T-Shirt Design Placement Guide

Have a great design but are unsure about the accurate placement for your custom t-shirt?

If that’s the case, then you’ve come to the right place.

In this guide, you’ll learn about different t-shirt design placements in detail. We’ll cover embroidery and print placement best practices and which placements work best for logos, artwork, and text-based designs. 

By the end, you’ll be able to pick the best t-shirt placements for your designs!

Front t-shirt design placements

The front of a shirt is a classic—one of the most popular design placements you’ll see out there. 

Why? Wearing a custom-designed t-shirt with the artwork front and center is an excellent way to show off beloved art or rep a band, team, or favorite brand.

T-shirts with front placements are great when paired with outerwear that shows off the design. Think layering pieces like a zip-up hoodie that can be left open or tied around your waist to let your tee speak for itself.

We’ll cover print and embroidery placement options and best practices separately to give you as much guidance as possible. Let’s get into it!

Print placements

First, let’s look at 3 print placement options and specific dimensions that will give you the best results. 

The design placements discussed in this article should be taken as general guidelines, but the exact positioning will vary based on the t-shirt size. Review mockups carefully to ensure the final result meets your expectations.

When you’re customizing a t-shirt in the Design Maker, you can see how it will look on the end product by clicking Mockups in the top right corner.

Source: Printful

In the mockup view, you’ll be able to see how your product will look from different angles.

Source: Printful

Left chest print design placement

Dickies t-shirt with a left chest print. Source: Zalando

This placement isn’t a separate filter in the Product Catalog—only front and back print options are available.

The most commonly used left chest placement design is a logo.

For accurate placement, position the design about 3 inches (7 cm) below the neckline and 2 inches (5 cm) from the armpit. It should align proportionally between the sleeve and collar, maintaining balance despite the asymmetry. Keep the size between 2.5″ × 2.5″ and 5″ × 5″ for a clean, polished look. Since this print area is small, avoid overly detailed designs.

Center chest design placement

Carhartt WIP center chest print t-shirt. Source: Zalando

Center chest placement is ideal for more intricate or bigger logos, text-based designs, and simple artwork. Position the design 3″ to 3.5″ below the collar. A standard size ranges from 6″ × 6″ to 10″ × 8″, with 8″ x 8″ being most common. For symmetry, align your design with the collar’s center. 

Full front design placement

Carhartt WIP t-shirt with full front print. Source: Zalando

This is a perfect placement for creating statement pieces. You can let your imagination run wild because there’s a huge printing space to take advantage of (12″ × 16″ for most Printful t-shirts).

For select DTG products and sizes, Printful is upgrading the print area from 12″ × 16″ to 15″ × 18″. Larger prints are available for specific products, but the product list will expand. Since a large print area offers a good amount of space, it’s the perfect placement to show off bigger designs with detailed colors. 

As for the print’s positioning, we recommend placing it 3–4 inches below the collar but keep in mind that the spacing needs to be adjusted based on the t-shirt’s size. Remember: the bigger your print, the higher the file quality needs to be.

Read more: Everything You Need to Know to Prepare the Perfect Print File 

Embroidery placements

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of embroidery placements, we’ll briefly touch on digitization—it’s a process of turning your design into a file format that our embroidery machines understand. It’s a mandatory process, and it comes at an additional fee.

Source: Printful

Read more: What are digitization and adjustment fees?

Now, the embroidery placements. They are the same as for the print designs, left chest, center chest, and large front, but the sizing of the design area changes. 

You should also note that not all placements are available for all products. For example, large front embroidery isn’t available for all t-shirts. To see which placements are available for a specific tee, go to the File guidelines tab on the product page.

Source: Printful

Left chest design placement

Source: Printful

Same as with print, this placement is most commonly used for logos, but you can also use it for small, simple designs. The maximum print area allowed for the left chest embroidery is 4″ × 4″. If you go over the allowed area, a disclaimer will appear at the bottom of your window, notifying you that your design won’t be fully visible.

Source: Printful

Center chest design placement

Source: Printful

For embroidery, the centered placement size is 4″ × 4″. Just like the left chest placement, the center embroidery placement is excellent for smaller designs, like logos, text, quotes, or small artwork, and should be aligned with the collar’s center. 

Large front design placement

To embroider a bigger design on the front of the shirt, use the large center placement. You can see if it’s available for your chosen shirt by checking the product’s File guidelines tab.

Source: Printful

Large center embroidery gives you a 10″ × 6″ area for your design. For symmetry, align it with the middle of the collar and check the mockup view to see how the placement looks. If you plan to use all of the space, play around with empty space in the artwork to ensure your design isn’t weighing down or pulling on the shirt’s fabric.

