A printable file starts the clock

The 24-hour print clock (business days) starts when a printable file lands with us. Checkout alone doesn't start it; a working file does. So the minute you spend checking it is the minute that protects your date.

Your art reaches the film at the size on your order. There's no art desk here: nothing gets redrawn, cut out or recolored. An uploaded gang sheet is fitted to 22" wide (turned upright if it came in sideways), trimmed of blank film above and below, and printed with a 1" Nitro label band at each end. Setup questions go to info@nitrodtf.com; we answer them, and the fixes stay on your side.

The 60-second preflight

Size × 300

Build at print size, 300 DPI. Math check: 10 inches × 300 = 3000 pixels per side. Blowing up a small image won't invent detail.

Nothing behind the art

Every pixel outside the design: fully transparent. Leave a white or colored backdrop in and you get a printed rectangle.

One of five formats

PNG, PDF, AI, PSD, EPS. A transparent PNG is the simplest. Vector file? Type to outlines, every image embedded.

22 inches across

Gang sheets are 22" wide by the length you buy: 60" tall for 5 ft, 120" for 10 ft. Space designs a quarter inch apart so each one trims clean.

Pixel targets at 300 DPI

Print size	Typical job	Pixels
2" × 2"	Tag, label	600 × 600
4" × 4"	Left chest	1200 × 1200
5" × 5"	Small chest, tote	1500 × 1500
10" × 10"	Adult front	3000 × 3000
11" × 14"	Adult front, big	3300 × 4200
12" × 16"	Full back, team numbers	3600 × 4800
22" × 60" (5 ft)	Gang sheet, 5 ft	6600 × 18000
22" × 120" (10 ft)	Gang sheet, 10 ft	6600 × 36000

Pixels = inches × 300. Short on pixels? The size holds; the edges pay for it, soft or stair-stepped.

White ink in 30 seconds

Every Nitro DTF transfer is color printed over a layer of white ink. That white is why colors hold on a black hoodie, and it plays by four rules:

White in the file = white ink on the shirt. Want the fabric to show? Make that area transparent instead.
Transparent = nothing. No box, no outline; the garment shows through.
Black = black ink, even on a black tee. Let the shirt supply the black by leaving those areas empty.
Half-transparent still gets white behind it. Soft shadows, glows, feathered edges and low-opacity layers can print paler than the screen or ring a dark shirt with a light halo. Go solid, or fake the fade with a halftone dot.

A halo found at checkout costs a minute; found on press day, it can cost the date.

Color, hairlines, tiny type

CMYK print. Neon-bright RGB greens, blues and oranges come out flatter on film. If the exact shade matters, design in CMYK.
Neon and metallic. Out of CMYK's reach; they print as the nearest CMYK color.
Your screen isn't a proof. For a color-critical job, order one 4" × 4" piece of DTF Transfers by Size as a test ($0.32; shipping applies under $69), early enough that the real order still fits before your date.
Lines. Hold them to roughly 0.5 mm (0.02") or thicker at print size; thinner strokes break or lift during the peel.
Small type. Below about 1/4" tall, go bold and keep the holes inside letters open.

Format by format

PNG: export at final size and 300 DPI with the background switched off.
PDF / AI / EPS: outline every font, embed linked images at 300 DPI, and strip crop marks, bleed and any background shape.
PSD: kill the background layer (hide or delete it) and size the canvas to the print at 300 DPI.
Sheets: 22" wide, and a separate file for every sheet you buy.
Reading direction: send it right-reading, never mirrored.
JPG: skip it. JPG has no transparent pixels, so the whole rectangle would print. Export a PNG.

Getting the file to us

Gang Sheet Builder: click the Build your gang sheet button, upload your designs, place them on the 22" sheet and add the sheet to the cart.

Gang sheets, UV gang sheets and bulk sheets: upload the finished file in the uploader on the product page. It takes PNG, PDF, AI, PSD, EPS, TIFF and WEBP up to 2 GB, refuses JPG, BMP, GIF and HEIC, reads the print size and flags a solid background before the sheet goes in the cart; on a PNG or WEBP it also flags low resolution. Upload failed? Try again, or email info@nitrodtf.com.

By size: click the Upload your design button and add one design. For DTF, set its print size, up to 22" × 24"; for UV, pick the size it fits within. The builder and by size take PNG, PDF, AI, PSD and EPS. Trouble uploading? Email info@nitrodtf.com before you check out.

File checks, answered

No one edits it. On the upload pages the uploader flags size and background issues before checkout; fixing them is on your side. Run the 60-second preflight above, then a 200% zoom on every edge.

No, we don't edit files. Fix size and background on your side, then send.

Yes, at the size you order, with less detail: soft or stair-stepped edges. Re-export at print size if you can.

No. Send it right-reading, never mirrored.

Single sheets top out at 60 feet. Beyond that: a half roll (165 feet, six files: five 30 ft and one 15 ft) or a whole roll (330 feet, eleven 30 ft files). Pick the roll at the top of the uploader on Upload Your DTF Gang Sheet. Width is always 22".