Save Money Print your own T shirt
Spring is in full swing and summer is right around the corner. If you’re a college student, school’s out and you have probably been considering what you’re going to wear. You have probably even already bought some summer clothes or busted them out of the back of the closet or bottom drawer. But you’d like something new and stylish that really says what you want to say while simultaneously being cool and comfortable.
T shirts are usually a big part of someone’s general summer apparel. You can go out and buy as many T shirts as you want, but have you considered printing your own? This can be a fun and creative way to get decked out just the way you’d like for those radiant summer months. The following are the basic steps you would take to create your own personalised T shirts and look cool and unique for the summer holidays.
The Image
It all starts with an image. In the computer/internet age this essentially means a digital image. There are three basic options here: using an image you yourself create in a graphics program, using an image or photo someone else has created, and using a photo you or others have taken.
To create an image you can play around in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Paintbrush or some other graphics program and create virtually anything your imagination can conceive of. If you aren’t well versed in using these programs, you can learn enough basics quite easily with online tutorials or even the help menus of these programs to get going on an image. Chances are that if you’re college aged and/or college enrolled, you’ll have at least some idea of how to use these programs. Once you have come up with a design that is intriguing and good looking, save the file.
Using an image someone else has created brings in some legal issues. You need to make sure you are allowed by law to use the image. Many image sites such as Flickr.com contain free images and you can also email or call and ask the owners of any images you find whether you can use them.
Finally, you can simply use a photograph you have taken. The photo can be worked with in a graphics program or just used as is. Enhancing a photo with your creative urges as regards images is a fun thing to do – you can take an ordinary photo and do all sorts of things to it with graphics software to make it really shine. But there is nothing wrong with just using a photograph in its original state.
The Printing
Once you have an image that you’re happy with, it’s time to find a printer. There are all kinds of online and offline T shirt and print shops that will take these images and put them onto T shirts for you. They usually use a screen printing process that transfers the image directly to the T shirt. Make sure that the printer you are planning to use has a good reputation and uses good, well known T shirt brands, and carries a variety of T shirt sizes.
A Note about Colour
You may or may not know that darker colours are hotter than lighter ones. Dark colours absorb more of the light waves that hit the T shirts and thus heat up faster. So if you’re going for cool (in the simple thermal sense of the word) use lighter colours if possible.