- Free Home Design Software Mac
- Free T Shirt Design Software For Mac
- Best Free T Shirt Design Software For Mac
- Mac Home Design Software Reviews
- Free Software Design T Shirt
- Free T Shirt Design App For Mac
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Document Setup
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To create a new document, go to File > New. Set the page size to Letter, the orientation to Landscape then click OK.
A commonly used color palette for screen printers is the Pantone® spot color palette. Let's also open that palette to have it handy as we are designing.
- Go to Window > Dockers > Palettes.
- In the docker, click on the arrow beside Palette Libraries to expand the selection.
- Then expand Spot > Pantone > Pantone+ and select Solid Coated-V3.
The palette will appear on the right of the interface but let's place it along the bottom. Click the dotted area at the top of the palette and drag it to the bottom of the CorelDRAW window. When you see the bar turn grey, let go and it will attach to the interface.
We will also turn on the Document palette by going to Window > Color Palettes and selecting Document Palette or by checking it in the Palettes docker.
Importing Images
Let's start by importing the colored shirt our design will go on. Go to File > Import and browse to the location on your computer where you have saved the file, then click Import. To place the image in your document, drag to draw a rectangle on the page then release and the t-shirt image is now in your document. You can enlarge it if you like by dragging out one of the corner handles.
TIP: Before we go any further, it's a good idea to save your file now, and periodically throughout the design process.
Setting a Background Page Color
Now let's create a background color on our page that is the same color as the t-shirt image. This will help us see how the ink colors we choose will look against that color.
- Select the shirt with the Pick tool and move shirt off to one side of the page.
- Double-click on the grey shadow at the edge of the document to open the Document Options window (or go to Layout > Document Options).
- Click on Background in the left column.
- Choose Solid and click the dropdown arrow to select a color.
- Click on the Eyedropper icon in the bottom right corner of the color window and click on the t-shirt to sample the color.
- Uncheck Print and export background then click OK and our page color is set.
Next, import the baseball image. This file is a bitmap and most screen-printing shops prefer vector art so we will need convert it to vector using the PowerTRACE feature.
Use the Pick tool to select the baseball and then click the dropdown arrow beside Trace Bitmap in the property bar. Then choose Outline Trace > Clipart. Because the baseball image is large, a dialog box will pop up suggesting you reduce the size, so click on the Reduce Bitmap button.
The PowerTRACE window will open and you will see the top image is the original bitmap and the bottom is the trace result.
On the Settings tab choose these options:
- Remove: background color
- Objects: Merge adjacent, Remove overlap and Group by color (this allows you to easily change a group of objects from an RGB or CMYK color to a Spot color and get them all at the same time)
- Image: Delete original – we don't need it anymore
To learn more about PowerTRACE, watch our full tutorial How to Convert JPG to Vector.
Now click on the Colors tab so we can make some changes in here. First, you have the option to change the Color Mode to Pantone Solid Coated. This will save time and allow you to convert the entire image to spot colors.
Next, we need to simplify our colors by merging them. To merge the red colors:
- Select the first red color on the list, hold down the SHIFT key and select the other reds.
- Click the Merge
- Repeat this process for the grey colors then click OK.
We'd like to change the colors of the baseball so that it is white instead of grey, with a different shade of red for the stitches.
- Select the baseball and click the Ungroup icon on the Property bar. This will separate the grey ball and the red stitches.
- Select the grey ball then click the White swatch on the Pantone color palette we placed at the bottom of the interface. This will change the ball to white.
- Press the Tab key on your keyboard and now the red stitches will be selected.
- Click the Bright Red swatch on the Pantone color palette. This will change the color of the stitches.
- Use the Pick tool to lasso the baseball, which will select both the ball and stitches objects.
- Click the Group Objects icon in the Property bar to regroup the baseball into one object.
Adding and Manipulating Text
To add text, select the Text tool on the left toolbar then click on the page and start typing. For this design we typed TIGERS in uppercase.
Now select the Pick tool and use it to resize and reposition your text as you like. You can make it larger or smaller by dragging one of the corner handles in or out. Or stretch it taller by using the top center handle.
Use the font dropdown list to change the font if you wish. For this design we wanted something heavier (American Captain Eternal font).
At this point, use the Pick tool to reduce the size of the baseball and move it under the text, so the design now looks like this.
