For my first tutorial, I figured I’d start easy.  Well, easy NOW.  As with everything, this stuff was rocket science to me before I learned it.  And, as usual, John had to talk to me like a 5 year old and send me pretty pictures until I understood it.

Many t-shirt designs have text.  So, to make them, we use fonts.  Fonts are often kinda lame when it comes to spacing between letters.  Sometimes they look fine.  But, usually, they don’t.  They have gaps between some letters, and not enough space between others.  To fix this, we can use tracking and kerning in Photoshop.  And, with only a minute or two of work, you can make text look brilliant and professional, rather than clumsy and amateurish.

So, take a look at this little video tutorial to learn how to use tracking and kerning to improve the quality of your text designs.

Enjoy!

Hi, all!

As you know, my name is Dave, one of the supernatural creative forces behind Channel Shirt.  As you may know, I’m a computer guy.  What I’m NOT is a designer or artist, by any means.  I have trouble drawing stick figures, in fact.  So, I tend to leave that stuff to John, since he could draw the Mona Lisa while in a coma. 

But, I couldn’t leave all the work to John.  Especially because I have t-shirt ideas, too!  So, I’ve taken to learning some things about how to design and create the graphics for some of our t-shirts.  And, I figured, if I have learned something valuable along my journey, maybe someone else will benefit from it as well. 

So, this blog section is designed to be a place where I can post tips, tricks, tutorials, and other information that I have learned about anything to do with making t-shirts.  it might be useful if you have ever dreamed of making a shirt and selling it, or, heck, making an entire t-shirt business.  Either way, I hope you enjoy and benefit from the stuff I’ve had to learn from the school of hard knocks!