Files, and what goes wrong with them
What your artwork needs to be before it reaches a printer
4 minute read
Most artwork we receive is not print-ready, and that is completely normal. A club logo has usually been through a phone, a group chat and a slide deck before it reaches us, and what arrives is a small image of a design rather than the design itself.
What follows is the difference between a file that prints and a file that looks soft, why it matters at jersey size, and which parts of it we fix for you without charging.
Vector and raster, in the only terms that matter
A raster file — PNG, JPG, anything from a camera or a screenshot — is a grid of coloured squares. Enlarge it and you get bigger squares. A vector file — AI, EPS, SVG, PDF from a design program — is a set of instructions describing shapes, so it can be printed at any size without losing an edge.
A logo that looks perfect on a website is typically 400 pixels wide. Across the chest of a jersey it needs to be roughly ten times that, and there is nothing in the file to enlarge. This is the single most common reason a mockup comes back looking softer than a team expected.
We redraw raster logos to vector as part of producing your mockup, at no charge, and we do not charge for it because a sharp logo is in our interest as much as yours.
What to send
- Best
- AI, EPS or SVG — the original file from whoever designed the logo
- Good
- A PDF that was exported from a design program rather than scanned
- Workable
- PNG at 2000 pixels or more on its longest side, with a transparent background
- We will redraw
- Anything smaller, screenshots, photographs of a printed logo
- Colours
- Pantone references if you have them; a hex code is a reasonable second best
- Fonts
- Name the font, or send the file with text converted to outlines
What each file type can and cannot do
The formats people actually send, and what happens to each one at jersey size.
- AI / EPS
- The original from a designer. Scales to any size with no loss — this is what everything else gets redrawn INTO.
- SVG
- Vector and web-native. As good as AI for our purposes, and the format most likely to still exist when a club changes designer.
- Depends entirely on what made it. Exported from a design program it is vector and perfect; scanned or exported from a document it is a picture of a logo.
- PNG
- Fine above about 2000px on its longest side, with a transparent background. Below that it is redrawn — enlarging adds pixels, not detail.
- JPG
- Workable but lossy, and the compression shows most at the edges of flat colour, which is exactly what a logo is made of.
- A photo of a shirt
- Redrawn, and more often than people expect. Straight on, flat, in daylight is the useful kind; at an angle in a changing room is not.
The three things that go wrong most often
A logo that was never meant to be big. Most club marks were drawn for a website header at 400 pixels and have lived on phones ever since. Across a chest they need roughly ten times that, and there is nothing in the file to enlarge — which is why a mockup can come back softer than a program expected even though nothing was done wrong.
A colour that was never specified. "Our navy" means one thing on a screen calibrated one way and another on a printed shirt under floodlights, and the gap only becomes visible after production. A Pantone reference removes the argument entirely; a physical sample of existing kit does the same job and is often easier to find.
A font nobody has. A design supplied as an editable file with a font we do not hold reflows into something else the moment it opens, usually without an error message. Converting text to outlines before sending, or simply naming the font, prevents it — and it is the same discipline that governs numbers and names on a garment, set out on our page about jerseys made one roster at a time.
What we fix without charging
Four things that are part of producing your mockup rather than a separate line on a quote.
Redrawing to vector
A raster logo rebuilt as shapes so it prints at any size. The commonest single piece of work we do before production, and it is not billed.
Cleaning up edges
Removing the compression artefacts a JPG leaves around flat colour, which are invisible on a screen and obvious at 300mm wide.
Separating for the method
Preparing the file the way the chosen process needs it — flat colours for screen, a stitch path for thread, panel layout for sublimation.
Redrawing a sponsor mark
Sponsors supply what they have, which is usually a letterhead logo. We rebuild it; you get written permission from them.
Follow-up questions
I only have the logo as a photo of a shirt. Is that usable?
Usually, yes. We redraw from it. Send the sharpest, flattest photograph you can get — straight on, in daylight, not at an angle.
Do you charge for redrawing?
No. It is part of producing the mockup. What we do charge for is original design work, which is a different thing and is quoted separately.
What if we do not have a Pantone reference?
Then we match to the closest standard and show you the result before production. If the colour matters a great deal — a school colour that has to sit next to existing kit — send us a physical sample instead.
Can you use the artwork from our old supplier’s jerseys?
We can redraw from a physical garment, which is often more accurate than a file that has been resaved several times. Send us one if you have a spare.
What resolution does a logo need to be?
About 150 dpi at the size it will actually be printed. Across a chest that means roughly 2,000 pixels wide — around five times what the same logo needs on a website, which is why a file that looks perfect online can come back soft.
Can you work from a screenshot?
Yes, by redrawing it. A screenshot is a picture of a logo rather than the logo, so what we produce is a rebuilt version — send the sharpest one you have and we will show you the redraw before anything prints.
Who owns the redrawn file afterwards?
You do, if it is your mark. Ask any supplier to confirm that in writing before the first order; one who will not is telling you something worth knowing early.
What if our colours only exist as a hex code?
It is workable. A hex code describes light on a screen and a Pantone describes ink on a surface, so we match to the nearest standard and show you the result before production — that is the point at which a mismatch is still free to fix.
How do we get permission for a sponsor logo?
A forwarded email from the sponsor naming your team and the season is enough. Most teams already have it; the mistake is assuming a verbal agreement covers reproduction.
Can you design a logo for us from scratch?
That is original design work rather than artwork preparation, so it is quoted separately. Redrawing a mark you already have is part of the mockup and is not charged for.