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Screenprinted Fabric Bag Artwork Setup Guide

Is the idea of a plain fabric bag not doing it for you? Add some screenprinted artwork or text! Below we have broken down the current restrictions/requirements for screenprinting on our fabric bags, as well as what we need from you for print-ready artwork.

Manufacturing Restrictions and Requirements

  1. Your order must be 1000 units to add screenprinting to a fabric bag.
  2. In general, sans serif text and/or bold text should be no smaller than 5-6 pt. Anything with serifs and/or thin lines should be a minimum of 8 pt. Often this will need to be determined on a case-by-case basis. If you have concerns, please send along the artwork and we can check with the vendor.
  3. The maximum printable area for artwork is a 23.62” square. This will generally not be a concern unless you have chosen to outsource an oversized bag for your project.
  4. Artwork is recommended to be in vector-format (AI/EPS/SVG/PDF) with applicable spot color/colors applied. PLEASE NOTE: Due to fabric color and the amount of ink color that absorbs into the fabric, spot colors may NOT appear exactly as shown in the Pantone Color Book.

    Raster-based file formats (TIF/PNG/JPG) will be accepted as long as the individual designs are divided among the applicable PMS colors in black and white – similar to what we do for Spot UV!

    In any case, you will need to make sure your Account Manager knows what Spot Colors should be applied.
  5. Multiple spot colors are possible!
  6. Artwork must be at least 0.25″ inside the edges of the bag.
  7. Text and line artwork needs to be at least 0.5 mm thick.
  8. 2 mm spacing between lines/strokes is recommended.

Illustrator File Setup

Follow the below instructions when setting up your artwork in Illustrator.

Artboard Count = 1

Document Width = fabric bag width

Document Height = fabric bag height

Bleed = n/a

Keep all crucial text and artwork at least 0.25″ inside the edges of the document on all four sides.

REMEMBER! Spot Color is recommended for the artwork. That being said, the most updated versions of Adobe Illustrator no longer include Pantone Color Books. You will need to work with a 2023 version of Illustrator or earlier to easily access Pantone Color Swatches. You can download v27 of Adobe Illustrator in your Creative Cloud account. There is a great walkthrough of how to do this here if needed. You can also find the Spot Color setup guide here if needed. 

Submitting Your Artwork

You will need to submit one vector-based file with Spot Color(s) applied 

or

You will need to submit one raster-based file for each color in the design represented in black and white format. For example: PANTONE Medium Blue U = PDF pg 1, PANTONE Strong Red U = PDF pg 2, etc.

File Export Settings

Adobe Illustrator –  Follow the “Export Settings” as highlighted on this page.

Can I See Example Artwork?

Of course! You can reference this Illustrator file as an example template for screenprinted artwork for a 3” x 4” fabric bag with two Spot Colors applied.

You can reference this PDF file as an example template of the same screenprinted artwork in the Illustrator file above in black and white format.