Read more: Creating the perfect embroidery file

Source: Printful 

Back t-shirt design placement

The back of a t-shirt is the most common placement for sports uniforms and large designs because of the available surface area. 

The placement comes with other benefits, too. For example, artwork on the front of a shirt is more forward and can be harder to pull off. This is where the beauty of a back design comes in—customers can tone down the vibe by pairing outerwear with it. 

Below we discuss the most common back t-shirt placements offered by Printful.

A full back placement is a suitable spot to show off your branding or designs because it’s a large area and a prominent location.

Plus, since t-shirts lay flat against the back, your design is more likely to look the same as your mockup. There are fewer chances your design will crease.

Source: Printful

For direct-to-garment printing, the maximum placement size is 10″ × 12″ to 12″ × 16″ depending on the product. You can’t exceed the size limit or your design will get cut off. If you want to design something larger, consider a seam-to-seam placement!

Sleeve placement

Sleeve placements are a relatively newer design choice that’s been growing in popularity over the past few years. 

Not every print-on-demand provider allows you to design on the sleeve, but it’s an attention-grabbing spot that’ll help your designs stand out. It’s a cool option to use with other design placements or on its own for a more minimalist style.

Source: Printful

For example, combining a front center chest design with a related sleeve design placement helps make your product look put together and professional. 

You can also use this spot to drop your branding symbols or logo.

Something to think about, though, is that sleeves don’t usually have a lot of room for design flexibility. At Printful, the standard max sleeve placement size is most often 4″ × 3.5″, but some all-over print products have a maximum size of around 20″ × 12″. 

Since sleeve sizes vary greatly depending on the t-shirt size and the manufacturer, before you start designing, make sure to figure out:

• If your desired product offers a sleeve design placement 

• Your product’s max sleeve placement size

• To find out this info for Printful products, follow these steps:

• Go to your desired product’s Printful site listing

• Scroll down and click on File guidelines

• Look for Sleeve print in the table

• Check the Print file size listed in the table 

If you’re still unsure, download and read the Print file template

That’s it! Now you can check each product’s sleeve placement availability and find out the max size.

Source: Printful

Read more: Create The Perfect T-Shirt Sleeve Design

Label placement

If you’re a print-on-demand store owner who’s serious about branding, labels are a small detail that makes a big impact. They add professionalism, reinforce brand identity, and keep your name in sight long after purchase.

Read more: Inside and Outside Labels with Printful

Now, let’s look at each label type separately.

Inside labels

Inside labels leave a lasting impression on shoppers, helping you to build brand loyalty. 

Inside labels also help you grow long-term brand recognition by making your products stand out from competitors. 

After all, it’s hard to forget where a product came from if the brand name is right on the collar!

Source: Printful

To find out if your desired product’s page listing on the Printful site offers an inside label, follow these steps:

1. Go to the product page on the Printful website

2. Scroll down to Customization options 

3. Check for the Inside label tag

If the product shows the tag, you can add a custom inside label with your brand logo.

We can’t offer inside labels on every product in our catalog because the original manufacturer’s tag has to be removable.

Source: Printful

Almost all products at Printful have a max inside label placement size of 3″ × 3″. 

Other products may have max placement sizes of 2″ × 2″ or 2.5″ × 2.5″, but you should check the information in your product’s File guidelines tab before designing.

Just keep in mind that your max logo placement size is 3″ × 1.13″ on the inside label. Check out the image below to get the gist of how your logo would look.

Source: Printful

Great! Now you know the basics of inside label placement and where your logo fits. So let’s talk templates.

You can pick one of Printful’s premade inside label templates in the Design Maker and drop your logo design file in the editor. 

Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to your product page and start designing 

2. In the Design Maker, click on the Design tab

3. Select Inside label from the options on the top bar above the editor

Source: Printful

The editor will show you various inside label template options on the left side of your screen. Click on one you like and upload your brand logo on the part in the template that says Drop your design here. 

That’s it! Now your logo is on your inside label for the product you chose.

Make sure to take note of these tips when designing your inside label:

• Be sure graphics don’t exceed the maximum print area per the indicated garment size

• Use a legible font style and avoid curly or hard-to-read font designs 

• Keep fonts over size 10 to ensure your logo (or any text you use) is readable

• Submit all graphics at actual print size in PNG format

• Use the sRGB color profile sRGB IEC61966-2.1 with a minimum resolution of 150 DPI

• Use a transparent background on your logos

If you still have questions, check out the File guidelines tab for the product you want to design an inside label for. 

Custom inside label placement

If you’ve been with Printful for a while already, you may still be able to create your inside label from scratch. 

When creating an inside label from scratch, you’re legally required to have your garment’s specifications on it. 