Now we are going to give our text a custom shape using the Envelope tool. To add an envelope:
- Open the Envelope docker by going to Effects > Envelope or Window > Dockers > Effects > Envelope.
- Select the text with the Pick
- Choose the Single-arc mode from the options at the bottom of the Envelope docker and then click the Add New button.
- You will now see a white dashed border around your text to represent the envelope.
- Use the handle in the middle bottom of the text and pull up to make the text arc.
- You can alternate between using the Pick tool to adjust the width and height of the text and Envelope tool to adjust the arc until you are happy with the results.
To make the text orange select the text with the Pick tool and click the Orange 021 swatch on the Pantone color palette.
We also added a contour effect to our TIGERS text. To add a contour:
- Open the Contour docker by going to Effects > Contour or Window > Dockers > Effects > Contour.
- Under Contour alignment, choose the Outside contour
- Under Corner, choose the Mitered corners
- Adjust the Offset value if you wish (we used 0.14').
- Under Color blend, set the Fill to black then click Apply.
Once you are happy with your contour effect, go to Object > Break Contour Apart.
Click outside the page to deselect, then select the black contour only. In the Pantone color palette, click on the Black swatch to change the color of the contour.
Next we add the text BASEBALL to our design, using the same steps as when adding the TIGERS text. Once you have the text sized and positioned as you like, click on the Black swatch in the Pantone color palette to make the BASEBALL text the exact same color as the contour of the TIGERS text.
We also added a white outline to the BASEBALL text by right-clicking on the White swatch in the Pantone color palette. Then double-click on the outline color swatch in the Status bar that is under the bottom color palette. This will open the Outline Pen window, where you can set the Width to 8 and add a check beside the options Behind Fill and Scale with object.
To enhance our design, we will add some stripes to the TIGERS text.
- Select the Freehand tool and use it to draw a basic stripe shape.
- Click on the Pantone Black swatch to fill it with black.
- To modify the stripe shape, click on the Shape tool and use it to move the nodes to change the shape.
- To add more stripes, select the first stripe with the Pick tool and duplicate it using the + key on your keyboard. You can also duplicate objects using Ctrl + D or go to Edit > Duplicate.
- Use the Pick tool to resize, reposition or rotate the duplicate stripes all over the TIGERS text.
- You can use the Shape tool to alter the shape of some stripes, so they don't all look the same.
Once we have all the stripes created, we can use the PowerClip feature to place the stripes inside the TIGERS text, so there are no stripes sticking outside the letters.
- Use the Pick tool to lasso all the stripes, then click on the Group button in the Property bar.
- Right-click on a stripe and choose PowerClip Inside.
- Your cursor will change to an arrow shape – use this to click on the orange text.
- Now the stripes will be 'clipped' inside the orange text.
To learn more, watch our full tutorial on Clipping Objects into Other Objects with PowerClip.
Finalizing the Design
Our design is nearly complete, but we need to make sure that all objects are properly aligned and that the design is the proper size for printing.
First, use the Pick tool to lasso the TIGERS text and then click the Group Objects button on the Property bar. Now the text, contour effect and stripes will be aligned as a group.
- Use the Pick tool to move the TIGERS text, baseball image and BASEBALL text until you are happy with the design arrangement.
- Lasso the entire design then go to Object > Align and Distribute > Align Centers Horizontally, or simply press C on your keyboard.
- Group your design using the Group Objects button on the Property bar or press Ctrl + G.
- On the Property bar, make sure the Lock Ratio setting is on then enter 10' in the Object size width field (10' is a common youth size screen print).
Creating a T-shirt Mockup
We are going to create the mockup on a new page in this document. To add a new page, right-click on the Page 1 tab at the bottom of the document and select Insert Page, or click on the Add Page icon just to the left of the Page 1 tab.
- Select the t-shirt image that we imported at the beginning of this project and copy (Edit > Copy or Ctrl + C) then paste (Edit > Paste or Ctrl + V) onto the new page.
- Go back to page 1, select the design and copy it.
- Go to page 2 and paste the design.
- Use the Pick tool to resize and reposition the design on the t-shirt.
You now have a t-shirt design you can scale to any size, vector art for a screen printer and a mockup to show how you want it. Ares mac download.
Preparing for Print
To share this file with a screen printer or another vendor, you should export document as a PDF.
