How To Design T Shirt Using Photoshop

If you've ever worked in or around the T-shirt printing business, then you'd know that digital mockups or templates are very prominent in this industry. Simply put, they're the easiest way to visualise your design. Luckily for us, they can be found online after a quick Google search.

There are many different kinds of templates out there, some of them are pricey, others are free and then there are some that require you to take a particular action (like giving an email address) before you can download them — but most of them are free.

In this post, we'll teach you how to work with them in Photoshop. We'll use one in particular but most of them work in a similar fashion.

Here are the basic steps you can take to create your very first T-shirt template.

Step 1: Download the Template

Your first step will be to download the actual template. For this example, we used Graphic Burger's template which you can find in our '100 T-shirt templates for download' blog post. In this case, they don't ask for anything in exchange for the file but you may give them a 'like' to show your appreciation. After all, it is a nice mockup and they're offering it entirely for free.

t-shirt template, t-shirt mockup, screenshot

t-shirt template, t-shirt mockup, download

Step 2: Open the File

Once you've downloaded the file, it's time to open it on Photoshop*. The file may be by itself but more often than not, it comes as a zipped file. What you find inside changes depending on the type of mockup. In this case, Graphic Burger included four different PSD files (front, back and displacement map back and front) and a PDF with instructions on how to use their template.

* We're using Photoshop CS6 in these screenshots.

t-shirt template, download, files, t-shirt mockup

T-shirt template, t-shirt mockup, screenshot, folders

Step 3: Replace the 'Smart Object'

Once the mockup is open on Photoshop, you'll find the design in the middle and the layers to the right. Double click on the smart layer to open a new tab with the artwork (Graphic Burger has made it super easy by naming it 'your design here').

t-shirt template, t-shirt mockup, photoshop, how to

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Step 4: Replace the Artwork

In the new artwork tab, simply replace the default graphic with yours. The way it worked for me was to delete the original layer and to replace it with a new one with the Printsome logo. Don't forget to save the file so you can see the changes on the mockup.

Step 5: Save and Export

If everything went well, then you should have your artwork on the template. If you're satisfied with the result, then you may save it as the type of file you need (JPEG, PNG, GIF, etc). If you're not okay with it then you can repeat steps three and four to change the size and placing of the artwork.

t-shirt template, t-shirt mockup, photoshop, screenshot

Step 6: Change the Colour (Optional)

This mockup allows you to change the colour of the T-shirt very easily. Just head over to the 'Change T-shirt Colour Here' layer (thanks, Graphic Burger again) and click on the camera icon. Click on the colour option and the usual Photoshop palette should open. Just click 'OK' or 'Cancel' when you're done. Just make sure the layer is visible so you can see the changes afterwards.

And ta-dah! You're done.

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