How to Create a Transparent Text Design for Cafepress

The purpose of this tutorial is to explain how to create a text based t-shirt design in Photoshop 7.0 for uploading to Cafepress to sell on light and dark t-shirts. Most instructions will remain the same for later versions of Photoshop but some details may be different.

Launch the Photoshop application. Click on File in the top lefthand corner and select New from the drop down menu.

A box will open on the screen allowing you to enter the attributes you want in this new file. Since the maximum size most t-shirts can accept on Cafepress is 10 X 10 inches, we're going to enter 10 in the fields for height and width. To the right of each of those fields is a drop down menu. Make sure that those are set to inches and not pixels.

Below the fields for size is the field for dpi or resolution. Enter 300 in this box and select pixels/inch in the drop down menu. Underneath that there is drop down menu labeled mode. Cafepress only accepts files in RGB, so you want to make sure RGB Color is selected in this box.

At the bottom of the box there is a space labeled contents, select the radio button next to white. Ignore everything else and click OK.

Now you should have a big white square window on your screen. If the layers palette is not shown on the right side of the screen, click on the Window menu at the top and select layers.

Before we add any design elements we're going to set up the document so that you will easily be able to center the design on the shirt.

Click on the View menu at the top and choose Show Rulers from the drop down. Now there should be a ruler on the top and left sides of your document showing 0 - 10. Select the black arrow on the top of the toolbar on the left side of your screen. Click on the ruler on the left side of your document and hold the mouse button down. Without letting up the mouse button, drag the mouse towards the right. You will notice as the arrow leaves the ruler it will drag a vertical line across the document. This is called a guide. Position the guide on the midpoint of the ruler at the top of the document, on the 5, and then let go. Now you should have a vertical blue line exactly in the middle of your document. (Don't worry, these are design guides and they will not show up when printed.)

Now you are ready to add your text. Select the text tool from the toolbar. (It looks like a skinny I) Click once anywhere in the document and type your desired text. Notice that this automatically creates a new layer in your layers palette.

If you want to change the size, color or font of your text you will first need to highlight it. This is done by selecting the text tool, click and hold right before the first letter and then drag the mouse to highlight the whole word/phrase.

Sometimes if you do not get the cursor close enough to the first letter Photoshop will think you are creating new text and will add a new layer. I find the best way to prevent this is to first click somewhere in the middle of the word, verify the blinking cursor, and then click again before the first letter to highlight the text.

Once the text is highlighted all of the options will appear on the top. There are two drop down menus for font and text size. To the right is a colored box that determines the text color. To change the color, click on that colored box, and the color selection box will pop up. The cursor will change into an eyedropper tool and you will be able to sample the colors in the box.

At the top of the color selection box there is a small square which will show the color you have selected. You may notice that when you select some colors a small triangle appears above the square. This means that you have selected a color that is not reproducible in print. Click the triangle and it will select the closest color that is printable.

Now that you have your font, size and color selected you need to make sure the text is centered on the document. Click on Edit at the top and select free transform from the drop down menu. This places a bounding box around your text with a crosshair in the middle. Keep an eye on the crosshair and use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the text left or right. When the crosshair is directly on top of the blue vertical guide it will turn red. Now you can move the text up or down, and once it is in the desired position hit the enter key. Now your text is perfectly centered and in position.

The last thing you need to do is save the file as a transparency. That sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. On the layers palette the very bottom layer is labeled background. On the left side of the layer box there is a little icon that looks like an eye. Click the eye on the background layer and it will turn off. You will notice that your text now has a checkerboard background instead of a white background. The checkerboard indicates transparency. (Note: If your text is black or white you will need to make two separate files for the black and white shirts. Black text will not show on a black shirt and vice versa.)

All you need to do now is click on File � Save as and then in the drop down file format menu choose png. It's important to save the files as a PNG because that file format supports transparency which is required for printing on dark t-shirts at Cafepress.

That's about all there is to it. Now you know how to create transparent text designs for Cafpress.