1 · Pick a mode
- Color — keeps the design's own colours as a halftone.
- Mono — one ink colour; dot size follows tone.
- CMYK — process separations. Preview each plate (C/M/Y/K) and export all four films as a zip.
- Cutout — background removal only, no halftone (keeps your art as-is).
2 · Remove the background (Cutout / "Remove a color")
- Background only — magic-wand: removes only the colour touching the edge, keeps light colours inside the art. Best for full-colour designs.
- White → Alpha — brightness becomes transparency. Best for dark ink / line-art on white; it will fade light colours, so don't use it on full-colour art.
- Black → Alpha — for white/light ink on a dark background.
- Key color — knock out one flat colour everywhere.
- ⌗ Remove checkerboard (Artwork tab) — for files where the transparency checkerboard is baked into the pixels (AI images, screenshots, JPGs). The editor detects it on load and warns you — one free click rebuilds real transparency.
Which tool when? Flat solid background → Remove a color (free, instant, cleanest edges). Baked checkerboard → ⌗ Remove checkerboard (free). Busy photos, big soft glows, or art that shares colours with its background → AI remove bg (1 AI action). The touch-up brush fixes stray leftovers in any of them.
3 · Defringe (edge cleanup)
Removes the thin outline/halo left around art after background removal. Works in every mode — raise it until the outline disappears (usually 1–2). 0 = off. AI cutouts land with a light auto-defringe (1px) already applied — adjust from there if needed.
🎯 Colours printing grey on DTF? → White underbase
Semi-transparent areas (soft edges, fades, removed backgrounds) print with thin white ink under them, so the film/garment greys the colours out. Raise White underbase → Strength to push partial transparency toward solid — the RIP then lays a full white layer and colours stay vibrant. X-ray highlights the thin areas (yellow → magenta = thinner) so you can see the problem before you print; View white film shows exactly where white will print, and screen printers can export it as a choked 5th film.
4 · Distress
Adds worn texture: pick a style (dots/lines/splatter/wood/streaks), then dial amount, angle, and spacing. "Under distress" toggles whether it sits over the halftone or a solid fill.
5 · Print setup (finish size → LPI)
Set the physical size (inches/cm) + DPI. This drives the halftone frequency so dots are physically correct at any size, sets the export resolution, and embeds the DPI in the PNG. Off = the manual Cell-size slider is used instead.
⚠ Start big enough — resolution matters most
A small image can't be exported large and stay sharp. Aim for ~300 DPI at your finish size:
- • Pocket 4″ → ~1200px
- • Standard 11″ → ~3300px
- • Jumbo 14″ → ~4200px
Too small? Use AI upscale (works best from ~1000px+). AI-generated art is ~1024px — upscale it before large prints. Print setup shows a live DPI check for your exact image.
6 · Garment proof & export
Pick a garment colour to preview how it prints, or leave it on Film for the transparent production file. Export PNG gives the film/proof; in CMYK, Export separations gives the plates — plus the white underbase as a 5th film when you've set a strength.
7 · AI tools (AI gen tab)
- Generate art — describe the design; the Creative Director turns your idea into an art-directed brief, picks the right model, and quality-checks the result before it lands in the editor. Personas (automotive, vintage, sports…) steer the style.
- AI upscale — enlarge small or AI-generated images to print resolution (clean edges, no invented texture).
- AI remove bg — subject-aware cutout for the hard cases: busy photos, big soft glows, art that shares colours with its background. Pick a cutout engine below the button — Recraft (soft grungy edges), Bria RMBG 2.0 (commercial-grade matting), or BiRefNet (high-detail edges) — and try them on the same image: Cmd/Ctrl+Z restores the original between runs.
- Print size — auto-chains generation + enlargement to ≈4500px+ for full T-shirt prints (2 AI actions).
- AI actions are metered per account during the beta.
8 · Text & graphics (Text & gfx tab)
- Text layers — real, razor-sharp type (no AI mush): 47 curated fonts + upload your own. Fills (solid, gradient, chrome, gold, fire), up to 3 outlines, shadows (soft / hard / perspective), glow, 3D depth, arch & envelope warps, multiline with line spacing. Drag each line into place on the artwork — text stays solid through the halftone, or Bake it in so dots run through the letters (Cmd/Ctrl+Z undoes a bake).
- Vector trace — turn the loaded artwork (or an uploaded file) into a clean SVG: pick colours off the result, recolor or delete them, download the SVG. Two engines: the built-in tracer (free, great for flat logo art) and ✨ Pro trace ML for shaded art.
- SVG import & icons — drop vector files or built-in icons as layers, scale freely, recolor per-swatch.
- Design DNA — save a whole look and re-apply it to future designs.
9 · Presets & batch (Studio)
Presets save your entire look — mode, screen, dots, distress, underbase, print size — and re-apply it to any image in one click (stored in this browser). Batch export runs up to 24 images through the current settings and downloads one zip. Both live below the Export button.
Tips: zoom with the scroll wheel, drag to pan (hold Space to pan while brushing). Cmd/Ctrl+Z undoes brush strokes, bakes, AI results and checkerboard removal — or use the ↩ Undo button by the zoom controls. Crop before halftoning to isolate your artwork.