Embroidering a logo on your garments: what to know before you order
An embroidered logo gives a garment relief and lasts through the wash. To embroider it well, keep solid shapes with no gradient, letters at least 6 mm high and lines at least 1.5 mm thick, then set its size by placement, that is 6 to 8 cm wide when the logo sits on the chest. At tknp.io, an embroidered run starts at 10 units per reference.
Before you have your logo embroidered:
- Simplify it for thread: solid shapes and flat colours, no gradient and no photo.
- Judge it at embroidered size, not on screen: it is at a few centimetres wide that a small tagline stops being readable.
- Choose the placement before the size: on the chest, between 60 and 80 mm wide; on the front of a structured cap, around 50 to 60 mm high; for a large sweatshirt back, up to 25 × 20 cm.
- Pick a garment that holds the stitch: a fleece sweatshirt, a polo, a jacket, a cap or a heavy t-shirt, 180 gsm and up.
On screen, the logo is perfect. Embroidered 7 cm wide on a polo, the small tagline under the name turns into a line of thread nobody can read, the background gradient has vanished and the fine outline is lost in the knit. Nobody got the merch order wrong: embroidery doesn't copy a file, it translates it into stitches of thread, with limits of its own.
The rules for the design and the file, solid shapes with no gradient or photo, lines of at least 1.5 mm and letters at least 6 mm high, accepted formats, are gathered in our guide to the files our workshop expects for a logo. This one starts from there to help you have custom garments embroidered: what the logo becomes in thread, what size to give it for each placement, which garment to put it on, and what embroidery adds to the price.
What happens to a logo once it is embroidered?
An embroidered logo gains relief and sheen: the thread doesn't sit on the fabric, it goes into it. As our page dedicated to embroidery explains, the logo is converted into an embroidery programme, where each line of the design turns into a series of stitches, then stitched thread by thread; the raised thread then becomes part of the garment, with no layer added on the surface.
This move to thread redraws the logo. The same tknp.io page warns that embroidery doesn't render photo gradients and that very small text loses legibility. In the embroidered version of your logo, in practice:
- a gradient becomes a flat area, in the dominant shade;
- a very fine outline is thickened, or removed;
- the small tagline grows, or leaves the embroidered version;
- a photo or a highly detailed illustration changes technique: our embroidery or printing comparison sends it to DTF transfer or DTG printing, which render full colour.
If your logo only exists as a blurry image, our guide to vectorising an image compares five methods to get a clean outline from it. A very fine crest can also be worn as a patch, sewn onto the garment rather than stitched into it: our guide embroidered or woven patch explains which one keeps small details best.
What contrast should you choose between thread and fabric?
The contrast between thread and fabric makes an embroidered logo legible. On a dark polo, a dark logo fades out: our embroidered polo page advises preparing a light version of it. On a pool blue sweatshirt, the Pool Blue colour of the Changer 2.0 by Stanley/Stella for instance, a white thread creates that contrast and makes every letter stand out. If a shade must be exact, your brand's own, attach its Pantone reference or hex code to the logo.
Contrast isn't compulsory: a thread two or three shades from the fabric, in the same colour family, keeps the relief and removes the contrast, as in our micro-logo inspiration. That effect has its own article, on tone-on-tone embroidery.
What size should an embroidered logo be for each placement?
The size of an embroidered logo is chosen from its placement: between 60 and 80 mm wide for the chest or a sleeve, and, for the back of a jacket or sweatshirt, up to 25 × 20 cm, according to our embroidered garment pages. On a structured cap, the front panel takes a logo about 50 to 60 mm high.
| Placement | Reference size | What our pages add |
|---|---|---|
| Chest of a t-shirt, sweatshirt or jacket | 60 to 80 mm wide | 70 × 50 mm on a sweatshirt chest; up to about 90 mm on a softshell or fleece |
| Chest of a polo | 60 × 40 mm | above 80 mm, the back or sleeve works better |
| Front of a crewneck sweatshirt | 220 × 60 mm lettering | the fleece carries it without puckering |
| Front of a structured cap | about 50 to 60 mm high | wider, the centre seam and the curve distort the design |
| Sleeve | 60 to 80 mm wide | offered on our polo, sweatshirt and jacket pages |
| Back of a jacket or sweatshirt | up to 25 × 20 cm | better avoided on a puffer jacket, whose seams limit the area |
The size you settle on also decides what stays legible. According to our inspiration of a name embroidered on the chest of a polo, at 70 × 40 mm, a name of more than 20 characters on a single line becomes illegible; the same inspiration shows a name set on two lines of serif capitals that fits within 7 cm and reads from a metre away. According to the tone-on-tone micro-logo one, under 5 cm wide, a line thinner than 1 mm won't embroider. Before you confirm, print the logo at its embroidered size and look at its smallest letter.
