Getly
People who buy t-shirt designs are rarely buying a picture to look at. They are buying artwork to put on a product: a print-on-demand shop, a small merch run, a DTF or screen print order. That changes what a good listing is. A buyer can judge the drawing from the thumbnail. What they cannot judge is whether the file will print cleanly at shirt size, and whether they are allowed to sell shirts with it. A listing that answers those two questions is doing most of the work.
On Getly, the T-Shirt Designs shelf holds 92 active listings, measured 26 September 2026.
A low-price shelf where the details decide
The median paid price is about $2.50. The middle half of the shelf sits between $1.99 and $5.00, the cheapest tenth is under $1.48, and the top tenth starts at $12.90. No listing on the shelf is free, and 4.3% use pay what you want.
At $2.50, a buyer is not agonising over the price. They are deciding in seconds whether this file will work for what they have in mind. The listings at the top of the range usually sell something more than one image: a bundle, multiple colourways, or a licence clearly written for commercial use.
Ship a file that prints
This is where the shelf is weakest, and where you can stand out. Among the PNG files on the shelf:
| What the PNG files look like | Share of PNG files |
|---|---|
| Can carry transparency | 50.8% |
| Long side under 1,500 px | 52.3% |
| Long side 2,000 px or more | 38.5% |
| Long side 4,000 px or more | 24.6% |
The median PNG's long side is 1,448 px. Print resolution is simple arithmetic: at 300 dpi, a design 12 inches wide needs 3,600 pixels across. A 1,448 px file stretched to that width prints at about 120 dpi, soft at the edges. Many print services state their own minimums, so check the requirements of the one your buyers are likely to use and say in the listing which ones the file meets.
- Size: export the design at print size, not screen size. State the pixel dimensions and dpi in the description.
- Transparency: a design printed on a coloured shirt needs a transparent background. Say "transparent PNG" if it is, and check that it actually is: half the PNGs on the shelf cannot carry transparency at all.
- A vector version: an SVG or AI file lets the buyer scale without loss and recolour. On this shelf, only 1.1% of listings include an SVG and 1.1% an AI file; no listing includes a PSD. A vector alongside the PNG is an easy way to be the listing that has one.
- Light and dark versions: a black line design disappears on a black shirt. Two colourways in one listing solve a question before it is asked.
PNG is the norm: 55.4% of listings ship one, 25.0% ship a ZIP, and JPG appears in about one in ten. JPG has no transparency, so it suits mockups better than print files.
Say what the buyer may do with it
This is the question that decides the sale. On this shelf, 46.7% of listings are set to a commercial licence, 9.8% to personal use, 3.3% to extended, and 40.2% have no licence set. A print-on-demand seller cannot use a personal-use design at all, and a missing licence reads as a risk they will not take.
Set the licence on the listing, then write one plain sentence about the real cases: may the buyer sell printed shirts, may they upload the design to a print-on-demand shop, is there a cap on the number of items, may they resell the file itself (usually not). 25.0% of descriptions mention commercial use and 42.4% mention print on demand or merch by name, so buyers here are used to seeing it said.
Show it on a shirt
Listings on the shelf show a median of 2 images. Use at least three: the design alone on a transparent-style background, the design on a light shirt, and on a dark shirt. A mockup answers "will this look good on a product" faster than any description. Across the shelf, 23.9% of descriptions name a print method such as DTF, DTG, sublimation or screen print; if your file was prepared for one, say so.
If you also sell embroidery files, list them separately: a DST or PES file is a different product for a different machine, and a buyer searching for a print file will not expect it.
Titles and tags
Buyers search for a theme and an occasion: "retro sunset surf", "funny teacher", "Halloween skeleton". Put the theme first in the title and the format second: "Retro sunset surf design, transparent PNG 4500 px". Half the listings on the shelf use all ten tags; use yours for themes, occasions and styles rather than repeating the title word by word.
Pricing
- A single design sits between $1.99 and $5.00. Price toward the top of that band when you ship print size, transparency and a vector.
- A themed bundle of five to ten designs is how listings reach the top tenth of the shelf. Only 10.9% of descriptions mention a bundle.
- Pay what you want with a low minimum works for a first design, to get it into buyers' hands.
What to do today
Open your best design and check its pixel dimensions and transparency. Re-export it at print size if needed, add a vector if you have one, and upload a light and a dark mockup. Set the licence and write one line about print-on-demand use. The shelf is at T-Shirt Designs, sellers keep 80% by default with no listing fees (see rates), and you can open a shop in a few minutes.
