Expanding your own brand, business, or idea with T-shirts is a fantastic way to further develop interest and engage your audience. In the past, creating T-shirt designs was a daunting task left for the professionals. However, now creating and designing your own shirt can be as quick as a few clicks. In fact, designing and selling your own shirts has become so popular that there are an overwhelming number of graphic design software to choose from. To make your decision as easy as possible, we have compiled a list of the best graphic design software for T-shirts available today.

Top 8 Best Graphic Design Software for T Shirts

  1. Adobe Illustrator – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Professionals
  2. Inkscape – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Best Value
  3. Printful – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Mock-ups Design
  4. Snaptee – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Mobile Design
  5. Designhill – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Online Marketplace
  6. GraffixPro Studio – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Templates
  7. Adobe Photoshop – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Editing Existing Images
  8. CoralDraw – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Image Library

1. Adobe Illustrator – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Professionals

PRICING: Illustrator Only Plan – $20.74/month, All Apps Plan – $51.88/month

Adobe Illustrator can be a beast to learn as a beginner, but for those with some experience in the field of graphic design, this can be a fantastic tool to create T-shirt designs. The learning curve is steep, but Illustrator offers all the vector sizing, layering, and spot coloring that a T-shirt design could ever need.

KEY FEATURES:

  • Vector-Based Software
  • Advanced File Recovery System
  • Adobe Creative Cloud Tools
  • Image Tracing
  • iPad Application

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Adobe offers advanced and in-depth tutorials
  • Opportunity for most growth in designs
  • Be a part of larger Adobe integration (Photoshop, Premiere Pro combo)

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Software can take up large amounts of RAM

2. Inkscape – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Best Value

PRICING: Completely Free and Open-Source software

If you are looking for all the professional tools that come with Adobe Illustrator, but aren’t willing to pay the high monthly bill, then Inkscape could be the perfect solution. Inkscape is used for a wide variety of projects: marketing, branding, web graphics, cartooning, and even engineering. It is a great tool for T-shirt design.

KEY FEATURES:

  • Rendering
  • 2D Drawing
  • Vector Graphics
  • Tracing Function

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Comparable in capabilities to Adobe Illustrator
  • Scale up and scale down any image size
  • Free designs/templates from other users on Inkscape community

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Text conversion lags behind more expensive graphic design software

3. Printful – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Mock-ups Design

PRICING: Free Design Tools Available, Custom Pricing Model – Based on Number of Orders

If you are looking for an easy way to test designs you already have in mind on different T-shirts, then Printful can be a useful tool. Creating mock-ups are free on the platform. The platform helps print a number of other products in addition to T-shirts and can be a useful tool for anyone looking to expand their brand.

KEY FEATURES:

  • Free Mock-Up Design
  • Print-On-Demand Service
  • Designs are free to download

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Easy to Navigate interface
  • In-depth guidance and tutorials
  • Shipping Service Integration

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Design placement limited to front, back, and outside sleeves

4. Snaptee – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Mobile Design

PRICING: Free Design Tools Available, Custom Pricing Model – Based on Number of Orders

For the creators looking to put together designs quickly on their smartphone, Snaptee was designed with mobile use in mind. The software has a number of designs already available for use and you can customize them to your liking or create an entire design on your own.

KEY FEATURES:

  • Print-On-Demand Service
  • Global Application and Fulfillment
  • Easy-to-Use Mobile Application

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Versatile Payment Options
  • Setup T-shirt business in minutes, all from your phone

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Tools seem basic when compared to a program like Adobe Illustrator

5. Designhill – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Online Marketplace

PRICING: One-time Payments, Fast Track Plan – $149, Standard Plan – $299

If you are looking to quickly turn your idea into a revenue stream, then you will find all you need in Designhill. This software serves as a one-stop shop for designing and distributing your shirts. You can add to or change your design and see the results in real time. Designers can add logos or images and customize them to their liking.

KEY FEATURES:

  • Drag-and-Drop Feature
  • Crowdsource Designs
  • Advanced Analytics (Volume, Time Tracking, Clicks, etc)

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Designing and selling your shirt on Designhill comes with a built-in marketplace
  • Venue for acquiring artists or individual designs
  • Designing and marketing process can be completed in minutes

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • No free trial available
  • No vector-based design tools

6. GraffixPro Studio – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Templates

PRICING: Free Trial Available, Premium Plan – $899

This software brings the ease-of-use that many are looking for. With over 45 different fonts, 350 images, and dozens of templates, it covers all graphic design needs for T-shirts. This platform also has several pricing tools for when you are ready to bring your T-shirt to market.

KEY FEATURES:

  • Distressing and Fabric Shadowing Feature
  • Barcoding Tool
  • Quote Generator
  • Inventory Management

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Fantastic platform to run full scale T-shirt business
  • Expansive library of pre-made fonts, designs, and images

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Consumers argue price is too high for relative value

7. Adobe Photoshop – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Editing Existing Images

PRICING: Photoshop Only Plan – $20.99/month, All Apps Plan – $54.99/month

Another application from the Adobe Suite, Adobe Photoshop is arguably the most advanced software available for editing existing images or graphics. Like Illustrator, the learning curve is steep, but the software’s ability to edit, enhance, warp, or customize images, photos, or premade designs is remarkable. This software will give you the ability to craft the high resolution photos you wish to add to your T-shirts.

KEY FEATURES:

  • Image Wrapping Tools
  • Alpha Composition
  • Vector Masking
  • 3D Editing

REASONS TO BUY:

  • If your designs incorporate images or photos, this is the go-to software
  • Versatile import/export system
  • Good for DTG printing

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Not made to create designs from scratch

8. CoralDraw – Best T Shirt Graphic Design Software for Image Library

PRICING: Free Trial Available, Subscription Plan – $249/year, One-Time Purchase – $499

This software offers one of the most advanced image libraries. The library includes 7,000 clip-art images, 1,000 typefaces, 1,000 high-resolution images, 150 templates, and 600 bitmap, vector, and fountain files. The learning curve is shallowed with in-depth tutorials. This software has all the image and graphic design editing tools necessary for T-shirt design.

KEY FEATURES:

  • Non-Destructive Effects
  • Mosaic and Symmetrical Designs
  • Signage Rendering

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Wide range of different file exports
  • Professional tools, but intuitive interface
  • Drag & Drop graphics with ease

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Exporting and importing files can take a long time depending on file size

References and Links:

  • https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/
  • https://inkscape.org/
  • https://www.printful.com/
  • https://snaptee.co/
  • https://www.designhill.com/
  • https://www.graffixprostudio.com/
  • https://www.coreldraw.com/en/