Understanding the Value of Printing in a Digital World

Family vacation t-shirts are great for two purposes. They make excellent souvenirs, but more importantly, they can help your family stay together in a crowd. On trips to theme parks and other populated areas, your t-shirts will help the adults in your group keep track of small children. Your t-shirts can also help members of the family keep sight of each other without holding hands. To get the most out of your family vacation t-shirts, follow these tips for making the t-shirts fun, attractive and useful. 

Clear, Readable Font

There are literally hundreds of fonts that you can use on your t-shirts, but not all fonts can be easily read from a distance or while scrunched up on fabric. The best fonts for t-shirt screen printing are those that are bold, simple and clear. For example, san-serif fonts like Arial and Helvetica have fewer lines and line width variations and are commonly used for headlines due to their readability. 

If choosing between bold and not bold text, use the bolded text for the "headline" portion of your t-shirt (example: "Jones Family Vacation") and the non-bolded text for the less significant information, like family quotes or the year that the vacation is taking place. 

Bright, High Contrast Colors

Use bright, high contrast colors that will easily jump out in a crowd. Kelly green, fire engine red, sunflower yellow and sky blue are all good suggestions because they're bold and vibrant. Neutrals like brown, gray, black and white are less optimal because they'll blend in more easily with the surroundings and clothing of the people around the group.

Once you've chosen a t-shirt color, you'll need to select a font color to go with it. High contrast color combinations like black text on a yellow background will be easy to read. The boldest color combinations will contrast in hue (which refers to the color) as well as value (the lightness or darkness of a color). In other words, a light green t-shirt will contrast best with dark red text, and a light yellow t-shirt will contrast well with dark purple text, and so on. 

Simple Text

Keep the words on the t-shirt to a minimum to maximize readability. Cut out little words like "and" and "the" whenever possible. For example, you can easily turn "The Jones Family Vacation of 2015" into "Jones Family Vacation 2015" without changing the message at all. The fewer words you put on your t-shirts, the better. 

Designing effective screen printed t-shirts is an art. For more tips and advice, speak with a customer service representative at the print shop when you place your order. For more information, contact a business such as The Edge Screen Studio.