwork right-reading (the way you want it to look on the shirt.) Our art team will reverse the image on our end so that when you press it onto your garment it will look just as you intended.

Fine Details are elements in your artwork where the ink is actually printed. There are some areas that may fall below our minimum print tolerance, which have a specific line/area thickness for full color CMYK images. This is to ensure small areas and fine details print clearly.

Line Thickness Full Color Printing:

• Full Color on whites & 100% Black Lines - Line/area thickness .25pt or .0035 of an inch
• Full Color to be opaque on all colored garments - Line/area thickness 3 pt. or 0.04166 of an inch
• Colored Outlines - Line/area thickness 2 pt. or 0..02776 of an inch
• White & Black Outlines - Line/area thickness 1 pt. or 0.01388 of an inch
• Stand-alone white - 1 pt. or 0.01388 of an inch (positive space) & 2 pt. or 0..02776 of an inch (negative space)

These print areas are designated with a GREEN line. The thickness of the line represents the minimum print tolerance.

Any areas that are thinner than 3 pt. will not be backed in white and will not appear opaque on dark garments.

If the design you are providing contains copyright or licensed images, we will need documentation on file, from you to prove ownership or proof of commission by the license property owner to create this image. This documentation will remain on file, under your account.

This must be done to protect the intellectual property of all parties involved.

Please email copyright documentation to artservices@fmexpressions.com.

The fonts in your image reference the specific library on your computer. If these fonts are still editable, they will not match up when we try to look over your files. This is a simple problem to resolve by converting fonts to curves, outlines or rasterized objects, depending on the software you are working in.

Corel Draw

In Corel, you must first convert your text to a curve object.

1. Using the Pick Tool, select the Text.
2. Go to Arrange > Convert to Curves.

Or, just right click on the text while it is selected and choose Convert to Curves.

Full Corel Draw Help Article

Adobe Illustrator

Illustrator allows you to convert your live fonts to outlines. To convert text to outlines, do the following:

1. Select the type object you are trying to convert.
2. Choose Type > Create.

Full Adobe Illustrator Help Article

Adobe Photoshop

In Photoshop, you must rasterize the type layer. Before you rasterize a vector layer, always duplicate it by choosing:

1. Layer > Duplicate. Then, rasterize the copy.
2. Choose Type > Rasterize Type Layer.

Full Adobe Photoshop Help Article

Before you get started uploading your artwork, there are some important things you need to know to get the best results when printing.

1. Set Artwork to Exact Size

We print to the exact size of the file uploaded. Set your artboard dimensions to the size of one of our sheets and arrange your artwork at the exact printing size within the area. If you are printing a gang sheet, you must submit your artwork set up as a ganged art file.

Gang sheet Options

Single Image Options

2. Convert Live Fonts

Corel Draw

In Corel, you must first convert your text to a curve object.

1. Using the Pick Tool, select the Text.
2. Go to Arrange > Convert to Curves.

Or, just right click on the text while it is selected and choose Convert to Curves.

Full Corel Draw Help Article

Adobe Illustrator

Illustrator allows you to convert your live fonts to outlines. To convert text to outlines, do the following:

1. Select the type object you are trying to convert.
2. Choose Type > Create Outlines.

Full Adobe Illustrator Help Article

Adobe Photoshop

In Photoshop, you must rasterize the type layer. Before you rasterize a vector layer, always duplicate it by choosing:

1. Layer > Duplicate. Then, rasterize the copy.
2. Choose Type > Rasterize Type Layer.

Full Adobe Photoshop Help Article

3. Check Fine Details

Line Thickness 1, 2 or 3 Color Printing:

• 1, 2 & 3 Color - Line/area thickness 1 pt. or 0.01388 of an inch
• Performance - Line/area thickness 2 pt. or 0..02776 of an inch

These print areas are designated with a  BLUE line. The thickness of the line represents the minimum print tolerance.

Line Thickness Full Color Printing:

• Full Color on whites & 100% Black Lines - Line/area thickness .25pt or .0035 of an inch
• Full Color to be opaque on all colored garments - Line/area thickness 3 pt. or 0.04166 of an inch
• Colored Outlines - Line/area thickness 2 pt. or 0..02776 of an inch
• White & Black Outlines - Line/area thickness 1 pt. or 0.01388 of an inch
• Stand-alone white - 1 pt. or 0.01388 of an inch (positive space) & 2 pt. or 0..02776 of an inch (negative space)

These print areas are designated with a  GREEN line. The thickness of the line represents the minimum print tolerance.

