Whether you’re a graphic designer looking to expand your portfolio or someone just trying to get their foot in the door, there are a lot of opportunities for people who can create great designs for t-shirts.
T-shirt design is a growing field, and there are plenty of people out there who want to purchase creative, high-quality designs for their products. As an added bonus, if you’ve got some experience in this area, you might be able to use it as a way to make some extra money on the side.
So what do you need? How do you get started? Let’s take a look at some of the best apps and tools for t-shirt design!
Best Apps For T Shirt Design
Good t-shirt design apps make clothes look original with the help of interesting designs. These mobile apps have plenty of tools such as brushes, fonts, templates, libraries of images, and a variety of other editing instruments. That’s why they’re suitable for both beginning designers and professionals.
You can perceive these applications as handy tools for editing your photos and using them for producing unique T-shirts and other outfits.
Top 11 T-Shirt Design Apps for iOS and Android
Snaptee iOS | Android – – Image scanner option
Autodesk Sketchbook iOS | Android – Convenient interface
oShirt iOS | Android – Text editor
Yayprint iOS | Android – Quick print option
Mostink Android – Many product categories
Adobe Illustrator Draw iOS | Android – Vector graphics support
Adobe Photoshop iOS | Android – Access to Adobe Fonts
Canva iOS | Android – Simple for beginners
XGimp iOS | Android – Large set of tools
Inkscape – Fast photo rendering
GraffixPro Studio – Easy personalization
This list presents great apps for T-shirt design. Among them, you will find applications for iPhone, Android, MS Windows, macOS, and Linux. Using these tools, you can create your own professional clothing design fast and without much effort.
- Snaptee — Our Choice
Image scanner option
A wide range of tools
Great performance
Syncs with Instagram
Simple interface
Not found
snaptee t-shirt design app logo
Snaptee
Android | iOS
Verdict: Snaptee is a wonderful T-shirt making app as it provides almost everything you need to create trendy designs. Users can make unique T-shirt designs from their own photos or use original works of art.
With this tool, you can share your works with many people or print them out. Sync Instagram photos or albums, apply your own filter, choose the font you like most, and change the color. Using the Publish function, you can send the results to your friends.
snaptee t-shirt design app interface
- Autodesk Sketchbook
Convenient interface
Exchange photos via messengers
Supports Apple Pencil
Quick access to tools
A lot of brushes and colors
Lags
Some features are available only in the Pro-version
autodesk sketchbook t-shirt design app logo
Autodesk Sketchbook
Android | iOS
Verdict: This is a free, limitless, template-free approach to T-shirt design. It’s one of the best drawing apps and offers many creative options like sharing photos via social media.
Autodesk provides users with various tools and settings, including a constrained grid function and a ruler for drawing curves. The editor supports the new Apple Pencil (2nd generation) for iOS with a double-tap feature.
This T-shirt design maker allows you to use different tools such as pencils, ink, markers, and more than 190 adjustable brushes. Thus, you can create customized combinations of shapes and textures.
autodesk sketchbook t-shirt design app interface
- oShirt
Text editor
Order tracking
User-friendly interface
High-quality printing
Tips for users
Few layouts
oshirt t-shirt design app logo
oShirt
Android | iOS
Verdict: It’s the best T-shirt design app if you want to get different templates for creating T-shirts, hoodies, etc. Also, it offers tips to help new users navigate the interface.
This app allows you to add text with different fonts, styles, and colors. Besides, you can add your own photos or select a free stock picture from Unsplash and turn it into a custom shirt design.
In addition to regular shirts, the application helps users design organic clothing too. You are sure to appreciate a convenient text editing feature on the toolbar, and the product selector with plenty of details and options.
oshirt t-shirt design app interface
- Yayprint
Quick print option
Photo uploading
Customizable templates
A large collection of styles
User-friendly
May work slowly
yayprint t-shirt design app logo
Yayprint
Android | iOS
Verdict: This is a convenient application that allows you to create interesting T-shirts, hoodies, hats, bags, phone cases, etc. There are many customization features for text, shapes, images, colors, and patterns so you can design your clothes comfortably.
