Fabric for a custom t-shirt: which one holds the print?

Fabric for a custom t-shirt: combed cotton, ring-spun or polyester, which one holds the print?

For a custom t-shirt, cotton takes the widest range of decoration: screen printing, DTF transfer, DTG printing and, on our advice from 180 g/m², embroidery. Polyester, from 130 to 160 g/m² in our selection, takes DTF transfer, screen printing or, when it is light, sublimation.

The essentials in 4 points:

• Cotton, combed or carded, organic or conventional, takes screen printing, DTF transfer and DTG printing (on quote); our advice keeps embroidery for t-shirts of 180 g/m² and above, which means 27 of the 41 cotton t-shirts in our selection.
• Polyester is decorated, in our view, with DTF transfer or screen printing, and with sublimation on quote when it is light; we advise neither DTG printing nor embroidery on it.
• How the yarn is prepared (combed, ring-spun, carded) does not change the list of techniques: it changes the surface of the jersey and how it feels.
• The price: for 50 t-shirts with a logo printed in A6 DTF transfer, the six product pages we priced on 5 November 2026 run from €4.69 excl. VAT (JHK Jt Sport, recycled polyester) to €19.09 excl. VAT (Tee Jays Cooldry Tee, polyester and elastane), indicative prices for one print area, standard turnaround, base colour, delivery on top.

A graphic design studio is preparing its t-shirts. The founder wants her latest poster as a photo across the whole chest; her partner prefers a small logo embroidered on the left chest. Both ideas hold up, but they do not call for the same t-shirt: the photo needs a light cotton or a transfer, the embroidery a fairly heavy cotton.

The fabric of a custom t-shirt decides its decoration before its price does. Here, fabric by fabric, are the techniques each one takes, its usual weight, its feel, and the price of a printed t-shirt on six models from our product pages.

Which decoration technique holds on which t-shirt fabric?

On a t-shirt, cotton takes screen printing, DTF transfer, DTG printing and, on our advice from 180 g/m², embroidery; for polyester, we advise screen printing, DTF transfer and, when it is light, sublimation. The table crosses six fabric families, those of the 54 t-shirts selected in our t-shirt range, read on 5 November 2026, with five techniques; each cell follows the technique's page and, for embroidery and DTG on polyester, our advice.

These conditions come from our technique pages, read the same day. Screen printing suits any flat textile. DTF transfer goes on cotton, on polyester and on blends of the two. DTG printing is aimed at cotton and cotton-rich blends. Sublimation only takes on light polyester. Embroidery is meant for heavy textiles, and we do not advise it below 180 g/m².

The colour of the fabric matters too: sublimation only takes on light polyester, and DTG printing promises almost no hand-feel on light cotton; screen printing, for its part, keeps its colours opaque on dark fabric, and DTF transfer goes on almost any fibre and any colour.

Cotton, the t-shirt fabric that takes the most techniques

Cotton takes screen printing, DTF transfer, DTG printing (on quote) and, on our advice from 180 g/m², embroidery: it is the t-shirt fabric that takes the most techniques. In our selection, 41 t-shirts are mainly cotton; they weigh from 140 to 300 g/m², and 27 of them reach 180 g/m² or more.

Each technique has its reason to be there:

• Screen printing lays the ink colour by colour through a screen: solid, covering colour that holds up even on dark cotton, and excellent wash resistance according to its page. For how it works and where it stops, read our guide to screen printing on t-shirts.
• DTG printing jets the ink straight into the fibre, like a photo, with a near-invisible hand-feel on light cotton. Our article on DTG printing explains who it is made for.
• Embroidery stitches the thread into the jersey and stands up exceptionally well to washing and wear. It needs a fairly heavy cotton: our advice is to embroider from 180 g/m², and our guide to embroidering a logo helps you choose the size of the design.

As for the t-shirt itself, several product pages state a pre-shrunk cotton, for example the B&C #E190, or JHK's Man Regular T-Shirt, while the Stanley/Stella pages for the Creator 2.0, the Freestyler and the Reeser ask you to wash and iron the t-shirt inside out, without ironing over the print.

Combed, ring-spun or carded cotton: what the yarn changes for the print

Combed, ring-spun or carded, a cotton t-shirt takes the same decoration techniques: our technique pages set their conditions on the fibre, the colour and the thickness of the fabric, never on how the yarn was prepared. What the spinning changes is the surface and the feel of the jersey: both at 185 g/m², the B&C #E190 is listed as ring-spun cotton, while Tee Jays describes its Sof Tee as combed ring-spun cotton.

At the other end, the Stanley/Stella Freestyler is a carded, open-end spun organic cotton of 240 g/m², which its product page describes as a slightly textured jersey, heavy and dry to the touch. Our combed and ring-spun cotton article unpacks these words and where they show up on a product sheet.

In practice, choose the spinning for the feel you want your merch to have, not for the technique: a heavy carded cotton like the Freestyler can be embroidered just like a combed one, since it is well above 180 g/m².

