Looking to put some of my artwork on a set of t-shirts - what questions do I need to ask the printer?

Question

I want to cover all the bases as much as possible. My art is black and white, I'm wondering what I need to check to make this go as smooth as possible.

So far I've got:
what are the minimum orders
how do you want the artwork--on CD or clean physical copies
what quality t-shirts do you carry (thread count)
is the ink fade proof, laundry proof
what size mix is standard for the general public (I was going to go with large and x-large)

What major things am I missing yet? I want to go in well prepared.

Answer 1

So far so good as far as questions to ask. But there are some specifics you should know. Such as:

Artwork - usually it is best to have it in digital form i.e. Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel or high resolution Jpeg. Clean physical copies are good but realize they need to be scanned into a comp.

T-Shirts - Go look at the the brands of the shirts that you really like. I personally love the American Apparel tees. They are a little expensive but worth it because they are light, stylish and made in USA.

Additionally each different design is going to cost you separate set up charges. So if you have three separate designs for three different shirts you will need to pay set up charges for each.

Good Luck

Answer 2

In the -proof questions, I would include smear-proof, and how long must we wait before handling the t-shirts?