Notes from the pre-press floor
Technique, pricing math, and workflow notes for shops that print their own transfers. Written for the people who actually run the presses.
Gang Sheet Gap and Margin Settings: What Actually Matters for DTF
Choose DTF gang-sheet gap and edge margin from the cutting, registration, and handling work that follows printing—not from an unsourced universal setting.
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Transparent PNG for DTF from Canva: export and alpha cleanup
How to export a transparent PNG from Canva without inventing controls, inspect low-alpha residue and hidden RGB, and preflight the artwork before building a DTF gang sheet.
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DTF spot channels explained: white, varnish, names, and RIP handoff
A technical guide to colour, alpha, white and varnish planes; TIFF and PSD/PSB representation; channel naming; polarity; and what to verify in the target RIP.
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Gang sheet builder vs nesting software vs RIP: who does what?
A workflow map for separating storefront intake, artwork cleanup, gang-sheet nesting, spot-channel prepress, RIP colour and ink control, and printer operation.
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Best DTF prepress software 2026: an honest roundup (including the free tools)
Six DTF tools compared on artwork cleanup, white and spot-channel handling, packing, RIP handoff, form factor, and source-dated price—with NestSheet’s bias and limits stated.
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DTF gang sheet size chart: how many designs fit
Standard DTF gang sheet and roll sizes, plus calculated how-many-fit tables for the common design sizes — with the gap and margin assumptions stated and the formula shown, so you can compute your own numbers instead of trusting folk answers.
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DTF RIP comparison 2026: AcroRIP vs CADlink vs Kothari vs Flexi vs RasterLink vs Caldera
The six RIPs DTF shops actually run, compared honestly: how each is sold, what it costs with sources and dates, what each is genuinely good at — and where gang sheet layout does and does not belong in the RIP.
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What is a DTF gang sheet? Definition, sizes, examples
A plain-language answer to the most-asked question in DTF printing: what a gang sheet is, why shops build them, what the parts of one are called — and who actually builds the sheet, the customer or the operator.
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DTF file requirements: resolution, transparency, colour, and export
A practical artwork-intake specification for DTF shops: containers, effective PPI, clean alpha, colour-space handling, spot-channel boundaries, and a repeatable preflight checklist.
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How to make a DTF gang sheet: Photoshop, manual layout, or auto-nesting
A production-first guide to sizing artwork, building a DTF gang sheet manually, exporting it without accidental scaling, and deciding when auto-nesting should do the layout math.
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Reading your RIP's white channel preview — grey map
Every DTF RIP shows a preview of the white under-base as a greyscale thumbnail before you send the job. Most operators glance at it and click Print. Here is how to read that preview like a pre-press engineer — and what a bad white preview looks like before it becomes a bad print.
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TIFF vs PNG for DTF gang sheets — when to use what
Send TIFF when the file has to carry a separate white or spot channel and an embedded CMYK-side ICC profile; PNG with clean alpha is fine when your RIP generates its own white from transparency. That is the whole rule — the rest of this post is the reasoning and the edge cases.
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White halo on DTF prints: diagnose alpha, choke, or registration first
A white outline is not one defect. Use its shape to separate low-alpha debris, underbase geometry, intentional soft artwork, and directional colour-to-white registration before changing choke.
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Orders that split across sheets — avoid wasted film
Big custom orders sooner or later hit a hard sheet-size limit — the printer's roll width, the customer's A-frame press, the shipping box. Splitting the order across several sheets is easy. Splitting it without paying for half-empty film is a decision you make on purpose. Here is the manual playbook.
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ICC profiles for DTF — RIP default vs yours
Stay on your RIP's default ICC profile if you print mostly logos and text on the vendor's recommended film — it is genuinely fine. Calibrate your own the day you switch film brands, chase a customer's brand colour, or charge a premium for colour fidelity. Here is how to tell which shop you are.
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How tight is your gang sheet? A quick self-audit
Utilisation — productive area divided by total sheet area — is the number that decides how much of your film budget buys blank film. Most shops have never measured theirs. Five minutes and a ruler get you the number; this post shows how, and what to do with it.
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UV-DTF gift market — gang sheet sizing that fits
Mugs, tumblers, phone cases, acrylic keychains, glass lanterns, slate coasters. The UV-DTF gift market is dominated by about ten substrate shapes and none of them fit a 60×100 cm sheet the way a t-shirt front does. Here is a practical sizing cheat-sheet.
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DTF Roll Widths from 30 to 180 cm: Choosing and Switching
Compare nominal and usable DTF roll widths from 30 to 180 cm, test the same order mix across widths, expose downstream constraints, and switch without inventing a throughput promise.
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Pricing DTF per m²: math, traps, markup
Most DTF shops bill per square metre. Most DTF shops lose money on small orders and over-charge on large ones. The reason is the formula, not the rates. Here is a pricing model that stays honest across order sizes.
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Photoshop to NestSheet: a 1-week migration plan
Every DTF shop that scales past three sheets a day eventually hits the Photoshop wall. The manual arrangement step stops scaling and starts eating operator time that should be going to production. This is the seven-day migration plan I wish I had when my own shop crossed that line.
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