- Go to File > Publish to PDF and choose the location where you want to save the file.
- Click on the PDF preset dropdown and select Prepress.
- Click the Settings button to open the PDF Settings
- On the General tab you can set the Export range to the current document, current page, or select pages.
- On the Objects tab, make sure to enable Export all text as curves. This will ensure that the text will be properly displayed, even if the person you send it to doesn't have the fonts you used.
Click OK then click Save. Now your file is ready to email to the screen printer or other vendor.
Thanks for watching! We hope you found this tutorial helpful and we would love to hear your feedback in the Comments section below. And don't forget to visit our social media pages and show us what you've learned by sharing your photos, videos and creative projects with us.
So you can't afford the high price tags that come with the paid t-shirt design software?
And now, you're looking for completely free software or app that has plenty of helpful tools and features to help you come up with professional t-shirt designs for your clients, brand, sports team, family, friends, etc.?
If yes, we've got your back!
Below, we have compiled the ultimate list of the 11 best 100% FREE to use apps and software you can use to come up with unique tee designs without spending a cent.
11 FREE T-shirt Design Apps and Software:
1. Inkscape
Compatibility: Linux, macOS, Windows.
This is one of the best free to use tee design apps you can use today if you don't have the cash for the premium apps.
Despite being an open-source vector-based design app, this tool has the power and flexibility of the paid-for tools.
The fact that this software isn't limited to vector images means you can use it to work on a wide variety of projects. It presents you with everything you need to create as well as edit your tee graphics.
Some of the top features you'll get from this software include shape tools, pencil tool, calligraphy tool, pen tool, color tools, font and text editing, color tools, and multiple layers.
With Inkscape, you can turn existing bitmap images into vector images (using the tracing function), scale up/down your images, and export it in suitable formats for screen-printing.
The app also provides you with raster image formats like .png and .jpg.
Although this app comes with no t-shirt templates or YouTube tutorials, experienced previous designers have taken it upon themselves to provide you with free guides (like the one below). This makes the Inkscape learning curve easier for you.
2. GIMP
Compatibility: GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac OS, and other operating systems.
GIMP is another popular software for a t-shirt design that allows you to create professional-looking designs without spending hefty amounts of cash.
The open-source software has been around for more than two decades. It has always been regarded as the best free alternative to Photoshop (or the granddaddy of free photo editing and graphic design) by millions of users.
For your tee design needs, this software presents you with plenty of customizable tools, including texts, brushes, arts, etc., to help you quickly come up with fully customized t-shirts.
Just like the paid-for, this app also provides you with free templates and YouTube tutorials for first-time users.
Note that GIMP undergoes regular updating by its team of volunteers to ensure it continues solving your design needs for free.
3. Custom Ink
Compatibility: in-browser designer.
This is an in-browser design, specially made for t-shirts. It's 100% free to use. It comes with a user-friendly interface, making it one of the easiest to use apps.
When you get down to create your designs, you'll enjoy using hundreds of images that come with Custom Ink. Keep in mind that these images are organized into categories like animals, nature, tech, people, occupation, music, transportation, etc., so you'll likely find the image that matches your design needs.
Or you can simply upload your own design with just a click of a button.
It also lets you easily add numbers and names to your t-shirts. This will come in handy when you want to customize tees for your sports team or project group.
Once you're done creating your designs, this app also lets you easily share them with your friends.
Free Home Design Software Mac
And if you want to order a t-shirt with your customized design, Custom Ink lets you do so. You just create your own design, place an order, and they'll deliver the tee to your doorstep.
4. Smart Shirt Designer
Compatibility: macOS, Windows, Linux.
If you're looking for a free to use tee design app for your football jersey design project, you just found the Smart Shirt Designer!
This designer software comes specially designed to help you come up with professional-looking football jerseys, which explains why it comes stocked with a huge list of brand logos (including Adidas, Nike, etc.), shirt designs, and color designs. These free designs will let you come up with your own patterns for your tees.
It lets you create the front as well as back portions of your t-shirts.
Just like the premium software, this designer also gives you the option of using their free patterns or draw and design your own patterns…or upload your own images and logos.
The software will then save your complete design in its own supported format. But it allows you to export the design in popular formats such as png, jpg, and gif formats.
5. Get Paint
Compatibility: Windows.
