How to Prepare Print-Ready Design Files on Design Yangu A Kenyan Designer's Complete Guide
Kenyan designers here's exactly how to prepare your artwork for print-on-demand. File formats, sizes, colour modes and pro tips to get your designs looking perfect on merch.
You've got talent. Your designs are ready. You've signed up on Design Yangu and you're about to list your first product.
Then the file upload screen asks for a PNG, minimum 2000px, 300 DPI and suddenly you're staring at the screen wondering whether your Canva export will actually work.
We've been there. This guide is for you a plain-language, Kenya-specific walkthrough of everything you need to know about preparing your design files for print-on-demand. No design degree required. By the end of this post, your files will be ready, your products will look amazing, and your first sale will be one step closer.
When your design goes to print, it's being laid on a physical surface a T-shirt fabric, a mug, a phone case, a tote bag. Unlike a screen, which adds light and makes colours pop, print absorbs ink. A file that looks great on your phone can come out blurry, pixelated, or with colours that are off if it isn't prepared correctly.
The good news? Getting it right isn't complicated. It's mostly about three things: resolution, file format, and colour mode. Let's break each one down.
What it is: Resolution is how much detail is packed into your image. It's measured in DPI (dots per inch). The more DPI, the sharper the print.
The Canva/mobile mistake: If you've designed something for Instagram (10801080px at 72 DPI), that file is built for screens not print. At 72 DPI, your design will look perfectly crisp on your phone, but will print blurry and pixelated on a T-shirt.
Quick fix: When exporting from Canva, click Download PDF Print or PNG and ensure your canvas was designed at a large size (at least 30003000px for square designs). Canva's default export is 96 DPI fine for digital, not ideal for print. Design bigger than you need.