This shirt making app also has nice filters, a photo upload function, and other tools, which can help you achieve the necessary result. Here you can also find a huge collection of ready-made designs in the gallery to get inspired by.
The functionality is absolutely intuitive. When the design is finished, you can use a printer and the app will print any type of clothing.
yayprint t-shirt design app interface
- Mostink
Many product categories
A large library of patterns
Customizable templates
User-friendly interface
Nice color palette
Not stable performance
mostink t-shirt design app logo
Mostink
Android
Verdict: It is the best T-shirt design app if you need something universal to create different types of clothing, phone cases, photo books, things for the house (like cups and plates), etc.
It’s simple to navigate and has a user-friendly interface with customizable templates. Decorate items with various fonts, patterns, stickers, and colors for better results. You can also add a photo to transform your image into your future design.
mostink t-shirt design app interface
- Adobe Illustrator Draw
Vector graphics support
Many tools
Search in Adobe Stock
Wide scaling
Synchronization with the cloud
Difficult to master
adobe illustrator draw t-shirt design app logo
Adobe Illustrator Draw
Android | iOS
Verdict: This is one of the most popular design apps, which can also be used for creating T-shirts. There are many features such as fonts, sizes, shapes, and effects. Using the built-in Adobe Stock service, designers can find free, high-resolution licensed images.
It’s the best T-shirt design app for work with shapes and layers. It offers broad opportunities for manipulating vector images and shapes. You can easily resize the shape in the template without losing quality.
The tools have been thoroughly improved and optimized for Apple Pencil or touch control. The editor can automatically save files to the cloud, so users can work with their projects anywhere.
adobe illustrator draw t-shirt design app interface
- Adobe Photoshop
Access to Adobe Fonts
Raster and vector photo editor
Convenient interface
Automated processes
Photo transformation and layers support
Suitable for professionals
A free version lasts several days
adobe photoshop t-shirt design app logo
Adobe Photoshop
Android | iOS
Verdict: Adobe Photoshop is another robust shirt making app known in the whole world for its amazing capabilities. It’s the most popular photo editing software for PC, which allows you to easily edit color, contrast, lighting, color balance, eliminate unnecessary objects, apply filters, etc.
You can draw sketches on Android or iPad, select colors, special effects, adjust brushes, and work with details. You can also connect a graphics tablet if you want. Free access to a database of millions of licensed Adobe Fonts will help you style the lettering on your T-shirt.
Automatization of such processes as highlighting complex shapes, removing objects, retouching photos, and color correction will help you realize your ideas faster and easier.
ALTTT
- Canva
Simple for beginners
Convenient font editing tools
Color palette generator
Extensive template library
Learning materials
Rare updates
Many features are available only in the Premium version
canva t-shirt design app logo
Canva
Android | iOS
Verdict: Canva is one of the best online slideshow makers and is very useful when it comes to T-shirt design. It provides lots of features, including a photo editor, color palette generator, logo maker, etc.
Create a pattern with a blank canvas or save time using any of 60 000 free templates made by professionals. You can add quotes or inscriptions on your shirts.
Choose a suitable font from 700 options in the database. The size, color, spacing, and placing of the font can be easily adjusted using the offered tools.
canva t-shirt design app interface
- XGimp
Large set of tools
Drawing in full-screen mode
Supports alpha channel
Has custom brushes
Boasts RGB editor
Steep learning curve
Inconvenient interface
xgimp t-shirt design app logo
XGimp
Android | iOS
Verdict: This open-source graphics editing software has proven to be a wonderful tool for serious design work.
It’s can be considered simple T-shirt maker app, an image editor, a top-quality photo retouching program, and a picture visualizer.
It has a powerful gradient editor and layer overlay tool to help you personalize your shirt. Full alpha channel support and editable text layers expand its functionality.
