Design size and placement are key when printing T-shirts. You want to make sure your logo or team name looks great, is highly visible and fits your shirt.
In this T-shirt design guide, I will discuss the best places to print your design on tees for men, women and kids. Certain locations are recommended for casual designs, phrases, artwork and company logos. I’ll also give standard design sizes for T-shirts.
Whether you’re printing a T-shirt yourself or need to order customized tees for a group, you’ll find all the information right here!
Where can I put my shirt design?
The five most popular locations to print on a T-shirt are the full front, left chest, full back, left sleeve and right sleeve.
Each T-shirt imprint area has a standard height and width measurement. The imprint size is designed to give your logo or message the best exposure without appearing too large or too small for the shirt.
T-shirt design sizes and placement
Here are the standard design measurements and placements for T-shirts at Totally Promotional:
Full front/full back (centered) design size
- Adult: 12″ x 12″
- Youth: 9.5″ x 9.5″
Full front/full back (centered) design placement
- Adult: 3-3.5″ down from the collar
- Youth: 2-3″ down from the collar
Left chest/pocket design size
- Adult: 3″ x 3″
Left chest/pocket design placement
- 5.5-8″ down from the shoulder’s left seam
- 4-6″ from the center
Left/right sleeve design size
- Adult: 3.5″ x 3.5″
Left/right sleeve design placement
- Adult: 1″ above the hem
What’s the best place for a T-shirt design?
You can place a design or text just about anywhere on a T-shirt. However, some designs such as corporate logos or fun sayings make a bigger impact when printed in specific locations.
Use this helpful guide to determine the best location to print your inspirational quote or other design on short-sleeve T-shirts:
Full front (centered)
- Text such as quotes, sayings and phrases
- Large art images
- Large, detailed photos
- Logos with large or busy artwork
How to center an imprint on a T-shirt: Fold your shirt in half lengthwise. Be sure to line up the shoulder seams and bottom hem. Fold the shirt down from the top so the crease aligns with the bottom of the arm pits. Press with an iron. When unfolded, the center of the T-shirt will appear as the intersection of the two crease lines.
Left chest or pocket
- Logos
- School mascots
- Short phrases
Full back (centered)
- Large art images
- Long quotes or sayings
- Large, detailed photos
- Logos with large or busy artwork
Left/right sleeves
- Simple logos with/without brief text in small font
- Small artwork
- Short phrases
- Symbols or abbreviations
Trust the T-shirt design experts at Totally Promotional
Totally Promotional takes the mystery out of choosing the best imprint size and location for custom T-shirts. All you have to do is coast through our easy checkout process. Our highly trained graphic designers and professional printers will do the rest!
Our imprint area sizes are shown in the product description section for each of our men’s, women’s and kids’ T-shirts. We’ll use those standard design measurements unless you tell us otherwise.
Browse our T-shirt selection now and take advantage of our 30-plus years of printing experience!
