The Top 5 Best Graphic Design Software For T-shirts

Finding the best graphic design software for T-shirts can take hours or days of searching. However, you can easily find information on the internet to help you with your selection. Furthermore, blogs like this one make it easier for you to find a starting point. 

Here are some of the best application software to help you design logos and any other unique graphics for your T-shirts. You will realize how simple it is to find an ideal graphic design software for your T-shirt design project.

1. GraffixPro Studio; BEST GRAPHIC DESIGN SOFTWARE FOR T-SHIRTS

GraffixPro Studio is a graphic design application software with easy-to-use tools, which enable you to create unique designs with little effort. This simplified process enables graphic designers to maximize their potential profit. GraffixPro Studio runs on the Windows platform. 

Features

GraffixPro Studio is a full-featured application software for designing your T-shirts with speed and ease. Some of the attributes you will find helpful in this software include; –

Inventory Management

This tool helps you to monitor the quantity of each T-shirt you sell by color, size, and design. The feature automatically alerts you whenever your stock gets to a minimum level. In addition, the inventory management tool disables a product when you run out of stock to ensure that you don’t design orders until you restock.

White Ink Conversion

GraffixPro Studio is compatible with Direct to Garment printers that use pure white (RGB value 255,255,255). It helps to initiate the transparency setting. The software identifies white RGB values during the printing process and automatically converts pure white to RGB 254,254,254 to enable the white ink to print correctly.

Black-listed Words

This feature allows you to download a list of restricted words to avoid costly legal problems or bad publicity.

Direct Print Function

The function automates the printing process. There are no lengthy processes involved in sending your designs to your printer. Once the apparel is threaded, the operator can start the printing by pressing the start button.

Barcode Scanning Ability

The software creates distinctive barcodes for each job and order that you design. Order barcoding allows you to scan and send your designs to your machine with little effort. Additionally, you can also print out the barcodes and scan them at any time to find the data you need to print. 

Pros of GraffixPro Studio

Intuitive interface – The software has a simple layout of tools that are easy to navigate and use.

Easy to learn – It has a smooth learning curve that allows you to create stunning designs with minimal effort.

Watermark – GraffixPro Studio allows you to create a watermark and apply it to your artistic work before issuing a quote. Watermarks help graphic designers to protect their distinctive artwork.

Multiple font types – This app contains over 25 fonts and more than 300 images. The software also has numerous garment templates. Further, GraffixPro Studio allows you to view your unique design on a garment template before sending it to the printer.

Cons of GraffixPro Studio

Cost – A majority of users agree that GraffixPro Studio costs more than it’s worth.

Availability – GraffixPro is not a global product. It is accessible in a few select countries.

Pricing

You can download the free trial version or purchase the premium version, which costs $899.

2. Adobe Photoshop; BEST GRAPHIC DESIGN SOFTWARE FOR T-SHIRTS

Adobe Photoshop is an application software for photo editing, retouching, and digital art projects. It is a product of the Adobe company and is compatible with Mac and Windows operating systems. Graphic designers use this app to edit various illustrations. These include logos and other artistic marketing pieces on T-shirts, flyers, magazines, and billboards.

Features

Adobe Photoshop offers numerous benefits to users through a wide range of filters, palettes, and tools. Some of the features found in this app include: –

Color Change

Adobe Photoshop allows graphic designers to make color alterations to their designs or existing templates. For example, you can change the color of your logo or other graphic to black and white or add spot color.

Layers

The layers tool is one of the distinct features of Adobe Photoshop. Layers work by stacking the changes made to your design then moving them to view how your work looks. 

For example, you cannot remove a line of paint that you add to an image in a program like Microsoft Paint. On the contrary, you can move the layers you add to an image in Adobe Photoshop. Thus, the layers work like a flipbook allowing you to view each page.

Photo Restoration

This app allows you to restore damaged or old photographs to achieve an excellent new look. In addition, the feature lets you fill up missing sections or remove spots in your image.

