Screen Print Placement Guide

Screen printing is the most popular form of garment decoration. It's vibrant, durable, and high in quality.

This guide also applies to:

Vinyl Transfer print placement.
DTG Digital direct-to-garment print placement.

One of the most common conversations we have is around the placement of prints and it's limitation.

A couple of important notes:

We can only print as large as the smallest item in your order will allow.
The print will be the same size on each of the different sized garments. An A3 print on a small t-shirt will look bigger in proportion, than how it will look on a 3XL t-shirt.

Here is a breakdown of the most popular screen print placements that we encounter - see the accompanying reference images.

Print 1 - Front Print

The most standard print is on the front of a t-shirt or hoodie, or other items of course.
The standard maximum print is A3 size - 300mm wide x 420mm high.
You don't need to fill this space, but this is the standard maximum.

Print 2 - Oversized Front Print

The same location as print 1, however you might want an oversize effect - the print covers most of the shirt. Instead of 300mm wide, we can go up to 360mm wide and 500mm tall.
Don't forget! We can only print as large as the smaller item will allow. Most small shirts allow the maximum oversize dimensions. Anything smaller we may have to reduce the maximum slightly.
Surcharges apply for oversize prints.

Print 3 - The "Pocket Print"

This is possibly the most popular configuration, as it is classy and not too overwhelming, but still in a prominent location. If your image is square or round, we recommend sticking within the 80 x 80mm dimensions, but that is up to you! We wouldn't recommend printing any more than 100 x 100mm. We have other recommendations that we may make, depending on the shape of the image itself.

Important to note that most people go with the left breast location - but we can print on the right hand breast location just as easily.

Print 4 - The Chest Print

Stock standard chest prints are super effective and directs peoples eyes straight to your brand. A classic print position. Most effective within 300mm width.

Print 5 - A3 Back print

Similar to Print 1, this is an A3 print on the back of the garment. Very rare that clients screen print a large back print, without an accompanying front print. The most common combo being a front left breast print or "pocket" print, with a second A3 back print. This is based on 300mm x 420mm maximum dimensions.

Print 6 - Oversized Back Print

Exactly the same as the front variation mentioned back at Print 2. It's the oversized version for those that want a bigger bolder result. Surcharges apply for oversize prints.

Print 7 - Centered Logo Back Print

The most common combo is a front left breast "pocket" print, with the logo then also printed on the center of the upper back. Standard maximum print is 300mm wide.

Print 8 - Lower Back Print

The lower back print is the perfect location for a website or a slogan. These are by far the most common uses for this screen print location. Sometimes people combine it with an upper back print as well. In this case, each location would be printed in seperate print runs, so they are considered seperate prints and charged accordingly.

Print 9 - Logo sleeve prints

You may want to print a logo on the left or right sleeve - or both! We can print in these locations, the standard maximum print being 100 x 100mm.

Print 10 - Specialty locations

We can print outside of the usual standard locations, such as extreme corners as displayed in the diagram. However, these are more time consuming for our printers, as it takes longer to measure out and place the garments in the correct spot on the print boards. With this in mind, surcharges apply to specialty print locations.

Please note, we do not recommend ever printing over seams. Ink can bunch and thicken on seams and prints become messy and crack.

Print 11 - Hoodie Printing

Pullovers hoods in particular are very popular. We can print basically in all location as tshirts with one main difference - The front print.

Because of the seam from the Kangaroo pocket pouch on the front, we can print a maximum of 300mm wide as per normal, but only 300mm tall as a safeguard so the print doesn't overlap the pocket seam.

Otherwise, all other print rules apply.

Print 12 - Longsleeves

Longsleeves! We can print a larger longer image down a sleeve (or both) with a standard maximum of 420mm long x 100mm wide as a max. Different brands of garments may differ slightly, but that is the general rule.

This applies to longsleeve tee printing, as well as hoodies and jumpers.

Print 13 - Pants

We cannot print anywhere where two or more layers of fabric overlap, as that means the fabric can move as the print is applied, resulting in a smeared print.

We can print long prints down either leg at a max of 420mm in length, or up to 100 x 100mm prints on location of your choice.

But not over the pockets!

Print 14 - Shorts

Similarly to the pants, we can't print over pockets or multiple layers of fabric. See the chart for the two most popular examples of layout - each applies to either leg.

Print 15 - Slim items

Items like singlets don't have the physical chest space for a standard 300mm wide print. In these case we recommend a maximum of 270mm wide x 420mm tall.

Print 16 - Kids Clothing

The same locations as above apply to all kids clothing - however the maximum print dimensions simply reduce, as the items are printed on a smaller kids board, and because they just don't have the physical fabric size available to use the same size prints as the adult items do.

Click here for a quote on Screen Printing, Digital DTG Printing, or Transfer printing.

Click here for more Screen Printing information.

Click here for Blank Garment Pricing examples.