Color Selection

The selection of color for use in a design is an essential part of an attractive design. Thankfully it’s not complicated or stressful; consider these guidelines before starting your design process:

There’s an almost unlimited number of ink and shirt color combinations, but careful consideration of ink color before you start will ensure that your shirt looks great and saves money. Options include:

Single Color

The application of a single ink color to a garment is "single color printing." Also known as one-color printing, it’s ideal for simple designs and is among the most affordable color options.

Halftones are an extension of one-color printing and can add interest without greater cost. They use shades of a single color and are easily set up.

Full-Color

As the name suggests, full-color printing uses multiple colors in the design. While this can produce a vibrant result, full color can be problematic for several reasons:

• It can be more expensive
• More color may not add anything of significance
• It may undermine a professional appearance
• It may be inconsistent with the target audience

Specialty Inks

Offering a range of options to create a truly unique appearance, specialty inks feature different properties like:

• Texture
• Glow-In-The-Dark
• Metallic

Learn more about our specialty ink options here.

Color Matching

Matching the design and shirt color with existing brand colors will ensure a clean, consistent, branded look.

RushOrderTees offers Pantone Color Matching as an additional paid service. The Pantone Color Matching system is a standardized method used to create an exact match to a brand’s selected color scheme.

Alternatively, Canva’s color wheel is one tool that will generate a set of colors based on a sample. These include color types like:

• Complementary
• Monochromatic
• Analogous
• Triadic

Color Contrast

If you want others to see and understand your t-shirt design, the colors used must have adequate contrast. Contrast is the ability to clearly see the contents of a design by using different colors, so they need to be sufficiently different.

CMYK

CMYK is a color process used for printing, especially for photo-realistic images and those with lots of colors. Also known as 4 Color Process, it uses cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Create your images using CMYK if possible; otherwise, they will need to be converted.