Achieving the perfect DTF print requires some savvy techniques to ensure your designs are breathable, flexible, comfortable, and visually striking. Enter the world of halftones, a game-changing method that can elevate your DTF transfers from good to great.
While most DTF artwork prep involves "knocking out" the shirt color from solid areas of the design (because no one wants a full coverage print), things get trickier when you're working with rich, textured photographic images or designs with subtle gradients.
This is where halftone patterns come into play, allowing you to create a natural blend between your design and the shirt fabric. This is especially important when you want to design t-shirts that sell. In this guide, we show you how to strategically mask out areas you don't want to print and use halftone patterns to achieve that professional, seamlessly blended look your customers will love. Let's dive in.
Table of contents
- What Is Halftone?
- Benefits of Halftones for DTF Printing
- Why Do It Yourself?
- Design Software Needed
- How To Create Halftone Graphics
- Start with a high-resolution image
- Enhance your artwork
- Create a working copy for masking
- Convert to grayscale
- Adjust the levels for optimal halftone distribution
- Convert to bitmap
- Apply a halftone screen
- Check and refine your results
- Apply halftone as a mask to the original
- Finalize and save your print-ready file
- Conclusion
What is a halftone?
Halftone is a printing technique that creates the illusion of continuous tone using dots of varying sizes and spacing. When viewed from a distance, these dots trick the eye into seeing smooth gradients or blends of colors.
This method originated in newspaper printing, allowing for the first representation of tonal photographic images using just black ink. For half a century now, halftones have been a standard in screen printing, enabling printers to achieve complex, multi-tonal designs with limited color palettes.
DTF transfers are printed using tiny dots of uniform size in a "diffusion" pattern, providing their signature smooth gradients. However, this doesn't work for edges that blend into the garment because the glue needs to adhere to a certain size of dot.
This is where custom halftone masks come into play for DTF printing. By applying halftone principles to create a strategic mask, we can blend the edges of our designs seamlessly into the shirt fabric.
Benefits of halftones
Halftones are essential for achieving soft, breathable, flexible DTF prints. Without them, your designs can look and feel stiff, with hard edges, unwanted halo effects, and excessive ink coverage that can all compromise the appearance and comfort of your garments. By thoughtfully incorporating halftones into your designs, you elevate every aspect of the final product. Here's how they transform your prints:
- Enhanced softness: With more of the fabric showing through, the shirt is softer to the touch and more comfortable to wear.
- Lighter feel: Less ink and adhesive means less weight added to the shirt, a crucial factor for larger designs.
- Improved flexibility: Breaking up the design allows the material to drape and flow more naturally, preserving the garment's original properties.
- Better breathability: The artwork's openings allow airflow through the fabric, keeping the wearer cool and avoiding the dreaded "sweat patch" effect.
- Natural appearance: A halftoned design blends seamlessly into the shirt color, creating a more integrated and professional look.
Key point: Halftoning reduces a print's surface area, improving the look of your designs and enhancing the overall quality and comfort of DTF-printed apparel. This attention to detail can set your products apart in a competitive t-shirt market, offering customers a superior wearing experience.
Why do it yourself?
Each image typically requires its own custom adjustments and settings to achieve the best result. Most custom DTF printing companies can apply some version of halftoning to your designs, but their approach may not be optimal for your particular artwork.
By doing it yourself, you have full control over your designs, making sure they're print-ready and true to your creative vision. This proactive approach helps you avoid production surprises and maintain the integrity of your artwork from concept to final print.
If you're new to DTF, be sure to read our top DTF design tips for beginners.
Design software needed
You'll need a robust graphics editing program to create effective halftone graphics for your DTF transfers. We're using Adobe Photoshop for our examples (industry standard), but don't worry if you use a different application. The principles we cover can be applied using various software options, including:
- Affinity Photo (1-time fee)
- Photopea (free and paid versions)
- Pixlr (free)
- GIMP (free)
Each program offers tools for creating halftone patterns, though the exact commands and menu locations may vary. If you're curious about other software options for DTF printing, check out our breakdown of the best design software for DTF printing.
How to create halftone graphics
While there's no one-size-fits-all approach, the following steps provide a solid framework for producing high-quality halftoned images. Each design will require its own tweaks and adjustments, but mastering these basics will give you the control to optimize any artwork for DTF printing. Here are the ten steps:
1. Start with a high-resolution image
Begin with a high-quality raster image at 300 DPI, sized for the actual print size. If your file is lower resolution, scale it up using your software's Image Size function. Go to Image > Image Size and adjust to 300 DPI. If this results in blurry edges, try applying a sharpen filter. If that doesn't work, you may need a higher-quality original file. For more on this, learn how to scale DTF designs for larger garments.
2. Enhance your artwork
Before halftoning, optimize your image. Adjust levels, brightness, contrast, vibrance, and saturation to ensure your design pops. Apply any necessary filters or effects to achieve your desired look. These enhancements will translate into a more vibrant and clear final halftoned image. Remember to create a backup of your original artwork layer before making these adjustments - it's always wise to have an untouched version to fall back on. For more on boosting the visual impact of your designs, check out our guide on maximizing color vibrancy in DTF transfers.
3. Create a working copy for masking
Duplicate your enhanced artwork layer and open it in a new window or tab. In Photoshop, right-click the layer and select "Duplicate Layer," then choose "New" as the destination. This separate file will be used to create the halftone mask, allowing you to preserve your original artwork. Working on a new file is crucial because you'll need to change the color mode, and you don't want these changes to affect your main image. Ensure you have two files open: your original artwork and this new working copy.
