Ok, so you’re designing your latest and greatest T-shirt but there’s a problem. You want to use two colors that are similar colors on top of each other. While that may look ok, it probably won’t. Try to avoid stacking similar colors on top of each other especially if you are not aware of how RGB converts to CMYK. If you start out with this:

Sample RGB Welcome graphic

in RGB, you’ll get this in CMYK:

CMYK Converted Welcome Image

Not very easy to read is it?

So to make the design stand out think about adding a border around some elements. In this case we will add a double border to the word “welcome”:

welcome with double border

And wala! Much easier to read.

It’s still not necessarily the greatest looking design in the world because of the colors chosen but it certainly is much better.

Personally I would make sure the colors contrast a little more at least and do something like this:

better contrasting welcome in CMYK

The size and type of border you use is up to you but make sure that what your finished product looks like is at least visually appealing to potential customers.

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J.J. Jackson is President of Land of the Free Studios, Inc. and Cafepress “Top Shopkeeper”. He has been selling t-shirts on-line since 2004 and is the owner of the T-Shirt Entrepreneur, a site dedicated to helping people get involved in the T-shirt Economy. He is also the owner of Funny When Wet T-shirts, American Infidel Tshirts as well as many other online t-shirt and gift stores.