ONE SIZE DOESN’T ALWAYS FIT ALL!

Matt Tenbush on October 28, 2026

ONE SIZE DOESN’T ALWAYS FIT ALL!

“If I order an XL, will the print be bigger than it is on a small?”

It’s a great question. And one we hear all the time.

After all, when you print something on your home computer, you can make it bigger, make it smaller, hit print, and you’re off to the races.

So why can’t we do the same thing with T-shirts?

Well, we can. But there’s a little more to it than clicking the resize button.

And since we’re big believers in showing our customers what happens behind the scenes, we thought we’d pull back the curtain on this one.

 

FIRST THINGS FIRST. SIZE MATTERS.

Here’s something that surprises a lot of people.

When we screen print your order, the design is typically the exact same size on every shirt.

Size small? Same print.

Size medium? Same print.

Size XL? You guessed it. Same print.

Let’s say we print your company logo 10 inches wide. That logo will be 10 inches wide whether it’s going on a small or a 2XL.

Now, will it look the same?

Not exactly.

On a small shirt, that 10-inch logo might look pretty big. On a 2XL, it’ll have a little more breathing room.

It’s kind of like hanging the same picture on two different walls. The picture hasn’t changed, but the space around it has.

 

screen printing size guide

 

IT ALL STARTS WITH A STENCIL.

Here’s where a little screen printing magic comes into play.

Unlike your printer at home, our presses don’t just spray an image onto a shirt.

Traditional screen printing uses a series of specially prepared screens to apply ink to the fabric.

Think of each screen as a giant, incredibly detailed stencil.

And making those stencils is a pretty interesting process.

First, our art department separates your design into individual ink colors. If your design has five colors, we’ll generally need five screens. Sometimes more, depending on the artwork and shirt color.

Next, we coat each screen with a light-sensitive material called emulsion.

Once it’s dry, we expose the screen to light using your artwork to block certain areas.

Around the shop, we call this burning a screen.

Don’t worry. No actual fire involved.

The light hardens the exposed emulsion, and when we wash the screen, the areas protected by the artwork rinse away.

What’s left is a stencil of your design.

From there, our production team puts those screens on the press, lines everything up, and gets ready to print.

And when we say lines everything up, we mean it. Every color has to land in exactly the right spot to create the finished design.

That’s called registration, and it’s one of those things our printers make look a whole lot easier than it actually is.

Here’s the important part: Once we’ve made that screen, the print size is set.

Want the same design bigger?

We have to make another screen.

Want it smaller?

You guessed it. Another screen.

 

FIVE COLORS. FOUR SIZES. TWENTY SCREENS. OH MY!

Let’s say you’re ordering shirts for your company.

You’ve got a great five-color design, and you need smalls, mediums, larges, and XLs.

If we print that design at the same size on every shirt, we prepare five screens, set up the press once, and we’re ready to roll.

But what if you want the design to get a little bigger with every shirt size?

Well, now we’re making a separate set of five screens for each size.

That’s 20 screens instead of five!

And it’s not just the screens. Each print size requires its own press setup, alignment, and production run.

Suddenly, what seemed like a simple adjustment has turned into quite a bit of extra work.

And as you might imagine, extra screens, setups, and press time mean extra costs.

Now, we’re not saying it can’t be done. We do it all the time when a project calls for it.

We’re just saying there’s a reason most screen-printed orders use one print size across multiple shirt sizes.

It’s efficient, consistent, and helps keep your costs down without sacrificing quality.

 

SO, HOW BIG SHOULD WE MAKE IT?

This is where experience comes in.

There’s no magic formula that says a design has to be a certain size just because it’s going on a large T-shirt.

We look at the artwork, the shirt style, where the design is going, and most importantly, the range of sizes in your order.

For example, if your order includes adult smalls through 3XLs, we can usually find a print size that looks great across the entire group.

But what if you’re ordering shirts for a family reunion and need everything from a youth extra small to an adult 4XL?

Now we’ve got a little more to think about.

A design that looks fantastic on Grandpa’s 3XL might practically wrap around the sides of a six-year-old’s shirt.

In those situations, we may recommend two print sizes: one for youth and one for adults.

Yes, it means additional setup costs, but sometimes it’s absolutely worth it to get the look you’re after.

Our job is to help you understand those options before we start printing.

 

screen printing size guide

 

ONE GREAT PRINT FOR THE WHOLE CREW.

One of the things we love about screen printing is how consistent the finished product can be.

Once everything is dialed in, we can produce hundreds or even thousands of shirts with the same great design, color, and placement.

And whether those shirts are going to your employees, your customers, your softball team, or your entire extended family, we want everyone to be proud to wear them.

That’s why we spend time getting the artwork and print dimensions right before the first shirt ever hits the press.

A little planning on the front end makes a big difference on the back end.

 

HOW MUCH ROOM DO WE HAVE TO WORK WITH?

Glad you asked!

While every garment is a little different, here are some general print dimensions we use as a starting point when planning artwork.

PRINT LOCATION

TYPICAL PRINT AREA

Adult Full Front

12″ × 16″

Adult Full Back

12″ × 16″

Youth Full Front

10″ × 12″

Youth Full Back

10″ × 12″

Left Chest

4″ × 4″

Short Sleeve

3″ × 3″

Back Tag / Below Collar

3″ × 3″

Custom Inside Neck

3″ × 3″

Long Sleeve Down the Arm

3″ × 11″

Now, before you grab a ruler and start measuring every shirt in your closet, remember these are general guidelines, not hard-and-fast rules.

Different brands, styles, and sizes can have very different printable areas.

And just because we can print something 12 inches wide doesn’t necessarily mean we should.

Sometimes a smaller, well-placed design looks a whole lot better than one that’s trying to take over the entire shirt.

 

HERE’S A LITTLE TRICK WE LOVE.

Not sure how big you want your design?

Grab a piece of paper, cut it to the approximate dimensions of your artwork, and hold it up against a shirt.

Seriously. It’s that simple.

A 10-inch-wide print might sound huge until you actually see it on a shirt. Or maybe it’ll be bigger than you expected.

Either way, it’s a lot easier to make that decision with a piece of paper than after we’ve printed 500 shirts.

 

THE RIGHT SIZE. THE RIGHT LOOK. NO SURPRISES.

At the end of the day, there’s a lot more to a great screen print than just putting ink on fabric.

There’s artwork preparation, screen making, press setup, color matching, placement, and a whole lot of experience that goes into getting it right.

And while you certainly don’t need to know all the ins and outs of screen printing to order a great shirt, we think it’s helpful to understand a little about how the process works.

Because when you understand the why, it’s a whole lot easier to make the right decisions for your project.

That’s what we’re here for.

So whether you’re ordering 36 shirts for your company or 3,600 for your next big event, send us your artwork, your shirt sizes, and what you’ve got in mind.

We’ll help you figure out what works best, what looks best, and how to get the most bang for your buck.

After all, we’ve been doing this since 1975.

We’ve seen a lot of shirt sizes come and go. And trust us, some of those ’80s crop tops didn’t leave much room for printing!

 

LET’S MAKE SOMETHING GREAT!

Have a design in mind? Send it our way and let’s talk about the size, placement, and printing options for your next order.

 

Austin Screen Printing & Embroidery
The Austin Original. Since 1975.