This is another free to download and use image and photo editing software. It also comes with a pretty intuitive and innovative user interface, which makes it quite easy to figure out for those using it for the first time.
Unlike most of the other t-shirt designs apps and software out there, this app takes your design work higher by making your designs look more realistic.
In other words, it distorts and applies your design, logo, text, etc. based upon the t-shirt surface, just like the final product will look like.
The fact that this software presents you with an ‘undo' function means you'll not have to worry about making errors during the design process as you can always erase them.
And oh! Don't forget that this app has an ever-growing online community, which means you'll enjoy plenty of help, support, forums, and tutorials easily.
6. Fat Paint
Compatibility: online design software
This is another excellent, free to use online design software, so you don't have to download or install anything to start using it. Just make sure you have adobe flash installed on your browser.
The free software comes with plenty of helpful design functions to help you come up with stunning t-shirts. These include up to 900 fonts, thousands of vector clip arts, and even 3D templates, which are sure to make your t-shirt come alive!
You can also upload your own photographs and images, and then use FatPaint to crop or resize them according to your requirements. You can also easily combine your designs with other images and texts.
The only problem you'll experience when using this software is the advertisements that keep popping up. If you find these ads annoying, you can simply subscribe to the pro version for ad-free design experience.
7. Krita
Compatibility: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Krita also made it to our list of the best free t-shirt design apps. It's an image and painting app that offers excellent competition for commercial apps such as Photoshop.
One of the key features you'll love in this app revolves around the different brush settings. You can easily change these settings using toolbar controls to meet your design needs. You can easily adjust aspects like size, color, blending mode, and opacity.
Just like Photoshop, Krita also allows you to create shapes using paths!
If you want to use pre-made images, then this app lets you easily import it by dragging them onto the canvas. The app has plenty of filters that you can apply to your pictures or layers to make them look even more amazing.
Mark you, Krita was developed by like-minded designers who have even prepared easy-to-follow tutorials to make it easy to use for everyone.
Imagine getting all these design editing features and functions without paying a dime? This is precisely why Krita makes our list of the best cost-free platforms for you!
8. Flash T-shirt Design Software
If you want to start your own t-shirt printing company but don't have the money to invest in high-end software like Photoshop, then this design software will be a great alternative.
The free to use features a user-friendly interface plus a bunch of high-quality features to enable you to come up with professional-looking t-shirt designs for your clients.
When you access the Flash interface, you'll be thrilled by the multiple fonts, clipart, and colors that you can use to make t-shirt designs of your liking. The vector clip arts, in particular, will match your t-shirt colors…and you can always change the colors to suit your needs.
Free T Shirt Design Software For Mac
9. Free-T-shirt Maker
If you're still looking for an easy-to-use free t-shirt design too, this software will also make an excellent choice.
It has such a simple and interactive interface that you even a beginner will quickly get the hang of it. You'll easily figure out what button or control does what within a few minutes of playing with the interface.
The t-shirt maker is generous with hundreds of clip arts classified into animals, education, abstracts, flower, heart, sports, technology, and more. The software lets you modify these clip arts, resize, and even rotate them to meet your unique design needs.
As with the other t-shirt designs apps and software, this free to use tool also lets you import your own images to create t-shirt designs of your choice.
10. Tee Designer Master
Best Free T Shirt Design Software For Mac
Compatibility: online-based software
Mac Home Design Software Reviews
Here comes another cool t-shirt design software you can trust to meet your t-shirt design solutions. Being an online-based app, you don't need to do any downloading or installation to start using it.
Free Software Design T Shirt
You directly run in on your browser, which is easy as ABC.
This is the perfect software for those who wish to design t-shirts as well as other garments like a hoodie.
Despite being a FREE software, it lets you design both the front and back sides of your t-shirt. And in the preview option, it shows you both sides of your t-shirts together.
Customizing your designs and artwork has never been easier, thanks to the multiple editing tools this software provides you with. These include the paintbrush to let you change your t-shirt color, ability to add texts, logos, images, etc. to your design.
Its library stocks over 20 different types of images that you can use in your design work. Alternatively, you can upload your own images from your PC.
Importing Images
Let's start by importing the colored shirt our design will go on. Go to File > Import and browse to the location on your computer where you have saved the file, then click Import. To place the image in your document, drag to draw a rectangle on the page then release and the t-shirt image is now in your document. You can enlarge it if you like by dragging out one of the corner handles.