On a soft cap (dad cap), the fabric moves more under the needle and the logo is embroidered smaller. For a domed relief on the front, our article on 3D embroidery shows the effect.
Which garment should you have a logo embroidered on?
A logo is embroidered on a fabric that holds the stitch: a fleece sweatshirt, a polo, a jacket, a cap or a heavy t-shirt. Our embroidery page calls it ideal on polos, sweatshirts, caps and jackets, and our embroidered garment pages give these benchmarks:
- the sweatshirt: brushed fleece, from 280 to 350 gsm, carries crisp relief, and the workshop backs the stitch with a stabiliser;
- the polo: our pages cite cotton piqué of 180 to 220 gsm, which keeps the stitch in place;
- the t-shirt: we advise a heavy model, 180 gsm and up, which our embroidered t-shirt page asks for as soon as the embroidery grows, so the knit holds the stitch without rippling;
- the jacket: on a puffer, the quilting seams leave the chest or sleeve; on a waterproof fabric, every stitch pierces the membrane, hence a sheltered placement or a transfer.
The garment's cut matters too: the kangaroo pocket of a hoodie limits the centre, and the button placket of a polo rules out a logo in the middle of the chest; our guide to logo placement reviews these spots, garment by garment.
What does embroidering a logo cost on top of the garment?
On the product page of the Changer 2.0, Stanley/Stella's crewneck sweatshirt, a run of 50 with the logo embroidered on the chest, 8 × 10 cm format, costs €28.25 excl. VAT each, against €23.93 excl. VAT blank: embroidering the logo adds €4.32 excl. VAT per unit. These tknp.io public prices were read on 3 November 2026; they are indicative only, valid for a single placement, the standard lead time (two weeks), the product page's base colour and regular sizes, with shipping on top.
The number of thread colours has no effect on that amount, since embroidery is priced by its size. The full grid, model by model and tier by tier, has a guide of its own: embroidery pricing.
Allow 10 units minimum per reference for an embroidered run, with sizes and colours mixed if you like, then order it straight from the product pages where embroidery is marked "Online". For a specific request, use the quote request: the team gets back to you within one business day at most, with prices.
Keeping the embroidered version of your logo in the Logo library
The simplified version of your logo deserves its place next to the original. In your tknp.io account, the Logo library keeps your logos: you search for yours by the organisation's name, by its website or by a link to a picture, unless you upload the file directly. Store the embroidered version there next to the original version, which stays for printing: each logo keeps its colours and its format.
Each logo's button then applies it to a garment. In the designer, you choose the placement and the size, down to the millimetre, and the preview shows the logo at its real size, on the chest of a polo as on the front of a cap: that's the moment to check the smallest letter. Opening the account costs nothing; production only starts once you order.
Frequently asked questions
Do you pay for the embroidery file again with every order?
On tknp.io, you don't supply an embroidery file: the workshop digitises your logo, a preparation our product pages say every run requires. Once your organisation is verified (a company or EU VAT number is enough), technical fees are waived, and only a complete redraw of the logo is billed separately. With an unverified account, our pages don't show the amount of those fees: ask for it in your quote, for the first run as for the following ones.
How long does an embroidered logo last?
An embroidered logo lasts a long time: of the four techniques in our comparison, embroidery and screen printing are the ones that last best in the wash, able to take dozens of washes while keeping a crisp finish. The thread becomes part of the garment, with no layer added on the surface, our embroidery page on tknp.io explains.
Can you embroider a logo on the chest and another on the back?
On a sweatshirt or an unpadded jacket, yes: one logo embroidered on the chest and another on the back, where our pages allow embroidery up to 25 × 20 cm. On a padded jacket, our embroidered jackets page rather advises the chest or the sleeve than a large back. On a t-shirt, our embroidered t-shirt page rather advises screen printing or DTF transfer for a large back; in that case, we advise moving the chest logo to the same technique, so both decorations age together. The prices on our product pages cover a single placement.
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