Custom t-shirt with a photo: getting the print right for a group

Custom t-shirt with a photo: getting the print right for a group

A custom t-shirt with a photo comes down to three things: an image of at least 300 dots per inch at its printed size (2,480 × 3,508 pixels for an A4), a full-colour print (DTF transfer or DTG printing) and the written consent of anyone recognisable in the photo. At tknp.io, a printed run starts at 10 t-shirts.

The photo is what makes people keep a t-shirt long after the event: the face at a 50th birthday, the team photo of the season on the club's merch, the group of friends at a hen party, an association's mascot. It still has to come out sharp, at the right size, without the organiser fronting everyone's money. Here is how to prepare the file, choose the method, read the prices and organise the order.

What photo quality do you need for a t-shirt?

A photo prints sharply if it has at least 300 dots per inch at its real size on the t-shirt. So it is the image's pixel count that decides: for an A4 photo, you need 2,480 pixels wide and 3,508 high.

For an even bigger photo on the back, up to the maximum print width of about 28 cm, aim for 3,300 pixels wide. The 300 dots per inch threshold is the same as for a logo, as our article on file formats for textile printing points out. One big difference, though: a blurry logo can be redrawn, a photo cannot. Everything depends on the original.

Is a photo taken with a phone good enough?

Yes, if it is at full resolution: a 12-megapixel photo, the usual definition of phone cameras, measures 4,032 × 3,024 pixels and covers an A4 with room to spare. The trap is the copy. A photo sent through a messaging app or saved from a social network has often been shrunk along the way: ask the person who took it to send you the original file, never a screenshot.

What size should the photo be on the t-shirt?

For a photo, A4 on the back is the right starting point: below that, the faces in a group photo become too small to recognise from a few steps away. A6, on the left chest, works for a simple, tight photo, a portrait or a pet, not for a team of fifteen.

Two settings avoid the sticker effect:

• Remove the background: a rectangular photo placed as it is looks like a patch. The tknp.io designer accepts a JPG, PNG or SVG of up to 10 MB, and offers a button that removes the background around the subject. Keep the rectangle for a real group photo, where the setting matters.
• One design per placement: each t-shirt carries no more than two prints, both in the same method. The photo on the back and, on the left chest, the date of the event or the name of the person being celebrated, the same across the whole run, make a readable set; two photos competing for attention do not.

Playing with the logo over the photo

A style is coming back into fashion on photo t-shirts: the club's, association's or event's logo laid large over the middle of the photo, in solid white letters or see-through, like a watermark. The photo stays visible around the logo, and the t-shirt goes from a simple keepsake to a garment people want to wear. The layout is prepared before sending: place the logo, lower its opacity if you want the faces to read through it, then merge it into the photo so you send a single image, printed as one.

DTF or DTG: which method to print a photo?

On a light cotton t-shirt, DTG printing gives the photo the softest feel; on a dark t-shirt, or on blended fabrics, DTF transfer wins. Both print in four-colour process with no extra cost per colour, which screen printing cannot do cheaply for a photo.

DTF transfer is ordered online, DTG printing on quote. Our DTF or DTG comparison details the look and durability of both methods; for a photo, the colour of the t-shirt is what matters most.

How much does a custom t-shirt with a photo cost?

At 10 units, a Stanley/Stella Creator 2.0, in organic cotton and in its base colour, white, costs €6.95 excluding VAT per blank t-shirt at tknp.io, and €11.38 excluding VAT with an A6 photo as a DTF transfer, on the left chest; at 100 units, this photo t-shirt drops to €7.89 excluding VAT. Given for guidance only, based on its product page as read on 21 October 2026, these prices apply to one placement, standard sizes and the standard two-week lead time, excluding shipping and VAT. For a Creator 2.0 in a larger size or in certain colours, a small extra applies, and the product page shows it at the moment you choose.

For an A4 photo on the back, the format recommended above, the price is shown in the designer for DTF transfer, and DTG printing is priced on quote, with a proposal within one working day.

Prices per t-shirt excluding VAT from the Creator 2.0 product page, taken on 21 October 2026 and given for guidance only: one placement, base colour, standard sizes, standard two-week lead time, excluding shipping; subject to change, it is the quote that counts.

The choice between the two methods by quantity is detailed in our DTF or DTG comparison. A run starts at 10 printed t-shirts of one model, all sizes and colours combined; blanks can be ordered from a single unit.

Can you print any photo on a t-shirt?

No: you need the written consent of each person recognisable in the photo, and that of whoever took the photo, professional or not. The French government's public service website puts it plainly: written consent is required to use an image in which a person is recognisable, and that consent specifies the medium, the purpose and the duration.

For a group's t-shirts, the rule fits in one message: each person in the photo confirms in writing that they are happy to see it on the t-shirt. It is quick, and it avoids awkwardness on the day. As for the photographer, a photo belongs to whoever took it: the French Intellectual Property Code (article L111-1) gives them an exclusive right over their work, simply because they created it. A wedding portrait taken by a photographer, like a team photo taken by a club parent, therefore needs its author's permission before it is printed.

When should you order the group's photo t-shirts?

Allow at least three weeks between approving the proof and the event: at the standard lead time, the one at the base price, your photo t-shirts are printed and sent out in 10 working days, then transport follows, and your basket gives an estimate of the delivery date. On the t-shirt's product page, the production time can also be one week, at 10% more, or four weeks, at 5% less. Gathering the original photo, the consents and everyone's sizes comes before that; the other steps are described in every step of an order. With a pre-order, plan on four to six weeks instead: the time the campaign stays open (one to three weeks), then roughly three weeks for the t-shirts to arrive once it ends.

For a hen party, a birthday or a family reunion, the date does not move: start from the event and work backwards. Approve the proof (the final preview before production) at least two weeks before the delivery date you want, plus shipping.

A pre-order so everyone pays for their own photo t-shirt

The headache of a group order is not the photo: it is the organiser fronting the money for twenty people and chasing their sizes. On the tknp.io Store, the pre-order solves both: for 7 to 21 days, each guest, cousin or teammate reserves their size and pays for their t-shirt online, then the run is produced in one go, at the price of the volume reached. Each t-shirt in the campaign has its threshold: below it, it switches to another method at the same price, otherwise everyone is refunded in full.

Opening the Store and publishing the campaign costs nothing. The t-shirts reach you roughly three weeks after closing, each in a bag with the person's name, and sizes cannot be exchanged: a useful reminder in the invitation message. For a surprise birthday or t-shirts offered by the group, the organiser can also order everything themselves, from 10 t-shirts.