TIP: Before we go any further, it's a good idea to save your file now, and periodically throughout the design process.
Setting a Background Page Color
Now let's create a background color on our page that is the same color as the t-shirt image. This will help us see how the ink colors we choose will look against that color.
- Select the shirt with the Pick tool and move shirt off to one side of the page.
- Double-click on the grey shadow at the edge of the document to open the Document Options window (or go to Layout > Document Options).
- Click on Background in the left column.
- Choose Solid and click the dropdown arrow to select a color.
- Click on the Eyedropper icon in the bottom right corner of the color window and click on the t-shirt to sample the color.
- Uncheck Print and export background then click OK and our page color is set.
Next, import the baseball image. This file is a bitmap and most screen-printing shops prefer vector art so we will need convert it to vector using the PowerTRACE feature.
Use the Pick tool to select the baseball and then click the dropdown arrow beside Trace Bitmap in the property bar. Then choose Outline Trace > Clipart. Because the baseball image is large, a dialog box will pop up suggesting you reduce the size, so click on the Reduce Bitmap button.
The PowerTRACE window will open and you will see the top image is the original bitmap and the bottom is the trace result.
On the Settings tab choose these options:
- Remove: background color
- Objects: Merge adjacent, Remove overlap and Group by color (this allows you to easily change a group of objects from an RGB or CMYK color to a Spot color and get them all at the same time)
- Image: Delete original – we don't need it anymore
To learn more about PowerTRACE, watch our full tutorial How to Convert JPG to Vector.
Now click on the Colors tab so we can make some changes in here. First, you have the option to change the Color Mode to Pantone Solid Coated. This will save time and allow you to convert the entire image to spot colors.
Next, we need to simplify our colors by merging them. To merge the red colors:
- Select the first red color on the list, hold down the SHIFT key and select the other reds.
- Click the Merge
- Repeat this process for the grey colors then click OK.
We'd like to change the colors of the baseball so that it is white instead of grey, with a different shade of red for the stitches.
- Select the baseball and click the Ungroup icon on the Property bar. This will separate the grey ball and the red stitches.
- Select the grey ball then click the White swatch on the Pantone color palette we placed at the bottom of the interface. This will change the ball to white.
- Press the Tab key on your keyboard and now the red stitches will be selected.
- Click the Bright Red swatch on the Pantone color palette. This will change the color of the stitches.
- Use the Pick tool to lasso the baseball, which will select both the ball and stitches objects.
- Click the Group Objects icon in the Property bar to regroup the baseball into one object.
Adding and Manipulating Text
To add text, select the Text tool on the left toolbar then click on the page and start typing. For this design we typed TIGERS in uppercase.
Now select the Pick tool and use it to resize and reposition your text as you like. You can make it larger or smaller by dragging one of the corner handles in or out. Or stretch it taller by using the top center handle.
Use the font dropdown list to change the font if you wish. For this design we wanted something heavier (American Captain Eternal font).
At this point, use the Pick tool to reduce the size of the baseball and move it under the text, so the design now looks like this.
Now we are going to give our text a custom shape using the Envelope tool. To add an envelope:
- Open the Envelope docker by going to Effects > Envelope or Window > Dockers > Effects > Envelope.
- Select the text with the Pick
- Choose the Single-arc mode from the options at the bottom of the Envelope docker and then click the Add New button.
- You will now see a white dashed border around your text to represent the envelope.
- Use the handle in the middle bottom of the text and pull up to make the text arc.
- You can alternate between using the Pick tool to adjust the width and height of the text and Envelope tool to adjust the arc until you are happy with the results.
To make the text orange select the text with the Pick tool and click the Orange 021 swatch on the Pantone color palette.
We also added a contour effect to our TIGERS text. To add a contour:
- Open the Contour docker by going to Effects > Contour or Window > Dockers > Effects > Contour.
- Under Contour alignment, choose the Outside contour
- Under Corner, choose the Mitered corners
- Adjust the Offset value if you wish (we used 0.14').
- Under Color blend, set the Fill to black then click Apply.
Once you are happy with your contour effect, go to Object > Break Contour Apart.
Click outside the page to deselect, then select the black contour only. In the Pantone color palette, click on the Black swatch to change the color of the contour.
