DPI (Dots Per Inch)

DPI counts printed dots per linear inch, and for apparel work most shops ask for artwork at 300 DPI at the actual print size — a 10-inch-wide full-front design needs enough pixel data to hold 300 dots across each of those 10 inches, not just claim "300 DPI" in a file's metadata while the underlying image is smaller. Below roughly 150 DPI at final size, printed edges visibly stair-step and fine text turns to mush on both DTF and DTG output.

This is the number that trips up almost every first-time buyer uploading their own art: a logo pulled from a phone screenshot is typically 72 DPI at a tiny native pixel size, which looks fine on a screen but falls apart once stretched to 12 inches wide on a garment. We get a version of this call weekly — a customer's Instagram logo looks sharp in the group chat at 400 pixels wide, then reads as a blurry smear once printed at full-front size.

Pros resolve this by asking for vector artwork (AI, EPS, SVG) whenever it exists, since vector files aren't bound by DPI at all — they scale to any size with sharp edges — and only fall back to raster requirements when a buyer only has a photo or scanned logo. Upscaling a low-DPI raster file doesn't add real detail; it just interpolates blur into more pixels.

The common mistake is assuming DPI is fixed for an image regardless of size. DPI is a ratio between pixel count and print dimensions, so shrinking a low-resolution logo down to postage-stamp size technically raises its DPI, while stretching that same file to fill a full back print tanks it — the pixel count never changes, only how far it's spread.