Line Thickness Non-Printing Areas:

• Non-Printing - Area/Gap 2 pt. or 0.02776 of an inch
• These "negative space" areas are designated with a PINK line. The thickness of the line represents the minimum print tolerance to ensure any areas or gaps in the image do not bleed together.

4. Use The Proper Filetype

We prefer .AI, .PSD or .PDF. We also can work with .SVG, .JPEG, .PNG & .EPS files. A transparent background is required for the best results, although if it's high quality our team can usually remove the background of the artwork without too many difficulties. Make sure your full-color designs are in CMYK format.

Vectorized artwork is best. If your artwork is Rasterized, please ensure the artwork is set at 300DPI. This is critical to ensuring your artwork does not print pixelated.

Interested in having Neon transfers printed but not not sure where to start? Fret not! We're here to help.

True Neon transfers are a great way to get a pop of color on light or dark colored garments, but they do have more specific art prep than our standard spot color programs. Neons are ordered under gang sheet pricing and cost an extra $45 per custom color. Learn more about custom colors here.

What is a Neon? Think day-glow and Fluorescent! Neon colors, by nature are transparent due to the high amount of pigmentation. To ensure opacity and brightness on dark and/or colored garments we to recommend a white backer. Keep in mind that a white backer would need to be chosen as an additional color during checkout, more on that later.

Below is a guide to common Neon Pantone colors:

• PMS 801C
• PMS 802C
• PMS 803C
• PMS 804C
• PMS 805C
• PMS 806C
• PMS 807C Whats a white backer and why do I need it?

Ever used a highlighter on colored paper? That's the same idea here. On white garments, neon inks look as they should. To simulate this, we add white ink behind to really make your design POP!

Missing Links

Missing Links occurs when certain elements or parts from another file weren't linked properly.

1. Return to original file
2. Save As > Make sure "Include Linked Files" is selected > Save

Once this new file is saved, re-upload back to FM.

We accept several different filetypes for upload, but we prefer .AI, .PSD or .PDF files. We also can work with .SVG, .JPEG, .PNG & .EPS files.

What Are Your Accepted Filetypes?

We prefer .AI, .PSD or .PDF. We also can work with .SVG, .JPEG, .PNG & .EPS files. A transparent background is required for the best results, although if it's high quality our team can usually remove the background of the artwork without too many difficulties. Make sure your full-color designs are in CMYK format.

If you use Corel Draw please see if you can save out as a .pdf or .svg file type instead of a .cdr file.

Vectorized artwork is best. If your artwork is Rasterized, please ensure the artwork is set at 300DPI.

What Filetypes Do You Not Accept?
Currently, we do not accept Cricut, Silhouette Studio, or Microsoft Word (and similar non-graphic publishing software) files.

Need help checking the size of your artwork?

Here's an easy guide to get you through the basics of size checking in Adobe Illustrator CC 2020.

1. Let’s start by opening the art. In the Layers panel, double check that no layers have a small lock on them saying the layer is locked. (You won't be able to select the layer or its contents if it is locked.) *If you don't have this open already, you can find it under the menu bar Window > Layers. Ours is in the first section of our tools on the right hand side of the screen.
The design FM Pocket, should be 4 inches wide ( W) by proportional height (H) so that we can press it on the pocket areas of garments.

2. Now that the file is open and available, select all of the art to try and find out the size. You can find this under the menu bar: Select > All.

• This will place a highlight outline around all of the selected art and depending on where you click these small dots will show up. These are just showing that all points/vertices in the art are selected.

*The area in the coral square is the important part.

*You may need to click 'Transform' to see the additional box. You may also access the 'Transform' tool under the menu bar Window > Transform.

4. Click the 'Transform; text and a drop-down window will appear. Here you can see that the W (Width, meaning from left to right) is 16.1837 inches and the H (Height, from top to bottom) is 19.0657 inches. This seems way too big for a pocket size design. Zoom out and check if there is anything else accidentally selected. (Keyboard shortcut is CMD + or - for Mac and CTRL+ or - for PC)
5. There are some small dots selected at the top left and bottom right. Use the direct select tool (the White Arrow on the toolbar) and drag a box around the area to select just those small dots that are not intended to print. Once just that area is highlighted in blue, tap DELETE on the keyboard to remove it. Repeat for the extra points in the the bottom right.

