# The best sample image for testing DTG machines?



## hisyam (Jun 15, 2014)

I wanna go hunting for a DTG machine but I don't have my own sample file image for testing. Does anyone have one? Or does anyone know what kind of ideal sample image for testing DTG? Maybe a mix of gradients and solid colors? Photoshop or Illustrator?


Thanks.


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## OmniPaul (Jun 11, 2014)

You will want something that is 300dpi and in a tiff or png format. I would recommend Great Dane Graphics for a good image. If it is for a black shirt you will want a transparent background. A good test on white shirts is an AGFA image, you can find them on line and just make sure they are high resolution.


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## lazographics (Mar 5, 2009)

In my opinion go with a photograph that has a lot of color and detail. Detail is the key. Make sure its at least 2000x2000 in pixel dimension at 300dpi. You can find great photos at shutterstock or istock.


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## spiderx1 (Oct 12, 2009)

All good suggestions however if you can find one with smokes, flames and gradients this is where many DTG printers fail, it is not always the printer but the RIP plays a big roll in it.


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## OmniPaul (Jun 11, 2014)

Smoke and flames are great, that is very true. so rips just cant see the transparent edge very well. And if you supply the image with a black background the work load is harder on the rips ability. If the rip does a good job of knocking out black ink you should see a good wispy edge, like this image for example.


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

My opinion is contrarian on this issue always:

Don't do anything with *only* photographs or smokes or gradients.

Most of my customers send me artwork that is more like screen print artwork than DTG artwork. It's solids. Bright solids.

Want to find the best DTG printer? Get some thick solids in the artwork. Bright greens, navy blues, solid reds. See how it handles big solids.


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## tasi03 (Aug 26, 2014)

OmniPaul said:


> Smoke and flames are great, that is very true. so rips just cant see the transparent edge very well. And if you supply the image with a black background the work load is harder on the rips ability. If the rip does a good job of knocking out black ink you should see a good wispy edge, like this image for example.


The brother GT-381 has the RIP software already installed, but I'm being told there are a few steps taken to prepare the document so that the effects come out exactly as show on the file. Any idea what steps need to be taken?


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## OmniPaul (Jun 11, 2014)

This is all very true, a think having a combo of all is best, maybe have 2 images, detail and soft edges and a bold logo type print. it is a very good point because bold solid color can sometimes be hard with some machines, sounds funny but true.


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

Yep, I remember when we first received out first DTG printer. We printed skulls and fire and explosions and bikini models and were just blown away.

Then our first customers walked in. "Mike's Landscaping" and "John's Pizza and Pasta".

Their logos looked terrible with our first DTG printer. No explosions, no skulls, no women in bikinis. Just solid bright text and a solid color logo icon. Took weeks to tweak it, and then every new solid color we had to print for new logos had to be re-tweaked.


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## nickster (Sep 7, 2014)

Definitely a smokes and flames image would do the trick


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## cavedave (Dec 5, 2006)

There is no single image, to really test a product you need to run several different types of test images.

A list if things I would suggest you look for

Smoke and flames for fading into black shirts
Solid colors black and white shirts (logos and color matching, Pantone / CMYK colors)
A trapping and alignment issues test page (I use circles for this)
A bi directional alignment test page, made up of spot colors, small details (printed on black / Color shirt and a version for White shirts).
A greyscale and shadow detail test page, printed on Black, Color and white shirt so you can check for grey balance and how well details in shadow areas are kept (especially on black shirts)
test different format (PNG, TIF, PSD, Jpeg) RGB and CMYK with and without transparency where applicable.

A great number of these we have built into our software as test pages, you can download the demo version and you will find these in the install folder in rip/system/targets.
The bmp are the screen previews, so use the jpeg versions, some are EPS so cant promise they would work with other RIPS, but you can convert them in AI.

Best regards

-David


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