Animation

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most advanced tools for graphics animation. It allows you to create cartoons and similar artwork for your T-shirt project.

Pros of Adobe Photoshop

Editing – This app boosts your editing skills. Adobe Photoshop allows you to transform a substandard graphic into a professional piece. In addition, it makes editing difficult images effortless.

File Import – The software allows you to transfer various file formats between different programs quickly and easily.

Simple User Interface – You can access each of the features that display information from a single menu.

Stock library – The integrated stock library allows you to exploit your creative potential.

All-purpose software – Besides editing and retouching photos, you can use this app to create logos, and other artwork for your T-shirts, greeting cards, and more.  You can also use this app to crop, enhance, mask, and manipulate your images.

Cons of Adobe Photoshop

Limited toolbar options – Beginners may experience difficulties in navigating the features because the toolbar is less detailed.

Costly – Beginners may not have the means to purchase Adobe Photoshop at the start of a project.

Monitoring – Some features cannot monitor the progress of your design.

Space – Adobe Photoshop takes up more space on your device’s hard disk than similar graphic design applications. Nevertheless, you can store this app on a disk with vast memory disk space.

Pricing 

Adobe Photoshop premium costs $119.88.

3. Adobe Illustrator; BEST GRAPHIC DESIGN SOFTWARE FOR T-SHIRTS 

Adobe Illustrator is part of Adobe suite vector-based software for graphic design. The application uses algorithms to draw illustrations. Therefore, you can scale images to any size and still maintain their original quality or resolution.

You can use Adobe Illustrator to create logos, advanced illustrations, and animation for your apparel, flyers, and pamphlets. Additionally, you can also design website graphics for online marketing.

Features

Adobe Illustrator is feature-rich software that allows you to create, edit, share, sync, and more. This application contains the following features: –

Image Editing

Adobe Illustrator allows you to enlarge or reduce your images without experiencing resolution issues. This app gives you crisp lines and sharp images that are print-ready in any size. You can trust this app to produce the same perfect graphic design on your billboard and your T-shirt. Ideally, you cannot lose resolution when you choose to use Adobe illustrator for your graphics.

File management

Large files are difficult to transfer and can slow down your processor. Adobe Illustrator creates small files that are easy to share across your network. You can send your illustrations as attachments through mail or sync them on the cloud easily and quickly.

In-panel editing

This tool allows you to work on multiple artboards concurrently. In-panel editing enables you to design more than one image all at once, which saves you time. Other applications which force you to complete one artwork at a time can cause delays. However, Adobe Illustrator allows you to work on more images which makes you more productive.

Pros of Adobe Illustrator

Friendly user interface – The app allows you to navigate the menu comfortably and to control all the available tools. In addition, the user interface is flexible and allows you to customize your workspace.

Creates print graphics and web graphics – It works well on any screen resolution and offers you features that are regularly updated. These tools enable you to create stunning vector graphics effortlessly.

Cons of Adobe Illustrator

Steep Learning Curve – Beginners can take up to 6 months to master this application. However, creatives conversant with vector-based apps can take a few days or hours to use this software.

It requires patience – Sometimes, Adobe illustrator will not identify aspects of your image as being out of place. As a result, creatives can find it tough to achieve a realistic illustration with Adobe Illustrator. You must observe carefully and patiently if you want to produce an image that feels practical.

Pricing

Adobe Illustrator has a monthly payment plan and a free trial.

The Standalone app costs $29.99 each month.

4. Inkscape; BEST GRAPHIC DESIGN SOFTWARE FOR T-SHIRTS

Inkscape is a web-based open-source vector graphics software. This application runs on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux platforms. 

Features

Some of the features you will find in Inkscape include the following: –

Object manipulation

This feature allows you to move, scale, skew and rotate your illustrations. It also enables you to group objects and create layers.

File formats

This feature allows live watching and editing of the document tree in the XML editor. Further, you can work well on various file formats such as PNG, DXF, EPS, and more. It also contains command-line options that enable you to export and perform conversions.

