dtf → print-ready file
Prepare artwork for DTF transfers
* Free to use — the editor runs in your browser, and nothing is uploaded unless you start a server step: the AI tools, or upscaling a photograph (logos and flat artwork are enlarged on your device). A free account (Google, Apple or an emailed code — no card) is needed to download the finished file, and comes with credits for the server-side tools.
DTF printers want two things from your file that a flat JPG cannot give them: a genuinely transparent background, and a white underbase on its own layer. Get either wrong and the transfer prints a pale box around your design, or the colours sink into the garment.
Prep a DTF fileA white background is not a transparent one
This is the single most common rejection. A design saved on white looks fine on screen and prints a rectangle of film around itself. What a DTF workflow needs is real alpha — the checkerboard, not a white layer you can see through. Background removal here runs entirely in your browser on the free tier, cuts the subject to true transparency, and exports a PNG with the alpha intact. Nothing uploads.
The underbase is a separate layer, and it has to be choked
On anything but white film you need white ink under the colour, or semi-transparent inks sink into the fabric and go dull. That underbase belongs on its own layer so you can control it independently — and it must be choked, pulled in slightly from the colour above, or it peeks out as a white halo on every edge. The Colours tab generates a choked underbase as a real layer with the choke amount under your control, rather than leaving you to contract a selection by eye.
Resolution, and what actually matters
Aim for 300 dpi at final print size — a 12-inch print wants about 3,600 pixels across. Resampling a 900px web image in Photoshop gives you a large blurry file rather than a sharp one, because interpolation invents no detail; an AI upscaler genuinely can rebuild edges, and the Colours tab will offer one when it measures your art below print resolution. It is a rescue, not a substitute for artwork that was the right size to begin with. Export the finished artwork as PNG with transparency, or as a layered PSD if your RIP or your printer wants the underbase kept separate.
Honest limits
Automatic background removal is excellent on products, apparel mockups and clear subjects, and it struggles with fine hair against a busy background and with semi-transparent objects like glass or smoke. Those are the cases to touch up by hand with the brush before exporting, which is free and takes a minute.
Frequently asked
Does my artwork upload anywhere?
Background removal, colour separation and every export run on your own device on the free tier. Only the opt-in server features send pixels, they are labelled with a credit cost, and what they send is deleted within 24 hours.
Can I get the underbase as its own layer?
Yes — it is generated as a named layer, choked, and it exports that way in the PSD so your RIP or your printer can treat it separately.
PNG or PSD for DTF?
PNG with real transparency covers most gang-sheet workflows. Choose PSD when you want the underbase kept as its own layer for the RIP to handle.
Keep reading
Upscale artwork that is too small to printUnderbase generatorSeparate subject from backgroundRelated
Separate a design into colour layers for vinyl cuttingPrepare a sublimation design with a transparent backgroundGet artwork print-on-demand readyTurn a screenshot into an editable, layered PSDPNG to PSD with real layers, not a renamed fileExtract every object from a photo onto its own layerThey're right that a converter can't do this. We don't convert — we rebuild.The text got flattened into the image. Get it back as editable type.