Next we add the text BASEBALL to our design, using the same steps as when adding the TIGERS text. Once you have the text sized and positioned as you like, click on the Black swatch in the Pantone color palette to make the BASEBALL text the exact same color as the contour of the TIGERS text.
We also added a white outline to the BASEBALL text by right-clicking on the White swatch in the Pantone color palette. Then double-click on the outline color swatch in the Status bar that is under the bottom color palette. This will open the Outline Pen window, where you can set the Width to 8 and add a check beside the options Behind Fill and Scale with object.
To enhance our design, we will add some stripes to the TIGERS text.
- Select the Freehand tool and use it to draw a basic stripe shape.
- Click on the Pantone Black swatch to fill it with black.
- To modify the stripe shape, click on the Shape tool and use it to move the nodes to change the shape.
- To add more stripes, select the first stripe with the Pick tool and duplicate it using the + key on your keyboard. You can also duplicate objects using Ctrl + D or go to Edit > Duplicate.
- Use the Pick tool to resize, reposition or rotate the duplicate stripes all over the TIGERS text.
- You can use the Shape tool to alter the shape of some stripes, so they don't all look the same.
Once we have all the stripes created, we can use the PowerClip feature to place the stripes inside the TIGERS text, so there are no stripes sticking outside the letters.
- Use the Pick tool to lasso all the stripes, then click on the Group button in the Property bar.
- Right-click on a stripe and choose PowerClip Inside.
- Your cursor will change to an arrow shape – use this to click on the orange text.
- Now the stripes will be 'clipped' inside the orange text.
To learn more, watch our full tutorial on Clipping Objects into Other Objects with PowerClip.
Finalizing the Design
Our design is nearly complete, but we need to make sure that all objects are properly aligned and that the design is the proper size for printing.
First, use the Pick tool to lasso the TIGERS text and then click the Group Objects button on the Property bar. Now the text, contour effect and stripes will be aligned as a group.
- Use the Pick tool to move the TIGERS text, baseball image and BASEBALL text until you are happy with the design arrangement.
- Lasso the entire design then go to Object > Align and Distribute > Align Centers Horizontally, or simply press C on your keyboard.
- Group your design using the Group Objects button on the Property bar or press Ctrl + G.
- On the Property bar, make sure the Lock Ratio setting is on then enter 10' in the Object size width field (10' is a common youth size screen print).
Creating a T-shirt Mockup
We are going to create the mockup on a new page in this document. To add a new page, right-click on the Page 1 tab at the bottom of the document and select Insert Page, or click on the Add Page icon just to the left of the Page 1 tab.
- Select the t-shirt image that we imported at the beginning of this project and copy (Edit > Copy or Ctrl + C) then paste (Edit > Paste or Ctrl + V) onto the new page.
- Go back to page 1, select the design and copy it.
- Go to page 2 and paste the design.
- Use the Pick tool to resize and reposition the design on the t-shirt.
You now have a t-shirt design you can scale to any size, vector art for a screen printer and a mockup to show how you want it. Ares mac download.
Preparing for Print
To share this file with a screen printer or another vendor, you should export document as a PDF.
- Go to File > Publish to PDF and choose the location where you want to save the file.
- Click on the PDF preset dropdown and select Prepress.
- Click the Settings button to open the PDF Settings
- On the General tab you can set the Export range to the current document, current page, or select pages.
- On the Objects tab, make sure to enable Export all text as curves. This will ensure that the text will be properly displayed, even if the person you send it to doesn't have the fonts you used.
Click OK then click Save. Now your file is ready to email to the screen printer or other vendor.
Thanks for watching! We hope you found this tutorial helpful and we would love to hear your feedback in the Comments section below. And don't forget to visit our social media pages and show us what you've learned by sharing your photos, videos and creative projects with us.
So you can't afford the high price tags that come with the paid t-shirt design software?
And now, you're looking for completely free software or app that has plenty of helpful tools and features to help you come up with professional t-shirt designs for your clients, brand, sports team, family, friends, etc.?
If yes, we've got your back!
Below, we have compiled the ultimate list of the 11 best 100% FREE to use apps and software you can use to come up with unique tee designs without spending a cent.
11 FREE T-shirt Design Apps and Software:
1. Inkscape
Compatibility: Linux, macOS, Windows.
This is one of the best free to use tee design apps you can use today if you don't have the cash for the premium apps.
