File Prep for Gang Sheets: 300 DPI Transparent PNG

What file format does a gang sheet builder need?

A transparent PNG at 300 DPI, sized to match the final print dimensions. No mirroring needed, our production process handles that step for you.

Getting these two things right, transparency and resolution, is the difference between a design that prints crisp with a clean edge and one that shows up with a white box around it or looks soft and pixelated once it's pressed.

Why transparent?

DTF only prints the parts of your design that have colour. A transparent background means only your artwork gets printed and cut, with nothing extra around it. If your file has a solid white or coloured background instead of transparency, that whole background prints too, as a visible box behind your design on the garment.

Why 300 DPI?

DPI (dots per inch) controls how sharp your print looks at its final size. At 300 DPI, edges and fine detail stay crisp. Drop below that and text or fine linework can look fuzzy or pixelated once it's actually pressed onto a garment.

How do you prep a file at 300 DPI in Canva?

Canva's PNG download doesn't have a direct "set DPI" field, so you control resolution through pixel dimensions instead. You have two ways to do it.

Option A: Build your design at print size from the start

Work out your pixel dimensions before you start: multiply your design's width and height in inches by 300. A 10 x 10 inch design needs to be 3000 x 3000 pixels.

From the Canva home page, select "Custom size," enter your width and height in pixels (Canva's custom size fields accept pixels, inches, millimetres, or centimetres, and default to pixels), then click "Create new design." Canva allows custom dimensions between 40px and 8000px, so very large gang sheet designs may need to be built in sections or scaled at export instead (see Option B).

Option B: Scale up at export time (Canva Pro)

If you didn't build at full size, use the Size multiplier when you download. Go to Share, then Download, choose PNG as the file type, and increase the Size setting (found under Advanced settings) until your pixel dimensions match inches times 300.

While you're in the download panel, turn on the Transparent background toggle. This is a Canva Pro, Teams, Business, Education, or Nonprofit feature, it isn't available on a free account.

How do you prep a file at 300 DPI in Procreate?

Set your DPI when you create your canvas, then export as PNG once your design is done, the DPI carries through automatically.

When you start a new canvas, set the DPI to 300 before you begin drawing (Procreate's standard recommendation for anything headed to print). If you've already started a design at the wrong DPI, go to Actions, then Canvas, then Crop and Resize, and change the DPI there. Procreate embeds that DPI into the file, so when you export as PNG from the Actions menu, the resolution carries over without any extra steps.

PNG export in Procreate preserves transparency automatically, as long as your background layer is turned off or deleted before you export.

Why is there a white box behind my design?

Almost always it's one of two things: a flattened background layer, or the file was actually exported as a JPG instead of a PNG.

If your design software flattens or merges all your layers into one before export, any transparency gets filled in with a solid colour, usually white. Check that your background layer is hidden or deleted, and that you're exporting the layers separately rather than a flattened copy.

JPG files cannot store transparency at all, the format simply doesn't support it. If a file was saved as JPG and someone renamed the extension to .png, it will still show a white background where transparency should be. Always confirm you're exporting as a true PNG, not a renamed JPG.

Ready to build your gang sheet?

Once your file is a transparent PNG at 300 DPI, you're ready to lay it out. Our gang sheets go up to 150 inches long, priced per square inch with no minimum order, and we ship same-day out of Okotoks, Alberta if your order is in before noon Mountain Time.

Start your gang sheet, or browse our FAQ if you want a hand checking your file first.