There are two types of images we can used to direct to garment printing here at Imperial custom apparel, raster and vector.

Vector images, use mathematical calculations between two different points to create geometrical shapes. This process uses lines instead of pixels, and because of that, they can be scaled to any size. No matter how large you scale a vector image, it will not lose its quality. When you view a photo on a computer screen, it requires a fairly low PPI (Pixels Per Inch). For digital viewing, that’s fine. But when it comes to printing, both on t-shirts and paper, the higher the PPI count, the better. We request clients to submit photos at 300 PPI. If that cannot be done, no worries! 

Raster images use pixels. The more amount of pixels an image contains, the better resolution it will have, higher quality prints. Pixels have a direct effect on the scaling capabilities of an image. The more pixels an image contains, the larger it can be scaled without becoming boxy, or “pixelated.”