Despite being an open-source vector-based design app, this tool has the power and flexibility of the paid-for tools.
The fact that this software isn't limited to vector images means you can use it to work on a wide variety of projects. It presents you with everything you need to create as well as edit your tee graphics.
Some of the top features you'll get from this software include shape tools, pencil tool, calligraphy tool, pen tool, color tools, font and text editing, color tools, and multiple layers.
With Inkscape, you can turn existing bitmap images into vector images (using the tracing function), scale up/down your images, and export it in suitable formats for screen-printing.
The app also provides you with raster image formats like .png and .jpg.
Although this app comes with no t-shirt templates or YouTube tutorials, experienced previous designers have taken it upon themselves to provide you with free guides (like the one below). This makes the Inkscape learning curve easier for you.
2. GIMP
Compatibility: GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac OS, and other operating systems.
GIMP is another popular software for a t-shirt design that allows you to create professional-looking designs without spending hefty amounts of cash.
The open-source software has been around for more than two decades. It has always been regarded as the best free alternative to Photoshop (or the granddaddy of free photo editing and graphic design) by millions of users.
For your tee design needs, this software presents you with plenty of customizable tools, including texts, brushes, arts, etc., to help you quickly come up with fully customized t-shirts.
Just like the paid-for, this app also provides you with free templates and YouTube tutorials for first-time users.
Note that GIMP undergoes regular updating by its team of volunteers to ensure it continues solving your design needs for free.
3. Custom Ink
Compatibility: in-browser designer.
This is an in-browser design, specially made for t-shirts. It's 100% free to use. It comes with a user-friendly interface, making it one of the easiest to use apps.
When you get down to create your designs, you'll enjoy using hundreds of images that come with Custom Ink. Keep in mind that these images are organized into categories like animals, nature, tech, people, occupation, music, transportation, etc., so you'll likely find the image that matches your design needs.
Or you can simply upload your own design with just a click of a button.
It also lets you easily add numbers and names to your t-shirts. This will come in handy when you want to customize tees for your sports team or project group.
Once you're done creating your designs, this app also lets you easily share them with your friends.
Free Home Design Software Mac
And if you want to order a t-shirt with your customized design, Custom Ink lets you do so. You just create your own design, place an order, and they'll deliver the tee to your doorstep.
4. Smart Shirt Designer
Compatibility: macOS, Windows, Linux.
If you're looking for a free to use tee design app for your football jersey design project, you just found the Smart Shirt Designer!
This designer software comes specially designed to help you come up with professional-looking football jerseys, which explains why it comes stocked with a huge list of brand logos (including Adidas, Nike, etc.), shirt designs, and color designs. These free designs will let you come up with your own patterns for your tees.
It lets you create the front as well as back portions of your t-shirts.
Just like the premium software, this designer also gives you the option of using their free patterns or draw and design your own patterns…or upload your own images and logos.
The software will then save your complete design in its own supported format. But it allows you to export the design in popular formats such as png, jpg, and gif formats.
5. Get Paint
Compatibility: Windows.
This is another free to download and use image and photo editing software. It also comes with a pretty intuitive and innovative user interface, which makes it quite easy to figure out for those using it for the first time.
Unlike most of the other t-shirt designs apps and software out there, this app takes your design work higher by making your designs look more realistic.
In other words, it distorts and applies your design, logo, text, etc. based upon the t-shirt surface, just like the final product will look like.
The fact that this software presents you with an ‘undo' function means you'll not have to worry about making errors during the design process as you can always erase them.
And oh! Don't forget that this app has an ever-growing online community, which means you'll enjoy plenty of help, support, forums, and tutorials easily.
6. Fat Paint
Compatibility: online design software
This is another excellent, free to use online design software, so you don't have to download or install anything to start using it. Just make sure you have adobe flash installed on your browser.
The free software comes with plenty of helpful design functions to help you come up with stunning t-shirts. These include up to 900 fonts, thousands of vector clip arts, and even 3D templates, which are sure to make your t-shirt come alive!
You can also upload your own photographs and images, and then use FatPaint to crop or resize them according to your requirements. You can also easily combine your designs with other images and texts.
The only problem you'll experience when using this software is the advertisements that keep popping up. If you find these ads annoying, you can simply subscribe to the pro version for ad-free design experience.