4. Convert to grayscale
Switch your working copy to grayscale mode. In Photoshop, go to Image > Mode > Grayscale. This step is essential for creating an effective halftone pattern, as it reduces your image to shades of gray. While you could make a halftone at this point, it would result in dots everywhere, potentially decreasing overall brightness and vibrancy. This isn't ideal for designs with many midrange hues. The following steps will help you refine which areas become halftones and which remain solid, giving you more control over the final look of your DTF transfer.
5. Adjust the levels for optimal halftone distribution
This crucial step determines how much of your image will be halftoned. Open the Levels adjustment (Image > Adjustments > Levels in Photoshop). Here's what each area represents:
- 100% black areas will be masked out (no ink)
- 100% white areas will be solid (full ink coverage)
- Gray areas will become halftones
Adjust the sliders to achieve the right balance:
- Move the black slider slightly toward the center to deepen the shadows.
- Drag the white slider significantly toward the center to brighten the highlights.
- Fine-tune the mid-tone slider to adjust the balance of halftoned areas.
You aim to provide a strong base for colors or areas you want to stand out (white) while masking out as much as possible (black) to reduce surface area. This balance creates a softer, more flexible, and natural-looking print. Experiment with the sliders to find the sweet spot for your particular design.
Pro tip: Try using the "Curves" function instead of Levels for more nuanced control, especially with complex designs. While it has a steeper learning curve, it offers greater precision in adjusting different tonal ranges separately.
6. Convert to bitmap
With your levels adjusted, it's time to convert the image to bitmap mode. In Photoshop, go to Image > Mode > Bitmap. This step transforms your grayscale image into a black-and-white pixel map, which will be the basis for your halftone mask. When prompted, choose to flatten the layers. If you're creating a halftone for a light-colored shirt, you'll want to invert the colors at this point. This bitmap version of your image will determine where the halftone dots appear in your final design.
7. Convert to a halftone screen
In the Bitmap options dialog, choose "Halftone Screen." This is where you'll set the parameters for your halftone pattern:
- Frequency: Set between 25 to 35 lines per inch. Lower numbers create larger dots, while higher numbers result in smaller dots.
- Angle: 22.5 degrees is recommended, as it's less noticeable to the human eye.
- Shape: Choose "Round" for the classic halftone dot shape.
Click OK to apply these settings. You now have a black-and-white bitmap image with halftone dots.
FAQ: What's the minimum size for halftone dots?
Halftone dots (and thin lines) smaller than 0.02 inches (0.5mm) may not print or transfer properly to the garment. This is because there isn't enough surface area for the adhesive that's printed over the colors. To check your design, create a 0.02-inch circle and move it over your artwork. If the circle completely overlaps any design elements, those areas might not print successfully in your DTF transfer. Most print shops (like ours) will remove the smallest dots that won't transfer.
8. Check and refine your results
Zoom in on your halftoned image to inspect the dot pattern closely. Pay special attention to how the halftones fade out at the edges of your design - this is where the blend into the shirt fabric will occur. If you're not satisfied with the result, don't hesitate to undo (Ctrl+Z or Command+Z) and return to the Levels adjustment step. Experiment with different settings until you achieve the desired effect.
Once you're happy with the halftone pattern, select all (Ctrl+A or Command+A) and copy (Ctrl+C or Command+C) the image. In the next step, paste this into your original file to create the final masked design.
9. Apply halftone as a mask to the original
Switch back to your original artwork file. Create a layer mask by clicking the 'layer mask' button in the Layers panel. Now, right-click on the mask icon and select 'Paste' to apply your halftone pattern as a mask. Click on the main layer thumbnail to view the result. You should see your original artwork now masked with your custom halftone pattern.
This technique preserves the full color and detail of your original design while applying the halftone effect only where needed. The black areas of your halftone mask will be transparent, allowing the shirt color to show through, while the white areas will reveal your full-color artwork.
10. Finalize and save your print-ready file
Create a new layer beneath your masked artwork and fill it with your intended shirt color. This preview helps you visualize how the final print will look on the garment. Remember, this design is optimized only for dark-colored shirts since we masked out the black areas. Save your work as a layered file (like .psd for Photoshop) to preserve your ability to make future edits. Then, hide the shirt color layer and save a copy of just the masked artwork layer as a PNG file with a transparent background.
This PNG is your print-ready file for DTF transfer production. It contains all the color information of your original artwork, with strategic areas masked out by your custom halftone pattern, ensuring a professional and comfortable final print.
Create high-quality DTF designs using halftones
Creating effective halftone graphics for DTF transfers is a skill that improves with practice. Don't be discouraged if your first attempts aren't perfect – experiment with different types of artwork and imagery to hone your technique. As you become more proficient, you'll develop an intuitive sense of balancing solid areas with halftones, resulting in DTF-printed tees that are visually striking and comfortable to wear.
Remember, while mastering this process gives you ultimate control over your designs, you're not alone in this journey. If you're getting your transfers custom printed with Ninja Transfers, our experienced art department is always ready to ensure your designs are optimized for print.
With Ninja Blanks providing high-quality blank apparel, we offer a comprehensive solution for anyone looking to elevate their custom t-shirt business. Combining your creativity with our expertise and top-notch products will enable you to create DTF transfers that truly stand out in the market.