Organic cotton: the same techniques, a label on the blank t-shirt

Organic cotton changes nothing about how a t-shirt is decorated: the word organic describes how the cotton was grown, not how it is printed or embroidered. In our selection, 13 t-shirts are 100% organic cotton, including the Creator 2.0 (combed) and the Freestyler (carded), and our technique pages make no difference between organic and conventional cotton.

What organic changes to the price and to how the cotton is grown is explained in our article on organic cotton. One composition detail: the Heather Haze marl colour of the Creator 2.0 adds 30% recycled cotton to the organic cotton, which makes up the other 70%.

The certifications on the product page, GOTS and OEKO-TEX for the Creator 2.0, cover the blank t-shirt presented by its manufacturer, not the decoration added later; our definition of the OEKO-TEX label says what the latter verifies.

Polyester: DTF transfer, screen printing, or sublimation when it is light

For a polyester t-shirt, our advice is DTF transfer or screen printing, and sublimation on quote when it is light; we advise neither DTG printing nor embroidery on it. Our selection holds 13 mainly-polyester t-shirts, and the 12 that state their weight range from 130 to 160 g/m².

Their product pages describe a light fabric: the Just Cool Cool T is a light, textured material that breathes, the Tee Jays Cooldry Tee a stretchy, breathable, quick-drying fabric. How polyester behaves in the wash and in use is covered by our guide to polyester.

Why these techniques, and how each one holds on this fibre, screen-printing ink included: our guide to printing on polyester fabric answers technique by technique. DTF transfer, whose design moves from a film to the fabric under a hot press, has its own guide to DTF printing. Sublimation, which takes the ink into the fibre with no thickness at all, is priced with us on quote, from 10 units, on the t-shirts its page declares compatible, 5 on 5 November 2026; its process is described in our article on textile sublimation.

Blends: what the composition changes for the print

On a blended t-shirt, DTF transfer and screen printing remain possible, and DTG printing needs a cotton-rich blend. The blends in our selection pair a main fibre with a little elastane, or two cottons:

• the Build Your Brand Ladies Cropped Tee, 95% cotton and 5% elastane, 180 g/m²;
• the Stanley/Stella Reeser, 50% recycled cotton and 50% organic cotton, both carded, 220 g/m²;
• the Tee Jays Cooldry Tee, 95% polyester and 5% elastane, 160 g/m².

The Reeser remains a 100% cotton t-shirt: it is decorated like cotton, embroidery included at 220 g/m². The Cooldry Tee is decorated like polyester.

Which t-shirt fabric to choose for your logo?

The right fabric is chosen from the logo and how it will be used, because the logo points to the technique:

• A one- or two-colour logo, on a run: screen printing, on cotton as on polyester; its page gives it the lowest unit cost at volume.
• A photo or a gradient: DTG printing on light cotton, on quote, or DTF transfer, which prints full-colour on cotton as on polyester; screen printing, for its part, struggles with photo gradients.
• A logo embroidered on the chest: a cotton of at least 180 g/m², on our advice: the Stanley/Stella Creator 2.0 weighs 180 g/m², the B&C #E190 185.
• A design that covers the whole t-shirt: sublimation, on light polyester, on quote.

To weigh up the two main fabrics for the group you are dressing, all year round or for one event, see our comparison of cotton or polyester.

What is the price of a custom t-shirt in each fabric?

For a run of 50 with a logo printed in A6 DTF transfer, a custom t-shirt at tknp.io costs from €4.69 excl. VAT in recycled polyester (JHK Jt Sport) to €19.09 excl. VAT in polyester blended with elastane (Tee Jays Cooldry Tee), and from €5.45 excl. VAT (B&C #E190) to €16.99 excl. VAT (Stanley/Stella Freestyler) in cotton, on the six product pages read on 5 November 2026.

These amounts, given as a guide, are the public prices our product pages showed that day. They are excluding VAT, delivery not included, t-shirt and decoration included, for 50 units of one model, each carrying the same logo at the same spot, in standard production (two weeks), in the base colour and the usual sizes; all six pages point out a slightly higher price on certain shades and on the biggest sizes.

Two t-shirts from the same family can sit far apart: with the same technique and quantity, €7.53 separates the Creator 2.0 and the Freestyler, two organic cottons of 180 and 240 g/m². Price is therefore read model by model. The table gives the three techniques these pages sell online; techniques on quote are priced separately, on request. Each of these six product pages also shows its whole grid, from the 10-unit tier to the 1,000-unit one.

Get the blank t-shirt in your chosen fabric

Once the fabric is chosen in the table, check whether the page of the t-shirt you picked offers it blank, before the run. The B&C #E190 does: its product page lists the blank at €3.34 excl. VAT per unit (price of 5 November 2026, indicative, delivery on top), with a button to add it to the cart undecorated. Our FAQ says the same: blank garments are sold down to one unit, so you can judge the fabric in your hands before launching the run.

The t-shirt you receive shows what no photo can: the feel of its ring-spun cotton, its 185 g/m² thickness in daylight, how it hangs once on. The logo waits for the run, which starts at 10 units of this model, in a technique its fabric takes: embroidery included for the #E190, since it weighs more than 180 g/m².