6. Select that artwork. (From the menu bar Select > All. Keyboard shortcut is CMD+A for Mac or CTRL+ A for PC). Review the size in the Transform window again.

How do I change the size of my artwork?

Congrats! Now that your artwork is the correct size, you can Save as a PDF, and you're all done.

If you need artwork help, reach out to our Art Services Team Here.

Learn how to create a matching proof of your artwork.

To create a proof, save a copy of your files as .jpg or .pdf with the artwork displayed on a contrasting, non-printing colored background. Upload your proof file as a (.JPG or .PDF) along with your artwork in the native (.AI, .CDR, etc.) format.

We do not print from the proof file. It is only used as a tool to verify your artwork. Orders with print ready artwork that match your proof file move right into production.

Digital proofs may be requested for $10 during the checkout process.

If you share a file created in AI and find that photos or images are missing or you receive a missing link error, embedding your image may correct this.

Sometimes you need to insert another image into an illustrator file. To make sure your inserted image is still visible when the file is sent, you should always embed the image within the file. Anyone who received the file without embedded images may receive a "missing link" error and the image would appear blank as AI is looking for that file on their computer and isn't finding it. Lets go over how to embed that file so it will appear correctly when shared.

Open your working illustrator file. If you haven't already add your new image to the illustrator file. Here we're adding in a t-shirt background to create a mock up of the design.

On the top of your program go to the Window tab, from the dropdown click Links. This will open a new small window.

On the links window, Hold shift and click all linked images then click the three dashed lines on the top right and select Embed Images.

It's as easy as that! Now you can send the file without the images within disappearing.   The cross on the inserted image should also disappear showing the image is embedded.

From this:

To this:

If your file is rather big and complex you may want to instead create a packaged version of your file to share. Packaged files save the live font information so it's great for sharing working files. This can be created under File>Package option. All inserted imaged must be embedded for AI to allow you to package files.

FM does not accept packaged files for submission for print so please remember to convert live fonts to shapes or outlines and as in this article embed any images added or placed into the file. We love .pdf files so if you can save as a .pdf thats great! From there you are good to go! Happy making!

PNGs are one of the most commonly used file types. They are perfect for some situations but not so much in others. Lets talk about why!

Over here at FM we prefer to use .pdf files so whenever possible use that file type, but here is some info about the widely used .png file type. if you end up needing to use it.

What is a PNG?

A PNG, or Portable Network Graphics, is a popular image file format that is commonly used for web graphics and digital photography. It supports transparent backgrounds and lossless compression, making it ideal for images with sharp edges and text. PNG files are probably one of the most widely used file types in modern day next to .pdf files and .jpg files.

What are the benefits of using a PNG file?

PNGs are mostly appreciated for supporting transparent backgrounds. This makes them great for setting up quick proofs or layering in image files. They are also easy to save and send due to their widespread use and support across many sites and platforms.

What are some setbacks of using PNG files?

Color Modes

PNG files cannot be saved out in CMYK color mode. PNG files only support RGB color mode which is made for digital screens and not print media. This means that if you have an art file in CMYK color mode and save out as a .png it will automatically be converted to RGB color mode and can result in a shift in color. Since PNG files only support colors for digital screens they can also display colors that are much brighter than can be printed via a CMYK printing process with physical inks. A PNG file will work well enough for a spot color (1, 2 or 3 color) printed image

Resolution

Since PNG files are most widely used for web display many programs default or quick export settings only export at 72 DPI. 72DPI or pixels per inch will result in a clear display on computers but might look pixelated or jagged when printed. Print media should be saved at 300DPI. Generally you want to setup and save your file at 300 DPI and "save as" or "export as" .png as high quality instead of a quick export. This should maintain the size and quality of the file. If your file is still appearing double the size and or low resolution you may want to save as a .pdf instead.

With PNG files getting use pretty much everywhere these days it can be confusing to try and prep a print ready file, but we hope this article added some clarity as to when and where PNG files are suitable.

Our storefront is powered by Shopify and uses Authorize.net to process payments securely. When you check out, your payment information is encrypted and handled directly by Authorize.net, not stored on our servers. Shopify manages the transaction flow while Authorize.net ensures your card details are protected using industry-standard security measures. We only collect the information needed to complete your order, and all communication between our store, Shopify, and Authorize.net is fully encrypted for your safety.

Please visit our Shipping & Turnaround Times page for the latest information.