7. Krita
Compatibility: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Krita also made it to our list of the best free t-shirt design apps. It's an image and painting app that offers excellent competition for commercial apps such as Photoshop.
One of the key features you'll love in this app revolves around the different brush settings. You can easily change these settings using toolbar controls to meet your design needs. You can easily adjust aspects like size, color, blending mode, and opacity.
Just like Photoshop, Krita also allows you to create shapes using paths!
If you want to use pre-made images, then this app lets you easily import it by dragging them onto the canvas. The app has plenty of filters that you can apply to your pictures or layers to make them look even more amazing.
Mark you, Krita was developed by like-minded designers who have even prepared easy-to-follow tutorials to make it easy to use for everyone.
Imagine getting all these design editing features and functions without paying a dime? This is precisely why Krita makes our list of the best cost-free platforms for you!
8. Flash T-shirt Design Software
If you want to start your own t-shirt printing company but don't have the money to invest in high-end software like Photoshop, then this design software will be a great alternative.
The free to use features a user-friendly interface plus a bunch of high-quality features to enable you to come up with professional-looking t-shirt designs for your clients.
When you access the Flash interface, you'll be thrilled by the multiple fonts, clipart, and colors that you can use to make t-shirt designs of your liking. The vector clip arts, in particular, will match your t-shirt colors…and you can always change the colors to suit your needs.
Free T Shirt Design Software For Mac
9. Free-T-shirt Maker
If you're still looking for an easy-to-use free t-shirt design too, this software will also make an excellent choice.
It has such a simple and interactive interface that you even a beginner will quickly get the hang of it. You'll easily figure out what button or control does what within a few minutes of playing with the interface.
The t-shirt maker is generous with hundreds of clip arts classified into animals, education, abstracts, flower, heart, sports, technology, and more. The software lets you modify these clip arts, resize, and even rotate them to meet your unique design needs.
As with the other t-shirt designs apps and software, this free to use tool also lets you import your own images to create t-shirt designs of your choice.
10. Tee Designer Master
Best Free T Shirt Design Software For Mac
Compatibility: online-based software
Mac Home Design Software Reviews
Here comes another cool t-shirt design software you can trust to meet your t-shirt design solutions. Being an online-based app, you don't need to do any downloading or installation to start using it.
Free Software Design T Shirt
You directly run in on your browser, which is easy as ABC.
This is the perfect software for those who wish to design t-shirts as well as other garments like a hoodie.
Despite being a FREE software, it lets you design both the front and back sides of your t-shirt. And in the preview option, it shows you both sides of your t-shirts together.
Customizing your designs and artwork has never been easier, thanks to the multiple editing tools this software provides you with. These include the paintbrush to let you change your t-shirt color, ability to add texts, logos, images, etc. to your design.
Its library stocks over 20 different types of images that you can use in your design work. Alternatively, you can upload your own images from your PC.
11. Alma mater Store
Compatibility: online-based tool
Last but not least, we have this Alma mater store online tool. Like all the other software featured on this list, this one too lets you come up with awesome t-shirt designs.
The website lets you easily create your own designs, save them, and share them with your friends without spending a penny.
Alternatively, they can print the t-shirt for you and send it to you if you chose this option. They offer you all the possible shirt sizes to help you chose one that suits you best.
You'll enjoy using the many included tools like the text, brush, art, name, note, number, and many more to help you come up with truly unique designs.
What's more, the tool will let you easily create design print on the back, front, and sleeves of your t-shirt.
Pro TIP: Take Advantage of FREE trials!
If you want to experience the powerful t-shirt design that comes with industry-leading software and apps, you can take advantage of the free trials. These will give you enough time to come up with t-shirt designs without spending a dime.
For instance, you can take advantage of the Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, both of which are products of Adobe a leading industry standard for image editing. Both software offers you a 7-day free trial, which is more than enough time for completing quick t-shirt design jobs.
Verdict
See, you don't need to pay those large sums of money to get a professional-looking t-shirt design. In this list, we have just outlined some of the best free t-shirt design software and apps that you can use to come up with customized t-shirts for your clients, group project, sports team, etc.
Free T Shirt Design App For Mac
All the tools we have features on this list are 100% FREE to use — no subscript need. You simply download/install them and get down to making your customized t-shirt prints.
Despite being free to use, the tools come with powerful features that you'll find in the paid software as well, meaning they'll help you create professional-looking t-shirt designs.
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