Print preparation

A print file is not a screen image. It has an exact pixel size, a physical size it implies, a color space the printer can reproduce, and rules about transparency that differ per printing technique. Get these wrong and the order is rejected after payment, which is the worst moment to find out.

Pressline derives a Printfile Spec per product and placement from the provider’s own catalog, hands it to your Engine, and validates what comes back before any payment is taken. These two pages explain what that Spec contains and where its numbers come from.

• Files, DPI, color, transparency — format per technique, the exact pixel size and where it comes from, sRGB and why not to embed other profiles, what each transparency rule means, and bleed.
• Print areas and product limits — how a product’s placements become Specs, and which combinations are too large to render inside a Worker’s memory budget.

The short version: for direct-to-garment printing, send a PNG at exactly the Spec’s pixel size, sRGB at 8 bits per channel, with transparency where you want the garment to show through.