The limiting factor is that Photoshop works best with bitmap images like JPG or PNG (unlike Illustrator, which deals with mostly vector graphics). Photoshop lets you edit photos, apply tons of filters and effects and add layers to your projects. Photoshop is a great complimentary tool to Illustrator for graphic design, especially if you want to create t-shirt artwork that combine photo images, vector illustrations and text elements. Illustrator is also available for PC and Mac, and an iPad version is slated to be released before the end of 2020.

Tutorials and explainers abound for just about every possible function available, as well as textbooks and detailed manuals.

Illustrator may have the steepest learning curve of any app I describe in this article, but there is pleasure in learning and mastering this useful software over many years. These days, however, Adobe has move to a subscription model, and you can pay for Illustrator on a month-to-month basis, saving you the sticker shock of a full license. When I first started using it, it was part of Creative Suite, a software package that included Photoshop and InDesign and it cost several hundred dollars for a permanent license. You can also both open and export files in a wide range of file formats including JPG, SVG, PNG and PDF.Īdobe has changed the Adobe platform in the last few years. You can create intricately detailed vector graphics, incorporate bitmap images and convert photos to vectors with this comprehensive software package. I’m biased, but I’ve been using it for about 15 years and it feels comfortable to me, and it has just about every feature I could ever need. This is my go-to for all vector-based graphic design. So if you want to create eye-catching designs to put on t-shirts, here’s a sampling of free and paid options available to create memorable vector and bitmap images. The reason there are so many options is that there are so many graphic styles and applications you might need, different software platforms have emerged to specialize in different areas. If you ask 10 designers what their t-shirt design software is, you might get 10 answers.

There are lots of software options out there for creating graphic illustrations for t-shirts.

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