Fill and stroke

Inkscape users can easily copy and paste and use other tools like color selector, color picker, and path markers. 

Pros of Inkscape

Free – It costs zero dollars to use this app. You can download and install it on your device for free. 

Tutorials – The app has numerous tutorials on the internet to help you get started.

Robust features – Allows graphic designers to create either simple or compound SVG files. You can design logos and cartoons for T-shirts effortlessly. Further, these tools also support various file formats such as JPEG, TIFF, and PNG. Of course, you can save your work in any file type.

Intuitive user interface – The well-arranged UI makes navigation simple and enables you to complete any task quickly and easily.

File conversion – You can convert bitmap images into vectors.

Customizable – This app allows you to customize themes, colors, icons, grids, and lines.

Inkscape has some features similar to Xara and CorelDraw, even though it is free to use.

Cons of Inkscape

Sidebar panels – It is frustrating to reopen this tool if you coincidentally close it.

Sudden closure – Sometimes, Inkscape closes without notifying you. As a result, you lose part of the work that you did not save, which is frustrating and can cause delays.

Features – Some of the icons used do not fully describe the desired intention. Users find it challenging to locate a few tools because the icons aren’t descriptive enough.

Pricing 

Inkscape is free of cost. You can use and distribute the app without making any payment. The app also allows you to view the source code. 

5. Fatpaint; BEST GRAPHIC DESIGN SOFTWARE FOR T-SHIRTS

Fatpaint is a Web-based graphic design and photo editing tool. This application also contains numerous features that enable designers to create 3D texts, banner images, drawings, logos, and other graphics.

Features

Fatpaint contains features that permit you to create illustrations and other promotional products. 

Paint brushing

This feature has built-in artistic resources that let you create layered brush painting and draw other graphical illustrations.  You can paint your image using a brush, airbrush, paint bucket, or cloning paint. Additionally, Fatpaint is one of the few graphic apps that support pressure-sensitive pen tablets.

Integration

Fatpaint integrates with apps like Zazzle, which enables you to create graphics for printing on shoes, mugs, T-shirts, and other products. 

Photo and image editor

This tool helps creatives to change photo colors. Additionally, you can edit unwanted backgrounds and touch-up photos by using clone painting.

You can also merge various photos into a single image. Photo editor provides you with options that support varying blend modes and several layers. 

The image editor tool permits you to display your graphics on personalized products that you can sell. These may include items such as posters, business cards, T-shirts, flyers, and more.

Vector image editor

This tool provides you with more than 500 vector images to use. In addition, this feature permits you to draw vector graphics from scratch using pen, splines, curves, lines, spirals, rectangles, stars, and ellipses.

Additionally, you can crop, resize, rotate, bend and distort vector drawings in 2D and 3D.

Pros of Fatpaint

Vector clipart – Fatpaint comes with thousands of fonts and clipart that you can help you print on T-shirts, mugs, caps, flyers, and more.

Creates 3D text graphics – The software gives you access to over 900 font types and numerous vector clipart. The easy-to-use tools can help you create professional-looking logos and illustrations for commercial purposes.

Cloud hosting – You can access this application anytime over the internet on your desktop or mobile device. The app offers graphic designers the freedom to work from remote locations. 

Speed – The app is fast. It takes less than 5 minutes to produce a text slogan, add paint and preview it on a T-shirt.

Cons of Fatpaint

Web-based – You risk losing all your data and designs if your browser crashes because the software is hosted on the web.

Pricing 

Fatpaint pricing plan include the following: –

• Free trial.
• Freemium costs $0.
• Fatpaint Pro subscription costs $9 per month.

Conclusion

The uses of graphic design software in real life are boundless. You can use some of these industry-standard applications to create logos, cartoons, and other artistic work for your T-shirts project. Each software has its uniqueness that allows you to create brilliant effects.

With changing design trends, creatives need to use the best graphic design software to accomplish their image creation needs. When choosing an application to help you with your T-shirt project, you may have to consider things like pricing, speed, scalability, useability, and integration.