It will help you sample subpixels for all painting tools for top-quality smoothing. There is a set of drawing instruments including a brush, pencil, airbrush, and cloning.
xgimp t-shirt design app interface
- Inkscape
Fast photo rendering
Simple interface
Supports multiple languages
Custom add-ons
A large collection of tools
No tutorials
inkscape t-shirt design app logo
Inkscape
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Verdict: Inkscape is a professional vector graphics program for Windows, macOS X, and Linux. It is widely used by amateurs and professionals around the world to create illustrations, icons, logos, and T-shirt layouts. It’s one of the best free vector graphics software as it has an extensive collection of tools, a simple interface, multi-language interface, and the possibility to expand the functionality using custom add-ons.
The Pencil tool is also helpful as it lets you draw freehand with simple paths, and the Pen tool makes Bézier curves and straight lines. Besides, with the Calligraphy tool, you can draw using filled paths, which will be especially useful when decorating sleeves.
how to design t shirts app
Are you all pumped up to create your own line of originally-designed, printed t-shirts but don’t know where to start? Then you’ll be amazed to know that you could be holding the answer in your hands right now. Your tablet or smartphone could be the key to your t-shirt printing success, thanks to some wonderful new apps that are made just to inspire and support creative, t-shirt designing minds like yours.
So before you whip out those textile inks and ready your printing screens, why not check out some nifty new apps first? There are plenty of them out there that can definitely get your artistic beans brewing, and we’ve listed five of our favourites that we think you’ll love as well:
- Snaptee
Snaptee is the ultimate t-shirt designers’ app as it gives anyone, from budding to pro t-shirt designers practically everything they need to create one-of-a-kind, modern designs for t-shirts. Using the app’s numerous features, users can fashion totally unique t-shirt designs out of their own photos or original artworks. Users can also share their designs to the public, or have them printed and sold in a snap. Both iOS and Android users can avail of this instant tee-designing and producing app.
- Adobe Photoshop touch
If you want a freer, no boundaries, no templates approach to designing tees, Adobe Photoshop Touch is your best bet. It is considered by many artists as one of the best image apps available today. While it may not be as chock-full of tools as the complete Photoshop package, this app still packs a punch with plenty of creative options, including photo sharing through social networks. This app is available for both iOS and Android users.
- Autodesk Sketchbook Pro
If you’re dedicated to the raw, artistic experience of old school, manual creation of original t-shirt designs, then you’ll need a reliable sketch and drawing app like Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. It’s got an array of impressive sketching and drawing tools, including various types of freehand styles, canvas options, and a customisable colour palette. This app is available for iOS devices only.
- Fotopedia Heritage
This isn’t the first app that comes to mind when designing for t-shirts, but it is definitely one of the most inspirational. Fotopedia Heritage is one of Apple’s 50 best apps of all time, and for good reason. Created in cooperation with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, it features some 30,000 exceptional images of magnificent heritage sites from around the world. You’ll see natural wonders, exotic destinations, awe-inspiring monuments and basically, a very enriching snapshot of the world. In times when you desperately need artistic inspiration, this app could be your saving grace. This app is available for iPads and iPhones.
- Art Authority for iPad
Still haven’t gotten your fix of artistic inspiration? Art Authority for iPad is another app you can look up to get inspired. It features thousands upon thousands of the greatest artworks from the early periods up to the present. Navigating through the app is like walking through a real-life museum filled with the works of the most renowned names in Art and Art history. If you’re stuck in a design bind, having this app on your iPad can definitely help.
Once you’re all set to bring your unique t-shirt designs to life, don’t forget to use the Permaset line of water based inks. Permaset textile printing ink is not only high quality and easy to apply, it’s also an eco-friendly ink, which means you’re shirts will not only look good, you’ll feel good knowing you’re helping to save the earth.
Get started on your t-shirt designing and printing business the right way by getting the right tools to help and inspire you, and of course, the right kind of ink from Colormaker Industries.
Conclusion
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