What a flagged logo actually means
It almost never means your logo is bad. It usually means the file you uploaded — often a small image saved from a website, an email signature, or an old flyer — doesn't hold enough detail to print sharply at product size. Screens are forgiving; printers are not. A logo that looks fine at phone size can turn soft and jagged at ten inches across a hoodie.
Our product builder warns you when a file falls under 300 dpi at its final print size. As a rough guide: 0–99 dpi prints poorly, 100–199 is low, 200–299 is average, and 300 and up is where you want to be. One caution — a high dpi number does not automatically mean a sharp image. Zoom in on the file: if it looks blurry up close on screen, it will print blurry, whatever the metadata says.
The four most common problems
Low resolution. The target is 300 dpi at the final printed size. A practical trick: scale your artwork to at least 10 inches, so it holds up small and large — left chest or full back.
A white background. Whatever is in the file prints, including the white box behind your logo. Artwork needs a transparent background — the easiest fix on this list, since free online background-remover tools handle it in seconds.
Thin lines and tiny text. Lines need to be at least 1 pt thick on garments and 2 pt on hats and textured items, and the gaps between elements — the negative space — need at least 2 pt. Fine script fonts, trademark symbols, and delicate outlines are the usual offenders; thicken them or drop them.
Shadows, glows, and gradients. No printed ink can be partially transparent, and many printing methods also build the design on a solid white base layer that turns soft, semi-transparent effects into solid shapes. If your logo leans on a drop shadow or a fade, plan on simplifying it — and know that we flag anything that won't reproduce well before it prints.
Vector or PNG?
A vector file (.ai, .eps, or .pdf) stores your logo as shapes rather than pixels, so it scales to any size with clean edges — the gold standard for logos. If you send one, make sure the text has been converted to outlines so fonts don't shift; if you can't do that, a high-resolution PNG on a transparent background works well. Our guide to logo file types walks through the details.
How to fix it, in order
- Find the original vector. Whoever designed the logo — a designer, a past volunteer, a previous print shop — very likely has an .ai, .eps, or .pdf version. That one file solves resolution, scaling, and line-weight problems at once.
- Re-export bigger. If you can open the design software, export a fresh PNG at 300 dpi, sized to at least 10 inches, on a transparent background.
- Simplify. Remove the drop shadow, thicken the thin strokes, delete the tiny tagline. Simpler logos print better on everything.
- Let us rebuild it. We offer vectorizing and design help; additional fees may apply, billed on time spent. Either way, a print professional reviews every design before your store launches, and nothing goes live until you approve it — a flagged file is a speed bump, not a dead end.
Once the file itself is right, one last surprise catches many organizers: printed ink never perfectly matches a backlit screen. Our guide on why printed colors don't match your logo on screen covers what to expect.