These include:

• Manufacturing country of origin 

• Garment size

• Fabric composition

Only use English and your selling region’s language for your inside label. Make sure to follow the same tips listed in the section prior.

Outside labels

Printful outside label specs are 3″ × 3″ for most garments. Because they’re so small, we recommend avoiding intricate details.

For the print location, we recommend centering your logo or design in the middle of the print area. 

Source: Printful

Outside labels are available for most custom t-shirts (except racerbacks), hoodies, and sweatshirts. You can also add custom outside labels to some all-over-print items.

Find products with the outside label branding option by going to Printful’s Product Catalog and filtering by Branding options > Outside label.

A custom outside label costs $2.49 per garment, except for all-over print products, where it’s included in the product price.

Seam-to-seam placement

At Printful, we also offer all-over print (AOP) products that allow you to design the entire front, back, and sleeves of a t-shirt. AOP gives you absolute control over your entire design, allowing you to create a distinctive product with interesting patterns. 

Source: Printful

A seam-to-seam design placement works best with AOP sublimation because the ink soaks into the fabric’s fibers. That means the material stays breathable and soft to the touch, even after printing. 

Why does it matter? Breathable fabric and designs keep your shoppers comfortable while wearing your clothing. 

Since there’s no standard limit to the max placement size, the world tee is your oyster. Your main design won’t get cut off as long as it fits in the safe area of the Design Maker. 

To avoid cut-offs for design placements outside of the safe area, don’t let your design: 

• Go past the seams 

• Touch the collar

Finally, plan time to test your design on each size you offer. You’ll be able to ensure your final looks are correct and will rest easy once you launch your products!

Pro tip: Use AOP to make a really big full-front design by leaving the back and sleeves blank. Prefer a seam-to-seam back placement? You can do that too.

Source: Printful

Need ideas for AOP designs? Check out this handy video.

Best t-shirt design placements

Now that you know about the various kinds of t-shirt design placements available, let’s compare and contrast. Different designs, like logos, artwork, and text, work best on different t-shirt placements. 

We’ll review them individually and find out which placements make the most sense for each type of design.

Pro tip: Experiment with t-shirt placements using Printful’s free Design Maker. Play around with your designs on various products and pick what you like best!

For logos

It’s essential to leave your mark on your t-shirts. Branding helps you do just that. It elevates your brand by offering a more polished, professional look, and reminds customers of where they bought from. 

But where should your branding or logo symbols go?

Well, logos work best on the:

• Left chest placement

• Outside label 

• Inside label

• Sleeve placement

Why? Because these places are perfect for smaller designs. 

For example, let’s say you want to use the left chest placement for your branding. Then add your artwork on the back of the t-shirt. Or, put your branding on the sleeve or outside label, and have your main design on the front.

Adding your logo is also a great way to market your store and stand out at different events. Branded clothing helps boost your brands visibility during conferences, giveaways, and other kinds of promotional activities.

For artwork

Art is tricky. If you have small line drawings or minimalist designs, for example, it’d probably be a good idea to take advantage of the placements that work best for logos mentioned above. 

However, if you want your art to be the center of attention then go with a larger placement. Your art will have enough space to shine in the following areas:

• Center chest placement

• Full front placement

• Full-back placement

Another cool idea? Put your main design on the front or back, and add a complementary mini-design to the sleeves. 

For text-based designs

Text designs, like trending quotes or funny sayings, are pretty popular. People love t-shirts with their favorite jokes, funny quips, or one-liners. However, placements vary—and where you place your text design will impact how legible it is.

The best spots to place text designs are on the:

• Left chest placement

• Center chest placement

• Full front placement

If you’re wondering why most of these suggestions are on the front of the shirt, the answer is simple: visibility. Other spots may hide your design if your customer decides to wear outerwear. 

Feeling adventurous? You can experiment with text designs on the sleeve or outside label of your t-shirt, too!

Check out this video on how to create text designs for more info:

Tee’d up to start designing?

It can be difficult grasping all the different t-shirt design placements when starting out. We hope this post helped understand the design and logo placements you have available with Printful!

Overall, you’ll want to judge designs and placements on a product-by-product basis. That’s because every t-shirt has different size specifications and design methods available for it.

If you’re unsure, review the info in this post or contact Printful’s customer support for help. 

Go ahead and experiment with a variety of designs to get a feel for different placements, and you’ll surely get the hang of it in no time. 

Good luck!

Read next:

• Ecommerce Printing Guide: Top 7 Best T-Shirts for Printing

• What’s the Best Method for Printing T-Shirts

• 7 T-Shirt Design Trends for 2023

• The Ultimate Hoodie Design & Logo Placement Guide

• 10 Types of Logos (and How to Choose Yours)