Author Topic: How many names can you fit on the back of a shirt?  (Read 2404 times)

Offline Prosperi-Tees

  • !!!
  • Gonzo Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 4297
  • Common Sense - Get Some
How many names can you fit on the back of a shirt?
« on: July 04, 2012, 09:04:09 PM »
I have customer wanting family reunion shirts and wants everybodys name printed on the back. It is over 120 names. Full names at that. I am thinking the names are going to be way to small to read. What is the most you guys have done?


Offline Northland

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 622
Re: How many names can you fit on the back of a shirt?
« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2012, 09:34:56 PM »
I've done 300+ for senior graduation shirts (in a 13" x 16" print).... they're small but readable. Make sure they format them for you, so you don't have to spend allot of time with the design (then they are responsible for spell checking).
You could group them by last name and just print first names under the surname heading.

Offline Prosperi-Tees

  • !!!
  • Gonzo Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 4297
  • Common Sense - Get Some
Re: How many names can you fit on the back of a shirt?
« Reply #2 on: July 04, 2012, 09:43:43 PM »
They have the names in a Microsoft document. Could I use that?

Offline Dottonedan

  • Administrator
  • Ludicrous Speed Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5907
  • Email me at art@designsbydottone.com
Re: How many names can you fit on the back of a shirt?
« Reply #3 on: July 04, 2012, 10:05:22 PM »
Names from Microsoft would be about the only good art that comes from a Microsoft file. How many names depends on the font style and size. You then can scale and or adjust kerrning to make it work even more.

I put 300+ names on a coffee mug so I imagine you can put on up to 2000 names or so, depending.
Artist & high end separator, Owner of The Vinyl Hub, Owner of Dot-Tone-Designs, Past M&R Digital tech installer for I-Image machines. Over 35 yrs in the apparel industry. e-mail art@designsbydottone.com

Offline Printhouse

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 305
Re: How many names can you fit on the back of a shirt?
« Reply #4 on: July 04, 2012, 10:29:55 PM »
I just did 437 on the back of a tee..... Divided into classes and they turned out great.  I will snap a pic tomorrow.  White ink on dark green tees to boot.

Offline Frog

  • Administrator
  • Ludicrous Speed Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13980
  • Docendo discimus
Re: How many names can you fit on the back of a shirt?
« Reply #5 on: July 04, 2012, 10:31:43 PM »
I think that you could easily fit the 120 names even as large as 16 or 18 points. The smaller you go, the more you want a font that will not fill in lower case "e's" and "a's". In fact, I go upper case whenever possible.
I also have dome plenty of senior and cast and crew shirts with lots of names.
That rug really tied the room together, did it not?

Offline Gilligan

  • !!!
  • Ludicrous Speed Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 6853
Re: How many names can you fit on the back of a shirt?
« Reply #6 on: July 04, 2012, 11:39:26 PM »
You could always recommend they download and install Inkscape or Gimp and make them lay it out.

You could give them a "template" of your printable area as a box for them to put it all in.

Offline Prosperi-Tees

  • !!!
  • Gonzo Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 4297
  • Common Sense - Get Some
Re: How many names can you fit on the back of a shirt?
« Reply #7 on: July 04, 2012, 11:49:12 PM »
I imported in and when I sized it, it is about 12 pt Arial Bold. I think it will be fine.

Offline 3Deep

  • !!!
  • Ludicrous Speed Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 5324
Re: How many names can you fit on the back of a shirt?
« Reply #8 on: July 05, 2012, 09:32:43 AM »
Gerry thats the font I was just about to tell you to go with...fancy fonts for a bunch of names on a tee is a no no if you want to read them and not have any wash out problems, I,ve printed a few hundred names allso on many shirts. Good Luck

Darryl
Life is like Kool-Aid, gotta add sugar/hardwork to make it sweet!!

Offline mk162

  • Ludicrous Speed Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 7859
Re: How many names can you fit on the back of a shirt?
« Reply #9 on: July 05, 2012, 09:36:09 AM »
word actually works pretty well for this sort of thing for 1 reason...THEY DID THE TYPESETTING.  I can't tell you how many people print a list out and want me to retype it all.  There is always a misspelling in there that they don't find on my version.